That's a thing now, according to "Gaysploitation Upends the Stereotypes That Make Us Wince" (NYT), which shows us 5 stereotypes that (apparently) it's okay to have fun with (if you do it the right way*): The Nance, The Gal Pal, The Rebel, The Men in Wigs, The Neo-Revolutionary. Those are all stereotypes from the movies, and the new "gaysploitation" is (supposedly) a movie genre. The details of the stereotypes are lifted — openly — from the great documentary, "The Celluloid Closet."
________________________
* But watch out, especially if you're the wrong kind of person. We've seen "hipster racism" (how'd that work out?), and I'm inclined to call this "hipster homophobia." Make sure you're wearing your "hipster" shield! But you can't make sure, because it's not hip to fret about security. And never forget: this is The Era of That's Not Funny. And the Not-Funnyites know how to strip you of your livelihood in just about exactly one day. To be hip, you must be loose and casual about your ironic interface with the world. If you're not already poor and beyond any interest in building a career, step away from the fun new game of "gaysploitation."
June 2, 2018
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
27 comments:
The Jews have the most experience with self-deprecating humor and the least concerns about it. You rarely if ever see some Jews complaining that self-deprecating humor invites anti-Semitism or something.
Mel Brooks in particular really pushed the envelope on self-deprecating humor.
Those stereotypes are almost entirely true.
Stereotypes become stereotypes because people observe reality.
The stereotype of gay men is 100% accurate. I watched them kill themselves by the hundreds with their out of control sexual behavior in San Francisco and New York City.
The campaign to deny this stereotype of gay men is a campaign of fucking lies.
Stereotypes of women are almost entirely true, too.
"The Era of That's No Funny" is mocking immigrant's English! As they might say, that's no funny!
"The Era of That's No Funny" sounds funny.
“The stereotype of gay men is 100% accurate. I watched them kill themselves by the hundreds with their out of control sexual behavior in San Francisco and New York City.”
For many years the CDC reported that the majority of new HIV-AIDS cases were reported among men having sex with men. It’s been a couple of years since I checked, but if the CDC is still allowed to report on it that probably hasn’t changed. Interesting that vigorous denial and media spin was the response to the resultant stereotype based on those facts.
Not ANOTHER NYT article!!!!!!~
Transgender spectrum stereotypes.
If you wanted a nice version of the angry lesbian, you could have watched the "Nightline"long lecture about how Bill Cosby molested a lesbian basketball player who was the chief complainer in his defenestration.
I was going to sleep and trying not to watch but I don't think they ever mentioned her sexual orientation.
It wasn't necessary.
Interesting that vigorous denial and media spin was the response to the resultant stereotype based on those facts.
Do you remember all the hoorah about heterosexual AIDS ?
@Michael K - The Heterosexual AIDS scare! Promoted by a strange fellowship of gay activists and the Religious Right. The gays wanted AIDS to be everyone's problem and the Religious Right was generally against fun.
I don't remember the Religious Right promoting the Heterosexual AIDS scare at all. By far the loudest straight voice pushing that lie was Oprah.
remember... hoorah about heterosexual AIDS
No. I would guess that couples do not commonly engage in risky transgender acts including sodomy, and are generally not in socially liberal relationships. The latter is presumably why normalizing/promoting couplets was considered a critical change, but excluded (i.e. political congruence or "=") other arrangements and orientations.
@Qwinn - don't recall the promotion of abstinence to fight AIDS?
I remember Blacksploitation films like "Cotton Comes To Harlem."
They were interesting to watch in a Southern state, in a full theater of 25% white youths and 75% black youth, most with dates, laughing our asses off at the stereotypical jokes about Blacks, by Blacks. The whites laughed with the rest of the audience, not at them, and a good time was had by all. The scene where one Black detective disarms, leaving a pile of guns on his boss's desk, down to an itsy bitsy semiauto hidden behind his balls, had the entire audience rolling in the aisles.
Is that the sort of thing you're talking about? Because that sort of thing would be straight up racist and denounced today, even though the same age&race demographic would undoubtedly laugh itself silly at the same stereotypical jokes about Blacks, by Blacks.
Perhaps we should look for the universality in comedy rather than the divisiveness.
"5 stereotypes that (apparently) it's okay to have fun with (if you do it the right way*): The Nance, The Gal Pal, The Rebel, The Men in Wigs, The Neo-Revolutionary."
Upon reading this (and the NYT article) my first thought was that these are mostly white gay stereotypes.
