LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
OUTLook |
by Eric Peterson |
A Stepford Husband
All summer, I've been eagerly awaiting the release of the Frank Oz/Paul Rudnick remake of The Stepford Wives, newly updated as a 21st century comedy starring three of my favorite divas: Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler, and Glenn Close. For those who don't know the story, it's about a gated community in a little Connecticut town where men are men and their wives are automated, obedient nymphomaniacs. Thirty years ago, the original film starred Katherine Ross and Paula Prentiss, and was actually scaryor if not scary, then at least a little creepy. This new version has replaced the eerie with the cheery. Instead of a sense of isolation and foreboding, the script is filled with a sense of fabulousness and sheer camp. But there's an even more startling addition to the classic feminist fable: A Stepford Husband. In a bold move, director Frank Oz (formerly the voice of ber-diva Miss Piggy) and screenwriter Paul Rudnick (Jeffrey, In & Out) have inserted a gay couple into the quaint village of Stepford (Paul is openly gay; I don't know the scoop on Frank, but c'monhis last name is "Oz"). Played by Roger Bart (best known for "keeping it gay" in The Producers) and David Marshall Grant (Angels in America on Broadway), Roger and Jerry are a famously flamboyant interior designer and his long-suffering, buttoned-up (Republican) life partner. Like all the men of Stepford, Jerry is sick and tired of living in the shadow of a spouse who's smarter and more successful than he is. Unlike the other Stepford men, however, he's the only one who wishes that the love of his life wasn't quite so...queer. I first heard about Roger and Jerry a few months before the remake was released, and I looked forward to seeing what Rudnick, Oz, Bart, and Grant could do with these new characters. The result of their collaboration is both hilarious and provocative. Feel free to laugh your head off at Roger's transformation from cosmopolitan to compassionately conservative; days later, you'll continue to ponder the themes of jealousy and internalized homophobia raised in the film. However, I did find one flaw in the story of Roger and Jerry, and it came when the men of Stepford, so intent on keeping their wives under their thumbs that they turn them into mindless robots, enthusiastically welcomed a gay couple into their town with open arms. On the one hand, it was great to see a group of heterosexual men (even these guys) go out of their way to be inclusive of their gay neighbors. On the other hand...well, I just didn't buy it. The way I see it, the town of Stepford is the ultimate symbol of "traditional family values," as extolled by the likes of James Dobson and Lou Sheldonno friends of the gay community, last time I checked. And as gay and lesbian couples in Massachusetts and elsewhere make legitimate gains toward societal recognition of their own families, they are (in effect) "moving to Stepford." And nobody there is all that happy to see them. Apparently, they "threaten" the institution of marriage itself, leading us all toward chaos, anarchy, Armageddon, that sort of thing. Looking at the situation through the "Stepford lens," it isn't hard to see why. When gay couples move to towns lousy with manly men and complacent women, the obvious question raised is..."who's in charge here?" I believe the reason gay marriage threatens so many people (but straight men in particular) is that it dismisses the sexist hierarchy that has defined the institution of marriage for the last thousand years. When Dobson and Sheldon warn their flock that the institution of marriage will be irrevocably changed when gay and lesbian couples are permitted to make it legal...they're right. After all, the institution they're trying to safeguard is one in which one half "wears the pants in the family" and the other exists primarily to love, honor, and obey. I'm fully aware that not all heterosexual couplings resemble the couples of Stepford. My straight friends (and I do have them) are, by and large, role models in egalitarian relationships. Neither my mother nor my sister bow and scrape to their husbands' every whim, nor do my father and brother-in-law expect such treatment. I'm also well aware that not every gay and lesbian relationship is a model of equality; many are about as "fair and balanced" as Fox News. However, the heterosexuals that I commune with are not the ones who view gay marriage as a sign of the end times; and I maintain that it's the potential for equality among gay couples, if not the consistent reality, that scares "the pants" right off of many straight male homophobes. Eric Peterson is a diversity consultant and Rehoboth regular; he can be reached at Red7Eric@aol.com. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 14, No. 8 July 2, 2004 |