Gay Drama or Serious Observation?

Recently, I have been seeing internet conversations about the portrayal of gay black males in film and on television. At issue is what is seen as the lack of gay black males being portrayed as masculine as opposed to feminine. This is coming from masculine gay black males.

I am at a loss on this one because when I look at movies or sitcoms, I look to see if the gay person is viewed as negative or positive without regard to color. Even looking at movies like Holiday Heart and To Wong Fu..., I do not believe that the men were feminine.

This opinion may not be shared by some masculine black gay men. They may have the same opinion as Dave Chappelle who does not think that there is anything funny about a man putting on a dress (comedians).

Why is it important if gay black men are portrayed as masculine or feminine in film and television? Gay men in most black communities do not get a pass on being masculine or feminine.

Jensen Atwood is a walking wet dream and not feminine from Noah's Arc. He was masculine. Rockmond Dunbar played in Dirty Laundry and Punks. Seth Gilliam was the supposed feminine love interest in Punks but to me he was not feminine. I guess the movie was written that way so people could clearly know who the bottom was in the relationship.

Now, I can understand if people advocate for roles that were played by Ioan Gruffudd in Horrible Bosses, where he was called for wet works. Having someone like Charlie Murphy play that role would have been as equally funny but would he have played it?

Do masculine gay black males feel they have to compete with images of RuPaul? I do not think that it extends that deep. I just think that movies and sitcoms are not life. How people are portrayed is not how they actually may exist.

RBK

Comments


One of the largest problems that I have had with portrayals of gay men in general is that portrayals are never consistent with real life. Because people vary a great deal I can see this as being OK if the entire "mix" is displayed.

There was a movie made some years ago about this entitled "The Celluloid Closet" which was a documentary narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. A great deal of the explanations of your point or points are covered in that film and many people in the entertainment industry are interviewed.

In more recent years the first attempt at showing at least some diversity was in the SHOWTIME comedy series "Brothers" which had the two gay main roles played by Paul Regina and Phillip Charles MacKenzie. Paul Regina who was not at all effeminate was counteracted by the flamboyant Philip Charles MacKenzie who played "Donald Maltby".

In "Modern Family" while I tend not to be fond of the "over the top" portrayal of Cameron Tucker by Eric Stonestreet, he is balanced out by the more sedate portrayal of Jesse Tyler Ferguson's character Mitchell Pritchitt. In that show you then have periodic guest star Nathan Lane who plays the role of "Pepper".

The portrayal of gay characters has over the years gotten a great deal better. It, in my personal opinion, has a long distance to go before it gets towards accurate, but, I am willing to settle for some extremely flamboyant "flamers", if there is balance and that not all gay characters are portrayed in this manner in any single production.

With regards to race I find many characters portrayed in ways that I find offensive. Black "Pimps" have for decades been portrayed in ways that are degrading to men of color without a doubt, and even more to "pimps". In truth how hard would it be for any Law Enforcement official to find every "pimp" if the person in question was dressed in the manner in which most were portrayed. And how hard would it be to find them on the street if they all drove purple Cadillacs with enough junk hung on the outside to make a '58 Buick Limited jealous with envy.

The movie and television industry responded with disgusting stereotypes simply because they wanted clarity in the characterizations.

If you think this is bad go back to the portrayal of gay men in the 1930's. At that time gay men were referred to openly in the pictures under many names that would be considered horribly derogatory.

I am retired from the entertainment industry and the one thing that needs to be stated a great deal more is that people are insulted with portrayals of gay characters and race is not even the issue, when those portrayals are of "stereotypes".

If you are at all interested in this you may PM me and I will do what I can to give you a list of some films you may want to see that illustrate where we were as little as 30 years ago.

It began to improve in the 1980's, but, it still has a long way to go.
 
I read that there is a remake of the 1970's(?) movie CRUISING. A gay SM slasher film that really set us back a few years. Any thoughts on that?
 
On the Wire you had Omar, a masculine gay thug who was a huge fan favorite.

On ABC Family's Greek, there was a black gay frat member.

Taye Diggs played a love interest in Will and Grace a couple of years back when the show was on.

The film The Family Stone, the gay son in the family had a masculine black boyfriend who visited the family for the holidays, and if I'm correct, they had a child.

Of course we still have a long way to go.
 
I agree with the opinion that "Cruising" was a movie that set back the gay community a number of years. What amazes me is that some in the gay community actually embrace this piece of "trash" as if it had quality.

I am sorry, while I value all opinions, the film was highlighted as an example of what was wrong with the gay community by the religious right when it was made and released.

There are many great portrayals of gay roles in film that have substance and some that are just not offensive in any manner.

I was not particularly fond of Will and Grace because over time the show started pandering towards stereotypes. The role of Sean Hayes in that show changed over time and became a disgusting representation of the TFB's living off of others that many in the community dislike. That show did start off well but when writers became desperate for the cheap laugh they did it at the expense of many.
 

Blog entry information

Author
rainbowknight
Read time
2 min read
Views
523
Comments
6
Last update

More entries in General

More entries from rainbowknight

Share this entry