LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
CAMPOut: Queer as Which Folk? |
by Fay Jacobs |
Have you seen the Showtime series Queer as Folk? I watched the first few episodes because I was curious and the last few because, as I taped it for a friend, like a bad accident I didn't want to look but I couldn't help it.
Billed as "honest and provocative" They got it only half right. It's provocative. Supposedly set in a pulsating sound and light-filled gay section of Pittsburgh (oxymoron alert!!!), this location doesn't exist in New York, much less Pennsylvania. Bringing us a group of gay friends that treat each other worse than Yasser and the Israelis, Queer as Folk spotlights the rudest, most immature, sex-and-drug addicted people on TV since, hmmmm, I can't think of any who have ever been worse. At least on Dallas they were supposed to hate each other. The Simpsons are less cartoonish and South Park's second graders treat each other better. Now that I've insulted a gaggle of my gay friends who love the show, let me say that I understand why they adore it. After years and years of watching blatantly heterosexual love scenes in the movies and on TV, it's a landmark to see same-sex groping and coupling. After all, when there's nothing at all that addresses our lives, even crap is refreshing. And that's the problem. In a perfect world, we'd have hundreds of movies and TV shows featuring gay peopleuncloseted super-heroes, jerks, comics, cartoons, talk show hosts (out of the closet, thank you), goofballs, saints, sinners, and, like HBO's single girls in the City, sex-obsessed. But since we've got just the comic Will and Grace and drama Queer as Folk as our two entries into the mainstream ratings race, showing off Queer as Folk as our one purportedly realistic slice of life is monumentally stupid. I know what you're sayingthat the writers and artists responsible for QAF shouldn't be expected to have their commercial creation serve as a role model for gay society. Of course they shouldn't. But as Eric, my adopted gay son the actor says, "It reminds me of Charles Barkeley's Nike ad in the early 90's, when he said, 'I am not a role model,' and I screamed back at my television, 'YES YOU ARE. You may not WANT to be a role model, but you ARE one.' I feel the same way about this show." Eric goes on to say that he loves the films All About Eve and The Women (what is that, 100% for him on the gay-o-meter?) but he certainly doesn't believe all women are the back-stabbing, oversexed, ruthless bitches from hell in those movies. That's because those two hilarious films are not his only source of information about what women are really like. Sadly, as far as gay TV visibility is concerned, QAF is one of the few sources purporting to show what gay life is all about. Puleeeeze. We should be so unlucky. The guys in this series are sophomoric horny toads, mean as pit bulls on a short leash and twice as dumb. And talking about dumb, what are the writers thinking? They've got scenes of 17-year old winning a disco strip contest. Give me a break. In real life, an underage kid would be hustled right out onto the street where he would no longer be a threat to the club owners business license, insurance and judicial freedom. And then there's that Pflag Mom, played by Sharon Gless. What can I say? Sharon, like the rest of us, has spent the last 15 years carbohydrate loading and watching her eyesight go. Back when she was a lesbian icon on Cagney and Lacey she looked like a million bucks. Now, I hope she's making a million bucks to play this dumpy, badly-dressed saccharine Mom so effusively supportive of her gay son it's embarrassing. As for the show's dialogue, it can't be gay people writing it. It's not witty. There's not a shred of class. Nothing's funny, nothing's warm. The movie Shrek has more gay sensibility and heart (no kidding, you gotta see it). The actors must be embarrassed to behave the way the scriptwriters decree. I'll grant you that we all know folks who can make a world-class mean, witty comment, but nobody I know would put up with a constant QAF barrage of vicious insults from friends. It's as unrealistic as it is irritating. Now all this would only be another tasteless, dumb-ass TV show if it weren't being taken so seriously. Even as we speak, ministers and rabid conservatives are waving video tapes around decrying the perverted, heartless and casual-sex filled lives of all homosexuals everywhere. And some parents, trying to come to grips with their gay sons and daughters may watch the show, horrified, picturing their offspring with friends and morals as despicable as these. It just ain't so. While I'm sure that the human race has more than its share of sex-obsessed, morally questionable, mean-spirited specimens, gay and straight is not the dividing line. We've got ours; they've got theirs. So why do these classless, sociopathic lunks have to be the only gay role models on TV? Exactly who thought this was a good idea? Trust me, as Eric says, "they're not doing their "folk" any favors." For every gay man and lesbian enjoying the quirky characters and hot sex scenes ( I know you love it, I'm sorry!) there are probably hundreds of viewers, including closeted gay people having their worst negative stereotypes confirmed before they switch channels (or make futile attempts to switch sexual orientation) in disgust. Which makes me wonder what we can do to counter the damage. Wouldn't it be grand if we could produce our own Queer as Rehoboth series? Sure, we could show plenty of hot happy hour and late-night disco scenes; you want skin? We can do that too. Just like QAF, we can come up with film showing more body parts than ER. And, okay, given that there are some people in our community who mirror QAF's provocative behavior, we could go the reality route and show that too. But we'd also show hundreds of people raising money for a community center, long-time couples hosting witty, warm and only slightly bitchy dinner parties, friends who actually like each other, volunteers working for SCAC, people pitching in when folks need help, and gay and straight folks coming together for a whole host of terrific events. You want conflict? There are plenty of relationship issues to cover, break-ups to portray, and...when you think of it, we'd be able to write, produce and direct one heck of a show.... Tune in next week as Rob takes top money in the Blue Moon Bachelor auction, Rehoboth gals pony up big checks at the Community Center gala, and a visiting gay chorus holds an outrageous late night swim party. Meanwhile, Murray is in danger of being buried beneath yards of gauzy material for LOVE 2001, Gladys holds forth at gay karaoke, and Fay learns disappointing news about....hey, it could all be there, bigger than life and queer as Rehoboth. This is one reality show I'd love to produce...any filmmakers interested? Author's note: Okay, QAF lovers, I have to admit that in the last episode the screenwriters raised the bar with better dialogue, some actual emotion and more heart. Why couldn't it have been like this all along? Maybe there's hope for next season. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 11, No. 8, June 29, 2001. |