Some fans of the hit show “Empire” were not fans of last night’s episode.
To make a long story short, Jamal (Jussie Smollett) and D-Major (Tobias Truvillion) hooked up. In a big way. What started as a confrontation in the studio led to a heavy make out session which resulted in some pretty steamy man-on-man action.
Related: Empire’s Jussie Smollett Is On Top Where You Like Him
Naturally, some Twitter trolls took offense to what they saw. (Although, we’re going to go out on a limb and say they likely would have been juuuuust fine with it had it been a man and a woman. But we digress.)
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Here’s what they had to say:
https://twitter.com/IamPoeticSent/status/728060885126815746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/Pacrackz/status/728029512521256960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
That gay shit gotta go #Empire
— Timeless (@VvV_Nine) May 5, 2016
https://twitter.com/QueenJaslyn/status/728058643665420289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/A1miglo/status/728029994375651328
Time for #empire 2 get canceled ?? super gay
— Frank Sheeran (@_almighty_o) May 5, 2016
#Empire is gay as hell… It's not bout the music anymore it's all about male on male action like come own now
— JuRozzay (@Picture_Mannnn) May 5, 2016
That gay scene is too much #Empire
— szn ? (@Mikedopee) May 5, 2016
And here’s how Jussie responded:
What is this gay sheeeeit? ? #empire ? #JustRelax #ItsOverNow #ShhShhShhShhShh pic.twitter.com/sHlRPE1eVm
— Jussie Smollett (@JussieSmollett) May 5, 2016
Snap.
Related: Which Empire Son Would You Hook Up With?
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Masc Pride
Is it really wise to mock your fan base? These tweets were obviously coming from viewers. Seems like that show’s luck with ratings has already dwindled. Might not be the best time to get passive-aggressive with fans.
Matt Achine
@Masc Pride: “Passive aggressive” my ass. They’re bigots and deserve to be mocked at the very least. They’re nowhere near as appalled by the violence and stereotyping on that show. They cheer it on and ask for more.
Masc Pride
Matt, you’re addressing a moral point. I was referring to business. Words like bigot and troll are also thrown around far too loosely here. Were these tweets posted with the sole intent of getting a rise out of this actor? I don’t see how. It’s important to understand that trolling and difference of opinion are two different things.
As far as “bigots”, these are straight people, so of course they don’t mind love scenes between men and women because that appeals to their interests in the same way gay men don’t mind seeing guy on guy scenes. This is the dilemma when you try to pitch gay sex to mostly hetero audiences. If you want to include gay sex, it makes more sense to just do a show where gay men will be the target audience. Lots of gay men don’t want to watch scenes with naked women, under the logic you’re using, you would be saying those gays are misogynists.
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
All that black homophobia as usual and it’s not being called out for what it is usual. The black get out of everything free card is still valid apparently.
Ksb1978
@Masc Pride: I’m sorry, but I call bs on your segregation of television. If those Twitter bigots are real fans, then they should have known a love scene involving Jamal was inevitable. That’s what they as “fans” took on with agreeing to watch a show with one of its lead characters as lgbt. You and they seem to be stuck on that ancient Hollywood ideal of only hetero couples with sexuality, rolling in the bed like porn, meanwhile it’s lgbt characters are sexless. Well no. If you decide to watch a show where one of its lead characters are gay you better be prepared for them to get the same amount of sexy times on screen as their straight counterparts in the this day and age.
Captain Obvious
@IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou: Nice try r@ce baiting troll. White people come in homophobe flavor too and they all say the same things so stop trying to make it a black thing.
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
@Captain Obvious: It a black who with a black audience. It is a black thang so stop trying to make excuses and blame white people for one in your life.
Gigi Gee
@Matt Achine: Please don’t feed the troll. Besides, engaging it in conversation means fewer $2 bjs for his tricks at the bus terminal.
Captain Obvious
@IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou: You’re pathetic, go ahead with your inane comments online. You’re the top who everyone ignores irl with good reason. Soap box troll with nothing better to do than spread hate.
Masc Pride
@Ksb1978: I call BS on your call. Gay love scenes on regular TV are something fairly new. In the past, a gay character on a show has not meant gay sex scenes, even with gay-oriented shows like Will & Grace. Until fairly recently, gay sex scenes have been reserved for gay channels or cable movie channel shows. The benefit of marketing to actual gay audiences is you can obviously get away with more (think Queer As Folk, Dante’s Cove, etc.). Unfortunately, lots of gay producers, writers and even channels realize that there’s more money in trying to appeal to heteros, so there’s a decreased interest in producing original gay programming. In trying to appeal to heteros, this is the dilemma these people kind of brought on themselves. Your comment, much like Matt’s, is more emotionally charged when I’m specifically referring to business aspects.
ingyaom
Bet they’d have had no problem with girl-on-girl.
motorcycle
What is Empire? Never heard of it. When and what network is it on?
Scribe38
@Masc Pride: Why don’t we ever get gay folks tweeting negative crap about straight sex scenes? The tweets queerty picked were very mild. The reality was a lot worst and hate filled. The actor basically told folks to calm down. The show from the very beginning has been about him being true to himself and loving openly in a black family (his story line). Yes it’s also about music, drama, and business. Everyone one knows the creator is gay and the show represents his view of the world. If I can look at straights make out, they can look at gays making out, or just turn the channel…
Stilinski26
@ingyaom: Lesbian kiss in Once upon a time received many complains as well
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
@Captain Obvious: Go ahead with your excuse making and blaming white for black failure. It’s worked out so well for black so far.
Stilinski26
If it were a interracial couple having sex then these people would be cheering and probably have an orgasm
Masc Pride
@ingyaom: Again, two girls appeals to hetero interests (at least for the men). The target audience is important when it comes to this stuff. Good luck selling headphones to the deaf!
