STEREOTYPES — Because nothing can be a movie now unless it’s already been a theme park ride, comic book or a series of action figures, Warner Brothers is about to unleash He’s Just Not That Into You upon the world. Which, for those keeping track at home, is a movie based on a book based on a line of dialogue from a cable show that aired almost six years ago.
This is a romantic comedy that is neither romantic nor comedic. The women are either flighty airheads or delusional stalkers, and for a movie set in Baltimore, there’s only one black character in the main story that has any lines. And he’s a waiter! Who speaks twice! Presumably all the other black folks were busy selling crack to Bubbles on The Wire.
While Not That Into You may be the only movie in existence that will cause you to think, “Oh, Ben Affleck, you’re better than this,” the film’s real sin is in the portrayal of its gay characters.
In a movie all about love and dating, with a full nine leads trying to navigate the rocky shoals of relationships, there’s not a hint of a gay relationship anywhere on the screen. Though discouraging, that isn’t necessarily a mortal sin. What is a problem, however, is how the few gay characters that are on screen are forced to behave: in the flameyest, lispingest, “fiercest” stereotypes imaginable. If black actors were forced to endure Stepin Fetchit, then this minstrel show of homosexuality can only be construed as Mincin’ Jazz Hands.
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The main offenders are Drew Barrymore’s trio of co-workers at the Baltimore Blade– a made-up gay newspaper that Barrymore’s character works at for– oh, just go with it. Like any economically-minded movie, these secondary characters double as twofers, with a Latino Gay (Wilson Cruz) , an Asian Gay (Leonardo Nam) and a Pasty White Gay (Rod Keller). Remember, the filmmakers already ticked the black box by casting the waiter.
These sibilant-free sissies all curl around Drew to hear her latest dating woes, greeting each sad revelation with a different gay cliché rejoinder: “Oh, girl!” “Heyyyy!” and “Oooohhhh!”– all while they suck their teeth, too. And that’s it for these three. They don’t even talk about their own relationships, even as they might relate to dear ‘ol Drew. Nope, they just sit shiva around the sad sack, serving as a sassy sounding board.
The only other gay characters are seen briefly at an open house hosted by Kevin Connelly’s real estate broker character. Again, they serve only to advise a lovestruck hetero dope. While they do use their own experiences to counsel Kev-Kev in this scene, it’s only to illustrate that “gay signals” are completely different than “straight signals,” so, really, they can’t be any help at all. Because, you see, in the gay world, according to this film, if you look at someone for less than three seconds, it means you’re not interested. If you look for more than three seconds, then you want to screw. And, in a masterful stroke, the sex-crazed experts pivot seamlessly to neutered eunuchs, offering Kevin a cookie, a grandmotherly hug and warm admonishment of, “Oh, honey, no.”
So while the heterosexuals of He’s Just Not That Into You obsessively seek romantic partners, we have no basis of love, longing, passion or relationships; we’re just relentless fuck machines, hunting ceaselessly for dick-dick-dick-dick-dick-dick-dick! Best not to ask for anything else other than a pithy one-liner and maybe if these shoes go with that belt. We’re just your Mincin’ Jazz Hands, here to delight you with our fey ways and our finger-snapping sass-talk before jauntily sashaying out of the way for the real people to have real relationships.
Like I said, it’s bad enough that there’s not a single gay relationship on display, but to have a cavalcade of such clumsy stereotypes is just embarrassing. You wouldn’t have an Italian character slurping down spaghetti while professing love for his mother right before going out on a mob hit. You wouldn’t have a Mexican character sneaking into the country to find work as a gardener in-between frequent naps under his giant sombrero. And you wouldn’t have an Asian character with giant buck teeth figuring out sums on a huge abacus while snacking noisily on puppy stew. So why do gays have to slap on the gayface and do a faggoty song and dance just to get some screen time?
And to add insult to injury, all of this is from a media enterprise born from Sex and the City, a show with a loyal gay following. This is the thanks they get for such fervent devotion over the years? Who do you think bought DVD set after DVD set? Who do you think was lining up on opening night for the movie? Who did you think was willingly going along with the ridiculous charade that Sarah Jessica Parker was both attractive and endlessly fascinating?
While it would have been nice to be tossed a token cog in the giant, steaming machine of relationships, the least the Not That Into You team could have done would have been to not portray us as the same silly faggots playing the same Paul Lynde role as 30 years ago, as if we’re going to burst out of your wife’s closet, wearing her pumps and sundress and screaming “I’m the secret squaaaaaaarrreee!!”