My guess is that it is easier to do gay stereotypes if you keep it vanilla (in multiple meanings). To have a black gay character be, say, The Nance might be crossing the intersectionality wires, and adds problematic complexity with complexion. Is the average black audience woke enough to accept the black Nance?
From an article "The 13 Best Male Black Gay/Bisexual Characters …EVER!" (I am choosing from TV series):
12. “Officer Julien Lowe” [Michael Jace] – The Shield (TV Series)
"...he defied stereotypes by being a tough cop, not a fashion stylist...His rise from a beat cop officer to a detective was overshadowed with his inner conflict and repression, leading him to live a down low lifestyle. The horrible decisions he makes all stem from him being extremely closeted and paranoid."
11. “Boo” [Oneil Cespedes] – The D.L. Chronicles (TV Series)
"...The D.L. Chronicles‘s most popular character has to be the down low thug, Boo..."
10. “Calvin Owens” [Paul James] – Greek (TV Series)
"...the creators of the show made a point to add a masculine black gay character named Calvin Owens who was an all-state hockey and football player..."
7. “Carter Heywood” [Michael Boatman] – Spin City (TV Series)
"...Way back then we had an Out and Open professional black gay character that wasn’t a hair stylist or an In Living Color snap queen. By the end of the series, Carter Heywood even becomes a father, adopting a baby boy named Sam."
4. “Captain Ray Holt” [Andre Braugher] – Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV Series)
"Who would have thought that masculine openly gay black film/TV characters could be believable and hilarious without loudly emulating women or acting like 15 year old ratchet Black/Latino girls?"
2. Omar Little [Michael K. Williams] – The Wire (TV Series)
"Say what you will about The Wire’s tough black gay character Omar Little being a negative stereotype of black gay men, he was far from a one-note caricature. Michael K. William’s portrayal of the feared outlaw that robbed drug dealers for a living..."
1. Keith Charles [Mathew St. Patrick] – Six Feet Under (TV Series)
"Hands down, openly gay Los Angeles Police Officer and Bodyguard Keith Charles on Six Feet Under is the best black gay character ever depicted on film or television."
(to be continued)
I see a lot about cliches these characters aren't ("that wasn’t a hair stylist or an In Living Color snap queen", "without loudly emulating women or acting like 15 year old ratchet Black/Latino girls?"), but I don't see any Gal Pals.
I also notice an abundance of police officers and thugs ("he defied stereotypes by being a tough cop,", "the down low thug, Boo", "openly gay Los Angeles Police Officer and Bodyguard"), and a lot of emphasis on masculinity ("masculine black gay character named Calvin Owens who was an all-state hockey and football player..."): it seems to be that to be one of the "Best Male Black Gay/Bisexual Characters …EVER" you have to be tough, or at least not soft.
The NYT article does mention race once:
"The Men in Wigs" : "...It’s worth noting that this category is particularly racially diverse, from Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo in “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar” (1996), the still-rare Hollywood film to feature drag queens as leads, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as a working-class queen in “Kinky Boots” (2005)..."
So it seems that blacks can be either tough cops, tough thugs, masculine athletes or drag queens, without much in-between.
Maybe there could be a black "Will & Grace", but would there be a black Jack McFarland to mince and ponce?
Alternate headline: Gay Stereotypes exclude Minorities.
LWL
Qwinn: I don't remember the Religious Right promoting the Heterosexual AIDS scare at all.
Me neither. I thought the Religious Right, along with Ronald Reagan (both "RR", note!) were personally responsible for the AIDS epidemic among gays.
Though I guess they could have had their hand in both the epidemic and the scare. No depths people like that won't sink to.
Speaking of stereotypes, I often watch reruns of Archer late night on FX or FXX, and Fox has taken to producing gay-centered mini-series for those channels (e.g. Assassination of Giannini Versace).
The latest production Pose deals with the "Ball Culture" ("Ball" as in what Cinderella went to) in 90s NYC. It is about transgenders & transvestites, & many of the actors in the leading roles are that in real life.
I noticed in the first ads that the fact that this is all about a gay demimonde is carefully elided. The more recent ads are making that more apparent, but still if you aren't paying attention you could miss it.
My question is: who watches this stuff on Fox? Gays, sure. Straight women who want to be a "little edgy"? Sure. But, can younger straight men really be coaxed to sit there for multiple hours to watch stuff like this? I'll admit I'm an old dinosaur, but a dinosaur who could willingly sit through the gay German New Wave cinema of Fassbinder & the like. But this? Really? Have millennial straight men changed in their attitudes that much?
I can't imagine the young man who comes to FX looking for Archer sitting still for Pose.
"I can do this but you can't," is the foundation of power games.
