I think what’s so great about Ryan and Brad and the team of writers is that they’re never content to simply write about one thing. They’re always using the occasion to raise awareness or consciousness. And certainly this series this year seems to be about physical abnormalities and what we consider to be a freak, or normal, but there are subtler applications.
And one of the subtler applications, of course, is the way that gay people were thought of and treated. And it’s really interesting to see Dell as one expression of that, somebody who’s so deeply closeted that he actually considers hanging himself in the last episode, to someone like Stanley, who just seems to roll with it. It seems to be part of his lifestyle, which is admittedly not a healthy lifestyle; he’s a professional liar, but there is a sense in which he’s a lot more, I guess, at ease with it.
But he’s hiring hustlers to basically fulfill himself, so that’s certainly not healthy. And he doesn’t seem to be in any kind of healthy relationship, so I think it is pretty amazing to have that snapshot of what it was like to be a gay person in the 1950s. I think it’s really cool.”
— Actor Denis O’Hare who plays Stanley, the freak-murdering con artist with the 13″-penis on American Horror Story: Freak Show, discussing the series in an interview with The Examiner
H/t: HuffPo
watching1
Let’s not forget that it was Ryan Murphy who thought it was okay to out a young lesbian cheerleader in a crowded school hallway and then make a hero out of the guy who did it. Why would anyone stand for that? And it was Ryan Murphy who called intersex people “losers” (no social commentary, just losers) on The New Normal (may that show rest in hell). I can’t really watch AHS–I know he’s brought together fantastic casts of diverse women in the show, but their treatment of women is at times highly questionable. Murphy loves divas, but doesn’t care much for other women. Not even going to get into race.
Take a look at the one line he changed from The Normal Heart about lesbians. He does something well (some of his “Brittana” scenes, despite crapping on them for two seasons, are still the best written), and then he does something that makes me think he’s gone to the Aaron Sorkin School of how not to write women–for starters, on Glee, women and girls were constantly saved by boys. Constantly. How progressive. His ego seems to prohibit him from taking any constructive criticisms on that count, so my respect for his talent is qualified at best.
Charlie in Charge
The look at tragic realities of pre-Stonewall American gay life was an unexpected and interesting part of this season of AHS.
Pistolo
Frankly, I hate both characters. Repressed, a-hole, ugly, eeeeeevil gays….such a tiresome trope and it’s surprising Ryan Murphy of all people would succumb to it. Now, the hot, sexy, fascinating villain Dandy? Oh, he’s totally straight. Just like basically anyone who’s heroic on Ryan Murphy’s shows.
I find it funny a gay man is lauded for diversity when it actuality, he doesn’t give all that many roles to gay men- he’s got such a straight man fetish. Popular was all straight guys, Nip/Tuck was all straight guys, Glee has 5 shirtless straight beefcake for every Kurt and Blaine, and AHS had Zach Quinto season one and these two pricks. All his gay projects are just that- gay projects, he never integrates that into ensembles.
Jeremy Kinser
@Pistolo:
I disagree. Ryan Murphy has a stellar track record for casting LGBT actors. Just this season on Freak Show, he’s cast Sarah Paulson, Erika Ervin, Matt Bomer, Neil Patrick Harris, Denis O’Hare in key roles.
RSVP1056
@Charlie in Charge: @Pistolo: You are reacting as a 21 Century person who has forgotten that all of AHS is “HISTORY,” taking place when it was a death sentence (usually proceeded by a sound bludgeoning and beating if someone was perceived as “coming on” to someone who was not a homosexual. Not everything in the world was created as open and accepting on the day you were born. There are millions of untold horror stories that remain untold because the subject was murdered, and the currently used “gay panic” defense was an unspoken rule of the day. The stories that Ryan Murphy tells may seem like a “tiresome trope,” but it was no such thing to those who paid the price for exposure. The famous cases of Oscar Wilde and Alan Turning come to mind, and the latter, Turning, would rather have killed himself than be forced to undergo chemical castration. Think about that before you open your Pop-Culture mouth to say things that are not even remotely true!