We’re not meeting for clandestine rendezvous on shipping piers and in dimly lit corners of the park, or for a hastily gulped drink in a windowless bar. (Well, not exclusively, at any rate.) We go on dates, good and bad, we have long-term girlfriends and boyfriends, we can get married, we have kids. We belong at the grownupss’ table as the fully functional, fully human adults that we are. Not as some outdated, femme clown who entertains the room before slinking out the back door.
It could be worse, though. We could be the only black guy in Baltimore who’s just a waiter.
Dixon T. Gaines is a writer and editor formerly based in New York and who now finds himself in Los Angeles.
Wilson Cruz, who plays Nathan in the film, sees it another way entirely.
“I didn’t swish, my wrists were intact and I think I spoke without a lisp,” he tells Queerty, adding, “I wasn’t playing a stereotype. I’d love to know what I did that was stereotypical.” Asked if there was pressure to “gay it up” for the camera, Cruz says, “No there wasn’t. The actors came in and did what they wanted.”
Cruz, who’s starred in Rent, Noah’s Arc, and yes, My So-Called Life, doesn’t “think they were all queens in this movie. I certainly didn’t think I was being queenie. I think he [Nathan] was likable and friendly, but queenie, no. Some of the other characters, perhaps.”
And here’s one point you can get on board with: “I don’t think it’s really fair to say that every gay character in every film or movie is supposed to be the defining depiction of who we are as a community. No character can do that. I think that I played him [Nathan] as honestly as I could. I reacted in the film as I would in life, and I don’t think I’m a stereotype. We aren’t all Tom of Finland. And if we are honest with ourselves, none of us are. … Sometimes people look at a character these days and say, ‘Well he was effeminate. And that’s stereotypical.’ Well, guess what, some people in our community are effeminate. And I don’t necessarily think that’s the end of the world. Not all of my characters are effeminate.”
Alexa
I have no intention of seeing the movie but I’m curious, are there any lesbians in it? I assume if she’s working at a gay newspaper there must be some. Or do only straight chicks work there?
blake
I would have to agree with many of Mr. Dixon’s points. The commercials for the film feature the gay Asian character fawning over the straight, white girl and delivering to her “Myspace is the new booty call.” It’s the kind of scene that is normally played by the sassy African-American girlfriend who exists in a movie only to prop up her white friend.
Wilson Cruz, however, is right in that too often there is harsh reaction by many when an effeminate gay character is presented. This sometimes seems to me like self-hatred and demonization of effeminate gay men.
And, lest we forget, Wilson Cruz is a mixed-race, black and white, Puerto Rican. If Cruz’s last name were Williams, Johnson, Jones, etc., no one would bat an eye if he self-identified himself as “black.” Wilson Cruz looks just as “black” as Muhammad Ali or Will Smith or Jesse Jackson, three African-Americans of mixed ancestry.
In Hollywood, there is disconnect between the concept of what it means to be Latino and the reality that the majority of enslaved Africans toiled in Latin America. That is why there are more people of African ancestry in many Latin American countries than there people of indigenous (Native) American ancestry.
Chexy
Thanks to Dixon Gaines for telling it like it is. About another ten years and Hollywood should come around to letting the gays play some real roles.
Paul Raposo
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again–Straight audiences only like to see gays in movies when:
1. We’re played by straight actors
2. We’re either sad and miserable, or loud and flamboyant
3. We’re dying, or murdered
Any character, or plot line that diverges from these three elements are soundly rejected by het audiences. Wondeful movies like, “Leather Jacket Love Story”, or, “The Living End” never made it big outside of gay circles for this reason. Yet they are the most real depictions of gay life I had ever seen and they still hold up today.
I love femme men. You know where you stand with them; there’s none of this “straight acting” bullshit to cloud the issue and no one is playing mind games. That said, straight actors playing loud, flamboyant nelly queens piss me off and I think, causes straight people and too many gay people to view effeminate men in a bad light
Jeremy Feist
I’m going to agree with Dixon here. It’s not that I don’t believe that there aren’t fem guys in the gay community, it’s that they seem to be the only kind appearing in movies.
That being said, I’m really hoping that this movie tanks. Not so much because of the gay minstrels, but mostly because this is going to be a bad movie. For $10, your better off seeing Coraline.