Why do you think white people let black people keep using the N-word, and why they keep the fantasy alive that only white people can be called out for doing something racist?
When you don't have jobs, cash, or opportunity for the people keeping you in office, you give them magic incantations that only they can utter.
Kevin wrote: "'I can do this but you can't,' is the foundation of power games."
This reminds me of something I've been wondering about lately, as the neighborhood gets more and more ethnically diverse. I've read several pieces online and comments on YouTube videos involving noisy Hispanic neighbors, and the response is usually along the line of "You're a bigot and a racist, so shut up and move."
Then I was also reading of some town, I think in California (perhaps a Latino neighborhood in the San Francisco or Los Angeles area, in which the number of times the police were called because of noise complaints go so high that the noisemakers hired a lawyer (I'm guessing some "community organizer" with all the expected nitwit ideas) to block further noise complaints. The lawyer claimed, in essence, that Hispanics were noisier than Anglos, and that Anglo complaints against Hispanic noise was a form of discrimination: i.e., an attempt by the Anglos to impose their culture, which values privacy and peace and quiet, on the louder Latino population. No surprise (given the zeitgeist in that locale), the lawyer won, and the police stopped responding to noise complaints.
My question would be, what substantive difference is there between an anti-Hispanic bigot saying, "Those people are noisy," and the pro-Hispanic advocate saying, "That's their culture"? My feeling is that my own ethnic tribe, the Iriah, should have used the cultural defense when the nativists complained about us being loud, drunken and belligerent.
William Chadwick:
The lawyer claimed, in essence, that Hispanics were noisier than Anglos, and that Anglo complaints against Hispanic noise was a form of discrimination: i.e., an attempt by the Anglos to impose their culture, which values privacy and peace and quiet, on the louder Latino population.
Why, it's almost as if different ethnicities (or races!) have different preferences in living environment. Sounds like the lawyer is arguing that segregating people by race or ethnicity is a good idea.
My question would be, what substantive difference is there between an anti-Hispanic bigot saying, "Those people are noisy," and the pro-Hispanic advocate saying, "That's their culture"? My feeling is that my own ethnic tribe, the Iriah, should have used the cultural defense when the nativists complained about us being loud, drunken and belligerent.
I'm very glad that when the Irish arrived, the Anglo-Saxons weren't the candy-ass castrati that they later became, were perfectly willing to call the Irish out on their dysfunction, and made no bones about demanding that the newcomers conform to the norms of the natives. I am also glad that the non-dysfunctional Irish policed their co-ethnics and used the carrots and sticks of their tribal organizations to get them to shape up, instead of apologizing for them and whining about the natives. (Not that there weren't and aren't whiners and ethnic grievance hustlers among the Irish. They went into politics. I'm glad my Irish ancestors went in for becoming highly-skilled and productive members of society instead.)
Maybe there could be a black "Will & Grace", but would there be a black Jack McFarland to mince and ponce?
Take your pick of Steve Urkel or Carlton Banks.
@Angel-Dyne,
I'm very glad that when the Irish arrived, the Anglo-Saxons weren't the candy-ass castrati that they later became, were perfectly willing to call the Irish out on their dysfunction, and made no bones about demanding that the newcomers conform to the norms of the natives.
And don't forget the efforts of Fadder O'Malley & Zhister Mary Regina, who had very determined ideas of how the whole damned world should behave, & showed no mercy about smacking the Micks into shape when they fell short.
Angle-Dyne, Angelic Buzzard said...
I'm very glad that when the Irish arrived, the Anglo-Saxons weren't the candy-ass castrati that they later became, were perfectly willing to call the Irish out on their dysfunction, and made no bones about demanding that the newcomers conform to the norms of the natives.
YoungHegelian said...
And don't forget the efforts of Fadder O'Malley & Zhister Mary Regina, who had very determined ideas of how the whole damned world should behave, & showed no mercy about smacking the Micks into shape when they fell short.
The Irish didn't need the Anglo Saxons to call them out. They called their own out and John Hughes the Irish-born Archbishop of New York led the pack.
Here's a fine instructional film to explain everything:
Billy's Dad is a Fudge Packer
NorthOfTheOneOhOne: The Irish didn't need the Anglo Saxons to call them out. They called their own out and John Hughes the Irish-born Archbishop of New York led the pack.
Thanks North, I was trying to remember that guy when I posted.
@Angle/North,
The Irish didn't need the Anglo Saxons to call them out. They called their own out and John Hughes the Irish-born Archbishop of New York led the pack.
Funny you two should bring up Dagger John. Take a wild, woolly guess what I'm reading right now?
Post a Comment