Clark35
@Charlie in Charge: Don’t expect the writers of AHS, or Ryan Murphy to be historically accurate at all. He also focuses way too much on gay men and lesbian women who are tiresome stereotypes, and ignores bisexuals or says they don’t exist.
@Pistolo: Agreed.
demented
@Clark35: Yeah, his biphobia is staggering and very ugly, especially from his favorite character Kurt. That alone is why I will not watch his shows. Quality is another reason, because there is too much good TV for me to put this stuff in my brain.
Pistolo
@Jeremy Kinser: I never said he didn’t employ gay actors, I said he *has very few gay characters* in his ensembles. How many of them will actually play gay? I never accused him of not supporting other public figures who are gay. But when it comes to his show, it’s largely heterosexually-driven by a ginormous margin. What I was saying was that he never integrates gay characters into his projects with a broader theme and an ensemble cast. Haven’t enough gay actors played straight or stereotypical gay at this point? Let’s see some 3-dimensional gay romances or character who just happen to be gay that are fascinating.
It’s all dashing heterosexual heroes that take up the lead and the rest of the cast is usually filled with several off-shoots of that concept. Kit in AHS Asylum, Dylan McDermott’s character in the Murder House season of AHS, Christian Troy and Sean McNamara in Nip/Tuck, all the boys on Popular, Finn and Sam on Glee.
There’s also tons and tons of heterosexual sex, heterosexual innuendo and blatant exploitation of straight men as sort of sex objects. If it’s cable and it’s Ryan Murphy then you’ve seen every STRAIGHT guy’s ass during some fetishized scenario or flat-out explicit sex scene like 8 times by mid-season. But you take Kurt and Blaine from Glee and they might as well be celibate! Sam and any other beefcake of the week? Shirtless in tightie whities like it’s Broke Straight Boys. Kurt and Blaine? They hardly even have sex or discuss it and their romance is bland and uncomplicated, you don’t even see those two shirtless in bed together. But the straight guys are confident and sexy up the wazoo whereas all the gay ones are terrified of their sexuality or miserable.
Point is, there can be different kinds of gay guys on TV, there should be. The trope of the repressed douche-bag who’s a douche-bag because he’s gay and angry about it is so tired. Saw American Beauty, I get it, I’m done with it. People can also be homophobes because they’re simply bigots and most often are. As soon as you get down this path of promoting the idea homophobes and douche-bags are just repressed gays, you weaponize the term and the idea of being gay and equate it with a point of weakness. A lot of gay guys are at war with the world but not inside, let’s see that.
Ryan26pdx
Dell and Stanley loosely represent what gay people had to deal with in the ’50s, but I’m sure they do a better job representing psychopaths. It’s like trying to spin Jeffrey Dahmer or Michael Alig’s life into a commentary on how the cultural/societal pressures they faced influenced their violence. It may be true for them, but it’s not indicative of general experiences that people can relate to. Ryan Murphy is doing a fun horror show this season, but aside from actually casting people with extraordinary physical attributes, there’s really not a ton of cultural/societal commentary in the actual story. It’s certainly there, but it’s been done before in more effective ways. American Horror Story actually has been more effective in the past, with Asylum in particular. The scene with Lana Winters attempting conversion therapy was incredibly powerful.
Captain Obvious
I try to hang in there with American Horror Story because the casts are nothing short of amazing(first season aside…). The stories though… I don’t quite get the series in general. It’s all very random and gory for no real reason. Then they randomly tie seasons together so you can go “AAAAHHH IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW!” but it really doesn’t make sense at all.
If you’re really really really into murder, gore, and chopping people up into little bits then it’s over an hour of entertainment. Otherwise you’ll spend a lot of time looking at your pillow hoping it’ll be over soon.
It’s a shame because I absolutely love the cast. I just don’t get down with gore, murder, and lack of story to make it all worth stomaching.