Tyler
I love Wilson Cruz. He also had a recurring (though mostly silent) role on the West Wing, one of my favorite shows of all time. And he’s partially right; there are plenty of sashay-ers in our community. But when the three gay characters in a movie are asexual, and exist as the sage bitties for Drew Barrymore, it isn’t an accident. It isn’t a fair representation of our community. It’s a calculated script re-write to make the gay’s less offensive.
Taylor Siluwé
I haven’t seen the flick and after this review I’ll wait to catch in on Netflix, but it seems that the Sex & The City spawned flick isn’t showing a true appreciation for our big ol’ gay dollars.
Love you, Wilson, and all my embattled OUT performers of color more than I can say. Although its not your fault Boo, I’ll have to catch this one later.
We have to draw the line somewhere. How long can we be snippy sex-crazed caricatures with one hand, while asking for normalcy and respect with the other? ~~
Leland Frances
I thought Japhy was having another schizo moment [drag clowns Good/fag hag’s fags BAD] until I saw he didn’t write this excellent analysis. Bravo for Mr. Gaines, but did he never watch enough episodes of SITC to have hurled over its identical, albeit older, portrayal of gay men? Once in a great while you’d see for a split second a nonstereotypical gay man but he was always there for a “too bad he’s gay and we can’t have him” moment.
But there were two recurring gay characters who make those in this film look like straight Marines. “Stanford Blatch,” Carrie’s ssssssssimpering idiot friend, was the pathetic pansy always looking for and losing in love, as he drooled his way through that city. “Anthony Marentino” was the ssssssscreaming bitch stylist to Samantha, and as I recall, Carrie in the movie. He and Stanford were both bugeyed and portrayed as so sexually starved you’d think that they’d literally eat any man who they could hold down. Either one of them could replace the eternal flame on JFK’s grave. If any gay men ever protested their trivialization and emasculation it got lost in the legions of silly gay men who drooled over SITC. I’m only familiar with them because one of my best women friends pressured me into watching a marathon with her.
Nor has Gaines apparently every seen “Fag Eye for the Straight
Guy,” which starred the same kind of cypher whose weekly mince meat pies eclipsed the less purposely nelly co “stylists.” But the conceited conceit matched this film’s: gay men are eunuchs put on earth to help straight princesses [and princes]; fairy godmothers to help get Cinderella balled.
Wilson Cruz willing contributed to this freak show whether or not his wrists were a’spinning less than the others.
This is NOT to say that nelly gay men don’t exist or aren’t as good as non-nelly gay men or shouldn’t be portrayed at all, but a recurring meal made up of only one stereotype feeds those that AREN’T “neutral”—gays as child molestors, etc.
And, Paul, honey, the two cinematic masturbatory er masterpieces you mentioned may reflect YOUR life, but the majority of gay men aren’t whiny would-be writers or hustlers nor HIV+ outlaws as the leads in “End” nor live in the “bubbled gay universe [of] gay bars, restaurants, gyms and pool side mansions populated by beautiful twinkies, mustached muscle men, denim daddies and leathered motorcycle queens” of “Jacket.” Time to surrender to the real world, Dorothy!
Almost as stupid and indefensible is the idea that only gay actors should play gay characters. WHO started this nonsense? It’s ACTING, moron, not director of Lambda Legal! The logical conclusion of your hissy fit is that only straight actors could play straight characters.
mizarkey
well, I know my straight friend was an extra in the gay parade scene. Not sure if he made it into the film – but he was dressed as a hunky shirtless bunny with long rabbit ears and holding an inflatable carrot. Because we see BUNNIES all the time at those wacky Gay pride marches.
This perturbed writer cringing at the gay minstrel show – well guess what…Sean Hayes made a career and fortune from it on Will & Grace, and before that there was “Donald” the fur coat wearing old-school queen on cable TV’s BROTHERS. Gays come in all shapes and sizes – some screamers and some dull as hetero dishwater.
The Sarah Silverman Program features 2 unattractive, overweight and very committed gay male characters on her show. Where is your article praising her? Is it an attack on Drew Barrymore? Um, she was one of the few celebs to give a NO on Prop 8 soundbite during the LA protests.
ps —
this writer had to throw in the strained line: “we can get married and have kidS.” ANYBODY CAN HAVE KIDS in this test tube era — that freak in CA with 6 kids had 8 more embryos implanted without a mate or a job — and she wants big money to get on TV.