@Scribe38: We don’t? That’s rich! I’ve seen/heard plenty of gay men complaining about having to watch “breeders” and how disgusting they find female anatomy complete with all types of derogatory terms to refer to “lady parts”. You’ve seen and heard it too.
I’ve never seen this show, but to my knowledge it’s about a family fighting over a record label, not a gay man’s view of the world. Out of the whole cast, only one character is gay, right? Judging by the tweets, if it had always been what you’re claiming, it doesn’t make sense that the show had such a successful start. Why are fans just now complaining? Obviously something has changed. Ratings have dropped too. Possible correlation?
Ksb1978
@Masc Pride: Oh,please. My response is reality in 2016. How To Get Away With Murder gave Connor love scenes a couple of years ago. You say my response is emotionally charged well yours and those fools on Twitter response comes from bigotry. At the end of the day, the network Aires a gay love scene knowing full well what was going on and those few folks complaining aren’t going to break em. You can stick to channels like Ion, Hallmark and other channels The American Family Association and Million Moms approve of.
Masc Pride
@Ksb1978: You’re being very dramatic. Please point out which parts of my comments were bigoted. I’m not complaining about these scenes, and I really couldn’t care less about them either way because I don’t even watch this show. A couple of years ago still fits into the “fairly recent” category.
xzall
@Masc Pride: @Masc Pride:
TV ratings in general are down across the board this year but I don’t think Empire is worried considering it was the top rated show for the week.
Dave Downunder
What did Jussie’s tweet even mean? What did it achieve?
Chico
@Masc Pride: my intent isn’t to contest what you’re saying, but I’d like to point out that this isn’t the first steamy gay sex scene the show has had. The character’s sexuality kind of took a back seat to his music career after his first love was written out of the show.
Black Pegasus
Love the show. Let the haters kick rocks and jump off cliffs.
Masc Pride
@xzall: Ratings haven’t been down for every single show on TV since Jan. 1. Every show goes on the ratings roller coaster, but when lowered ratings are combined with complaining from fans, it might be time to at least think about some things. This isn’t the first time I’ve read about this show receiving criticism from its own fan base over this.
@Chico: Seems you’re saying that there has been more of a focus on the gay character’s personal life than there was when the show started. If you look at Picture_Mannn’s tweet, that seems to be exactly what he’s claiming too.
junk4sts
I kind of agree that the sex scenes in these shows are irritating, but I’m talking about all the sex scenes, not just the gay ones. I haven’t watched empire so I can’t comment secifically about this scene, but I did watch How To Get Away With Murder for most of the first season and I felt like the sex scenes were almost entirely unnecessary, and were entirely just “filler” so that they could drag the real story out longer.
I’m not surprised that the straight audience finds the gay sex annoying, maybe even gross, straight people especially straight men often think sex with men is gross. I think saying their comments are homophobic is a little heavy handed, because in general they are essentially say “gay sex” = yucky. And for just a moment think about what a typical straight man knows about gay sex. (almost nothing) When you don’t understand gay sex your mind thinks why would I want to have anything to do with another man’s butt, Why would I want to put my parts into the dirtiest place on the human body? Why would I want to put my nose, or mouth anywhere near another man’s butt? Of course some straight men have experimented with anal sex with women and they may better understand the preparation that is necessary to make a butt “sex ready”. But I would contend that anal sex in the straight world is a lot less common than porn would have you believe, in the same way that girl on girl sex is not really something that straight women actually do all that often, ask you straight girl friends about it.
I think the tweets of fans is a good way to guage how the fan base feels about how the show is developing. Of course there is an element of art in entertainment TV that the fans must take into account, there is also the business side of entertainment TV that has to be considered and if actual views of a show are put off by the content of that show, well that’s kind of a failure for the producers, writers and directors.
In the end the sex scenes (all of them, not just the gay ones) can be implied without being over done, unless you’re making porn, drawn out sex scenes don’t add any real information to the the story. Knowing that two chracters have sex is usually all that is needed to move a story along, and sometimes what happens during their encounter is important, so they had sex and she strangled him, or the sex lasted for hours, could be important to the story, but even in these cases it’s more about knowing what happened and not necessarily seeing it happen, that moves a story along.
So these tweets might not be the most positive toward the gay sex scene, but they give insight into what the actualy viewers are feeling and, like it or not, that is valuable information to have. Mocking the audience that is actually watching your performance is unprofessional and self defeating.
Masc Pride
@junk4sts: Thank you. These actors and producers can’t just say “screw the fans”. There will be no show when the ratings get too low and the network pulls the plug. If they really want to get those gay scenes in, they should try making stuff that targets gay audiences. I liked Dante’s Cove and sort of enjoyed Queer As Folk to an extent. Looking was a disappointment to pretty much everybody. Point is all these shows are too few and far in between. I think this should also serve as a wake up call to gay producers and writers to stop catering to hetero audiences. If they’re going to cater to heteros, those heteros will ultimately decide what goes and what doesn’t.
MagikdoestheLimbo
@Masc Pride: his fanbase? what’s your meaning of the word ‘fan’?
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….anyway, this happened in the 1st season. a vocal minority got up in arms, they ignored it and the show continued on with its success. that it happened again is no surprise. any person watching this show in its 2nd season and didn’t realize that it doesn’t shy away from depicting same sex attraction SHOULD be mocked at this point
Cornellcw3
@IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou: Are you outraged by the white republican party making anti gay laws discriminating against you or the white Klan’s men that march in the street against you or the white republican nominee’s for President that have ALL been against you getting married? Do you ever complain about how those whites that are getting away with it.