William Sledd‘s super excited about his new web-based Bravo-endorsed style show, Ask A Gay Man. The show, a spin-off from his unreasonably popular YouTube series of the same name, provides Sledd a platform for his particular brand of fashion.
As hype and publicity pick up, Sledd’s well aware of haters lurking in the shadows, ready to take aim at his twinkling star, but he isn’t concerned. He tells AfterElton:
Listen, the only people that hate me are the gays. I don’t know what it is. Maybe they’re jealous or they’re opinionated or whatever, but it doesn’t bother me at all. I joke about it. I’m like, the only people who hate me are the gays and the extreme religious people.
Maybe world peace isn’t such a pipe dream. As for being jealous or opinionated – where do you think we fall?
Sledd should be admired for his self-confidence. When asked about being known as a gay straight away, he replies:
As far as being stereotyped sometimes, that’s the only thing I dislike about the fame. Yes, I’m gay, but that’s not the only thing. It’s a part of me, and a part of me that I care about, but it’s not all of me. Besides that, it’s just me.
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Meanwhile, William’s personal life’s straining under the constant pressure of his celebrity. Take, for example, his relationship:
I’m taken, but [fame] has definitely hurt my relationship. I’ve been in a relationship for a very long time, but I don’t know how much longer it’s going to last.
Don’t worry, William, we’re sure this will all blow over. If not, maybe we can set you up with Bobby Trendy. You’d be the glossiest couple in all the land.
underbear1
Yeah Billy, your VAST experience with relationships, and fashion…will have me on the edge of my seat.
As for UNORIGINAL…your hair style was on L-Word two seasons ago…just saying.
sundog
god he’s awful
i’d say jealousy is the root of my feelings on the matter :/
Allen
We’re not jealous by any means. We’re just annoyed as HELL!
cjc
Meh. I don’t feel jealousy or love to him. Just mere indifference. I repeat: m-e-h.
Tofer
I heard him on the Frank Decaro show on Sirius last week and he is a complete moron with absolutely nothing to say except “hey bitches”.
Sonoranliberal
Bobby Trendy? Now that’s just hateful…..
WWH
Two words: Paduka, Kentucky.
gayleftborg
Hearing this kid say gays are “jealous” of him, is no different than when K-Fed says everyone is just jealous of him and all his money, in his “song” lyrics.
bluesoup
I think it’s great that he’s making money off his Youtube fame but he really shouldn’t be making dumb comments like that. Somebody obviously shat in his burger.
Leland Frances
Sledd’s popularity with nongays is simple. Even the majority of “accepting†straights are still more comfortable around castrati. From Franklin Pangborn decades ago to “hip, liberal” “Saturday Night Live” reducing butch “Brokeback Mountain” to Jake in drag singing “And I Am Telling You” while maricon caballeros swooned in the audience months ago to the recurring Ross the Intern, Jay Leno’s Flaming Fag in Residence, they prefer Gay Lite. Sleddlike stereotypes simultaneously reinforce Society’s expectations [thus not straining their brains or making them have to consider that life is a little more complex than Ward and June Cleaver] and effectively communicate, “You don’t have to be afraid. If you’re female, I’m not like your boyfriend so you can count on him. If you’re male, I’m not like you, so you don’t have to worry about yourself and that time you stole a look at your best friend’s petey in the showers after PE class. And I might as well not have one. Next to me your hunkier than John Wayne killing Indians. And none of you have to worry about ME wanting to lead a Boy Scout troop or serve in a foxhole next to your strapping straight sons and brothers. In fact, the most I’ll demand of you is that you not wear white after Labor Day.â€
IMHO, one need only remember the summer of 2003 for proof of my thesis. It was then that the first real life nonstereotypical gay male couple appeared on network TV: Reichen and Chip on “The Amazing Race.†Some people loved them; some people hated them, both gay and nongay, but one thing was clear to viewers as evidenced by a comment in “Entertainment Weekly†which also named them “Reality TV’s Cutest Coupleâ€â€”these two had SEX with each other! GAY MALE sex! [Their eventual split is irrelevant to my point.]