And our “marriages” ?? Well, they are state marriages in 2 states out of 50. These marriages are in no way recognized on a federal level, so they are inferior. Get over yourself. Instead of wasting ink attacking a crap movie that will be on DVD in 4 months — write a editorial about how we are second class citizens and many of us are sadly complacent and don’t have the self-esteem (from being battered by society and our families) to be angry about it.
Taylor Siluwé
@mizarkey: Uhm, wrote don’t YOU write that article … instead of “wasting ink” attacking a bona fide review of a movie?
Farrah
@LeLand Frances
You are the most negative person I think I’ve ever encountered. Almost every post you write be it on Queerty or on Towleroad is horrifyingly negative. Lighten up.
mizarkey
honey – don’t reflect…
I protest and write many articles, Girrrrrl — as the gays say in movies and on TV.
He should try to be as inclusive with the mincing gays about town
as Obama says his administration will be to ALL. (yah, right)
Ps — In 1947, the black mammy and stepin’ fetchit roles fizzled in Hollywood because the NAACP and black newspaper editorals put pressure on Hollywood Studio heads to stop insulting their community with stereotypes. It worked. With the changing times,
busy black actors like Willie Best (once billed as “Sleep ‘N Eat”) couldn’t find any work — and ended his career doing TV.
Nathan
Um…it’s a movie. Let’s pick our battles shall we? As if we all can’t name 20 of our friends who are just like the queens portrayed in the film.
mizarkey
It reminds me of how “The Boys in The Band” film was reviled for decades by some gays — and now it’s 40 years old and still resonates.
4 decades later and we can still look to our gay peers and find:
1. financially irresponsible debt-plagued friends
2. couples struggling with monogamy
3. self-loathing drug-addled friends
4. teacher friends who are closeted at their job
5. friends who are struggling with acceptance from their families
6. friends who struggle with depression and the idea of growing old
Landon Bryce
I was disappointed that Greg Behrendt, who I went to college with and who wrote the book the movie is based on, was not more involved in the production of the film. He has always been a fantastic straight ally, even in the early 1980s when he he was a frat boy and got a lot of shit about it. His HBO special “Mantastic” introduced the concept of metrosexuality years before it got a better name and caught on. Greg’s a great guy, and I’m guessing the tone of the film would be more honest about gays if he had written it. I’m not sure it would be a better movie– Greg’s a brilliant improviser but a spotty writer– but it would be a nicer one.
kevin
@Paul Raposo:
You forgot “drag queen lands in intolerant small town and wins everyone’s heart after proving how tough/cool she is…turns town more gay-friendly than the Castro and everyone dances to disco music while engaging in end-of-the-movie love fest.”
Taylor Siluwé
@mizarkey: Are you arguing FOR stereotypes or against them? It seems your doing a good job at both.
dgz
I’m definitely siding with Wilson Cruz on this one. Hatred of effiminacy probably stems from self-hatred and sublimated misogyny.
Seriously, given Mr. Gaines’ article, we should be mad because the gay characters in a blockbuster movie — characters who are FEATURED IN THE TRAILER — are depicted as good friends and givers of advice?! just because they’re effeminate? Mr. Gaines, i realize you are gay, but have you met any of the rest of us? According to this author, half my friends are deplorable stereotypes.
P.S. i’m going to go see this movie with some of my girlfriends, one of whom i advised on her relationship last night. and no, i’m not a shill for the studio.
p.p.s. Japhy, i have to say i love how you formatted this post, with two diverging viewpoints and no comment of your own. great dialogue prompt! kudos.
Timmeeeyyy
I don’t think it’s about being effeminate, but about being more than a cartoon character. Harvey Fierstein often plays the sissy, but they are real, developed characters. Penn played Milk as effeminate (which he was), but he was still real and complex. I’m sure most the characters in the film are flimsy and shallow, but there’s nothing wrong with execting sensitivity from writers, especially when misrepresenting (or not representing) populations which are so often misrepresented in popular culture.
Taylor Siluwé
@Timmeeeyyy: Exactly!!
This isn’t about self-loathing or a hatred of fem men. I love fem guys. Love ’em!! But why do our lives and loves on screen have to be such narrow caricatures? Why, in a film ABOUT relationships, can’t at least one gay character be in one?
Oh, thats right, all we do is screw and do hair.
miley crisis
Dixon T. Gaines for president.
mizarkey
@Taylor
in the case of blacks in film, then I am most def *against* the stereotypes of 1930s and 40s…it sucks tho that a talented and well-respected pro like Willie Best had to be reviled by civil rights activists when the times changed. He simply took the parts that were offered as embarrassing and offensive as they were.
