No, I’m totally kidding about the title. But it brings me to an important topic today, which is the negative perception of gay men in scholarly society. But I’ll first make quite clear why I chose this topic.
I was watching “King of the Hill” with my boyfriend last night, and I was rather perturbed by the episode. In it, Bobby (I personally view him as a character distinctly relatable to gay identity because of how he’s ridiculed/tormented/unloved by his macho meathead dad…and the fact that he kicks guys’ balls while saying, “I don’t know you!” in a distinctly feminine voice) was on vacation with his parents to his grandparents ranch. Blah, blah, plot, blah, blah, and by the end his ostensibly gay identity was “subverted” by his ability to ride a horse like a “real man.” You see, I’ve been watching this show for a few weeks now because I find it pretty funny, but because I wasn’t really invested in the characters, I didn’t really pay attention to their psyches or interpersonal interactions. But now that I’m pretty familiar with the show, I can safely say that Bobby’s plight is the plight of the gay male. That is, his interests are belittled by his father, he is mocked by his schoolmates for being different, and he feels generally alienated. And if we want to get Freudian up in here, then you cannot argue against the fact that Peggy (his mom) is overbearing. Ridiculously so. Anyway, in the episode last night, there was a distinct stock image of gay stereotypes in a man who was a “city person” who was making brunch. He also had a prominent lisp when he spoke.
It didn’t help that I had overheard an episode of Real Housewives of Who-The-Fuck-Really-Cares in which one of the women was saying how they had to work hard on their surface appearance to impress the gay men because they were the harshest critics. Let me just interject here to say something that might appear a little less than savory: Most of these housewives are absolute trash. I mean that in complete seriousness. I will admit that there’s one housewife I’ve seen and admire (the divorcee who made all her money by herself), but most of them are shallow bags of nasty. and if you want to look good on the surface, stop using so much fucking collagen and getting so many face-lifts that you look like this.
Back on topic, I hate how gay men are made to seem like superficial nimrods who know everything there is to know about clothing, hair, makeup, cars, and celebrity gossip while no other occupations fill their flighty, little minds. I’ll clarify that there’s nothing wrong with being interested in all those things; I’m simply tired of the media depiction of it. As if I haven’t beaten this dead horse enough, there is such a wide variety of gay men in the world that there should be more ways of representing gay men than throwing in a character who cries out, “Oh my gooooood! My thouffle collapthed and Parith Hilton accidentally had thex with her dog!” Yes, gay men like that exist, and no, there isn’t anything wrong with that. There is definitely something wrong when that becomes the sole image that you utilize in the media.
Rant done.