But what new gay faces did “Entertainment Weekly†put on their cover that summer? Which real life gays were the subject of countless other mainstream media stories and became America’s darlings, even embraced on her precious air by Her Majesty Herself, Queen Oprah. The queer guys from Bravo, of course. They were a ssssscorching hot phenomenon, “the highessssst ratingsssss Bravo ever had.†Nevermind that few pointed out that Bravo’sssss audienccccce was sssssso low that the queersssss highesssst numbersssss were barely a third of that sssseason’ssss very gay “Amazing Race.†Nevermind that Reichen and Chip were the first gay couple to win a major reality TV prize. For while girlfriends Carson and the Carsonettessss gussssshhhhhed about fashion makeovers and hair productssss, only then to be banished to the video room to watch others’ reactions to their fairy dusting, couple Reichen and Chip were promoting gay marriage and gays in the military and being allowed and proud to be your gay self—whether like them or even like Ms. Kressley and mainstream America did not then and does not now want to see or hear that much at all. And most certainly from gays who aren’t living jokes, from guys with cocks rather than capons.
The ultimate irony that year was seen on E! in their pre Emmys special that featured a lengthy, extremely witless prerecorded skit starring Bobby Trendy whom two straight guys were going to give a manly makeover. By chance [?], this was shown immediately before Reichen and Chip were interviewed live on the Emmy red carpet holding hands.
mattymatt
Wow, Leland Francis sure does like paragraphs.
“I don’t know how much longer it’s going to last.” Not long at all if he’s making statements like that.
I’m surprised to hear him say “I’m gay, but that’s not the only thing.” That’s certainly not how his one-note persona comes across; and I suspect it’s the reason that gays don’t like him.
hisurfer
I sort of agree with Leland, but just reach different conclusions. I don’t think it’s that “straight people are more comfortable around castrati.” I think it’s more that femme gay men slot into accepted gender roles. I know full on flamers in the military who don’t seem to have a problem, I’ve crossed paths with transvestites in conservative Muslim countries, and SE Asia and the Pacific are full of fafafine and mahu – men who take on traditional female roles. In all these places it was far more scandalous to be more masculine & out.
Right or wrong, it’s an international phenomenom.
I’m not sure why the Queer Eye guys always get brought up in these discussions, though. I thought they represented a pretty solid cross section of gay urban men. Thom, Kyan, & Ted seemed masculine enough to me.
underbear1
White Straights like one dimensional stereotypes of fags which don’t challenge their preconceptions of us. They like stereotypes of women (madonna/whore syndrome), and racial minorities as well.
Martini-boy
“As far as being stereotyped sometimes, that’s the only thing I dislike about the fame.”
Er… you can’t stereotype someone who is ALREADY a stereotype. What, does he consider himself to be hyper-masculine? Please, the fame is making him more of a flamer by the second, and it is helping him to ‘exploit’ his gay-ness.
I think that’s what pisses a lot of gays off: the fact that he is being revered for his overt gayness while others in the sidelines of reality have to deal with bigots and the like on an everyday basis.
Jealousy isn’t the issue here. Posing a poor, naive, young lad for the sake of entertainment and (borderline) ridicule is what’s up.
nycstudman
Leland: turn off your TV. You’ll live longer.
SeaFlood
re: Reichen and Chip
Leland… I don’t know where you get your read, but it wasn’t mine. They barely held hands. They didn’t even kiss when they won the money. To me, they were closeted straightish fags who were so concerned about what everyone thought of them they couldn’t be true to themselves. Maybe they did all that stuff AFTER the show, but on the show? They were boring establishment fags.
re: Sledd… I agree with Leland’s analysis. This kid has no sexual fire at all. He’s vapid and innocuous. And that’s fine. Hell, I had never even HEARD of him until this article. … and after this comment, he won’t exist to me anymore. *hopefully*
applevince
Assholes like the writers of this magazine would definitely promote anyone to make comments like this… Its so obvious you are jealous, jealous because noone has heard of Queerty, but everyone on youtube knows William, and now many others too.
He is actually a really good person… Shame on you.
You would all rather live in a world were they hang gay people…. idiots