I don’t think it’s fair to compare today’s gay film roles to the
Step N Fetchit angle.
I think as far as gay sterotypes go —
well, we DO have humorless dykes, queeny immature gay men, as well as boring-as-hell committed types…and they are ALL depicted in one mainstream film or another.
Besides, the well-written real roles for actors (gay or straight) are pretty much only on TV these days anyway.
I am not sure that this Drew Barrymore produced fluff comedy is really the FILM to push our buttons. I will take Wilson Cruz’s viewpoint over a snippy critic with an aversions to campy queens.
dgz
well, reread the article. it IS about being effeminate.
but if *your* issue with the film is that the gay characters aren’t complex, i think we need to recognize that these aren’t main, lead characters, so they don’t have the space for complexity. and if you complain that they aren’t main characters, please bear in mind that this is a movie about WOMEN who don’t understand MALE, HETEROSEXUAL signals.
this is just another instance of a poorly chosen battle, imho, with emphasis on the h.
dgz
@mizarkey:
agreed, well said. the above post was in response to timmeeey and taylor.
Taylor Siluwé
@mizarkey: I think Dixon’s buttons were possibly pushed (LOL), but not mine.
I just prefer not to patronize films that don’t at least TRY to appeal to me as a well-rounded same gender loving person in the 21st century. It may very well be funny, but it’ll be just as funny on Netflix.
I understand black actors of the 40 playing the roles they were given, I don’t begrudge Wilson or anyone else who has to flame on for a role. Gone With the Wind’s Hattie McDaniel was hated for playing a maid, but she famously said to her critics, “I’d rather play one than be one.”
I couldn’t agree more. So, go Wilson Cruz. But my money won’t be part of its opening weekend tally.
@ DGZ: I don’t think this is a battle, more like a discussion about a review. No one’s loading weapons and heading for Drew’s place. LMAO …..
mizarkey
amen Taylor. I am ALL for protesting whatever bugs us via our gay pocketbooks.
Let’s talk about IMPORTANT stuff – like can Drew Barrymore really pull off her upcoming role as Edie Beale in HBO’s Grey Gardens? haha
Vicente Fox
That queen was on ‘Noah’s Arc” too.
gkruz
“You wouldn’t have an Italian character slurping down spaghetti while professing love for his mother right before going out on a mob hit.”
Well, you would in a Scorsese film.
gbs
Where all the dykes at??? At least there are gay men in the movie, even if they are stereotypical.
kerynn
dykes are mythical creatures like unicorns and dragons. you rarely see them unless they are 2 paid for gays the het boys like to stare at.
Me
I’m a big fan of Drew. That said, I agree with many on here: the problem is not that there exists fem guys or that they are even in this film. The problem is that a) the non-threatening fairy god mother stereotype is needlessly pervasive and b) these characters seem to be written so 2-dimensionally, as if spat out of the Character Writer 5000. There are many who feel that this side of gay culture has been done to death. We now ask that others get to tell their stories. I can tell you that, for my own experience, I have no friends like any of the above mentioned characters. I don’t help girl friends with “boy trouble” and unless it’s on the clearance rack at Target, I’m probably not wearing it (yes, I’m cheap, but that’s the point).These are not people I would be friends with. So, for me, I can’t really muster up the energy to see this film. This doesn’t speak to me – and I daresay it doesn’t for others either. I can’t speak for everyone, but I can use a personal anecdote to explain why such depictions (without alternatives) bother me. I was at a party some years back and I and this other fellow were cornered in the kitchen by a crush of wide-eyed women who insisted we must “do Jack”, referring to the Will and Grace character. They wanted us to “perform” in this stereotyped manner for their entertainment – and saw nothing wrong with that. Would they, I wonder, have asked a Native American to do “Tonto” or an African American to do the oft-mentioned “Steppin’ Fetchit”?
Joey Stern
I think that this article actually does something worse than the film. It puts Dixon T. Gaines’ hatred of the femme gay on full display. I often hear the argument that gay (men) are portrayed as too femme on the screen. This argument always comes down to one thing, hating on women.
Apostle Shada Mishe
THE CURE for HIV/AIDS…….AMBUSH
THE IDEA that AMBUSH cures AIDS
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RESULTS:
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DISCUSSION:
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I have never charged any of the people for their supply of AMBUSH but a life saving has been spent on the project with NO renumeration from any sources because AMBUSH falls outside the walls of modern medicine and research.
PROPOSAL:
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[email protected]
Here is a video taped presentation that I gave at t he Martin Luther King library in Washington
faghag
Japhy, you need to smoke a bowl, you take life far too seriously.
It’s just a fun movie, not rocket science.
lighten up.
Allanah
Never blame the actors. Please, Hollywood still treats straight white women like crap. There are so few roles for openly gay actors and people of color that it’s ridiculous to judge them for just wanting to work.
CJ
Not that it matters, but the Hispanic gay and the Asian gay in the movie are gay in real life too…
jababe
I will damn sure give Drew Barrymore the benefit of the doubt…I HATE being TOLD what I should find offensive.
jababe
(Or shouldn’t)
Russ
Allanah, yes. I’ve been in love with Wilson Cruz since fifth grade, and it’s a crying shame that so many of his roles are asexual pap. There need to be more strong fem guy roles out there.
Timothy
I believe Wilson Cruz when he says he didn’t queen it up. He’s an adorable sweet guy but, well, he’s not exactly the butchest guy in WeHo. If his character is a bit fey, well that may be because the character is realistic and played the way Wilson lives.
Let’s face it folks, there really are some gay boys who are at bit less masculine and it’s not always homophobic to show them. In fact it may be a wierd sort of homophobia to insist that all portrayals of gay men be indistinguishable from stereotypical hetero men.
Gurlene
Good lord. This is the third blog with an article about this movie.
Whatever happened to seeing a movie for the entertainment value it presents? It seems any movie mad nowadays regardless of the race or life style or career of the gay characters in it here comes comment after comment about how the movie either stereotypes or leaves out something from their respected communities.
I bet the people who scream and critize the most have no idea how difficult it is to find investors, actors, support crew, marketing and everything else it takes to get these projects to the big screen.
boyssaygo
This is a pointless article. You brought all the gay stereotypes into focus, but what did you expect to see in the first place? You actually expected a Hollywood film to be anything but stereotypical? Also pot calling the kettle black line (oh how apropos!): “The women are either flighty airheads or delusional stalkers…”.
alan brickman
Where are the gay men that are masc, fit and financially sound in this movie?? I know who Stepin Fechit is and totally agree..
alain
Why should there be GAY REPRESENTATION for a movie to be good??
Luis
Wilson Cruz is a triple threat: Latino, Black, and Gay. Also a great actor who should get more substantive roles.
I think that what gets people heated with movies like this is that they want to have their cake and eat it too. They essentially want to be straight white upper middle class films, but also want the accolades of having a diverse cast, so they add all of these POC and queer characters as window-dressing. It’s a slap in the face. You almost want to say “Don’t bother,” but you also want your favorite POC actors to get work.
getreal
@Luis: I agree he is so like likable. Maybe being in such a big movie will open even more doors for him.
Kristin
This reminds me of how much Richard Curtis’ ‘Love Actually’ pissed me off, in the way that absolutely EVERY KIND of inter-personal emotional connectivity was explored, no matter how briefly, except for, wait for it, a homosexual relationship.
When I discovered on the DVD extras how originally there was a subplot involving two lesbian schoolgirls (omg!hot!girlongirl!HOT!) that got drafted out of existence and then a subplot that actually got filmed and then cut during editing, involving the principal of the school in a lesbian relationship where OF COURSE her partner was dying of a terminal illness… well, I was glad that he didn’t touch on it at all, if that’s how it would have happened.
Ah, Richard Curtis. The gays only exist in your world if they don’t do anything, you know, overtly gay, or die.
Josh
I think there is a conversation to be had about anti-femme sentiment in the gay community, but I think to make this conversation all about that shuts down other potentially interesting areas of discussion. Personally, I don’t care about whether a gay character in a movie is masculine or feminine (though diversity is nice), I just tire of seeing gay characters who are one dimensional, asexual, only there to service the straight characters in the story, and meant to amuse the audience with sassy one-liners. If they’re supporting characters, I understand that they wouldn’t be as well developed as the leads, but even supporting characters don’t have to be completely cardboard.
Anthony in Nashville
Just got back from seeing the film and I don’t see what the big deal is. The gay characters had such minimal roles that the movie could have easily been made without them.
For what it’s worth, I think the character who acted the most like gay men was Alex.
Marissa
whos the actor for the hot gay asian guy in the movie?