[Article] Time Magazine - Absolutely Pink

ixoy

From Time

Absolutely Pink
After decades of near-invisibility, gays are coming out of TV screens on both sides of the Atlantic — and they're a huge hit. What makes gay TV so completely fabulous?

By JUMANA FAROUKY

At first glance, it might look like any other game show. Two nervous contestants hold their hands over their buzzers while a toothy host lightly mocks them; an overdramatized countdown clock tick-tocks to build the pressure. But then there's the set: a life-sized homage to Barbie's Dream House. And the contest categories, which focus heavily on Cher and Liz Taylor. And the fact that reigning champion Maddy, the femme fatale brunet in the low-rider jeans and bust-hugging purple top, was born a man.

Welcome to Pink, one of the most popular programs on GAY-TV, Italy's 24-hour satellite channel. "I want to show that gay people are not UFOs," Pink host Fabio Canino says during a taping break. "I hate the word normal, but that's the only way to explain it."

Pink is just one in a lineup of gay-oriented (but not gay-exclusive) shows on the network, which is owned by Dutch-financed company XAT Production and has been featuring normal gay folk for more than a year. Alongside lighthearted semispoof shows like Pink, GAY-TV carries movies (but no porn), music videos, celebrity-gossip shows and serious current-affairs programs, all designed to give homosexual audiences a familiar voice but also get straight viewers to tune in.

It's an increasingly popular formula on both sides of the Atlantic. The runaway hit of American television is Queer Eye for the Straight Guy — a series in which style-challenged heterosexuals have their looks and lives overhauled by a squad of gay advisers. Starting this week, Queer Eye will air in the U.K., and a British version of the show is set to launch early next year. And in January, France will see the debut of Pink TV, another gay-themed cable and satellite channel.

GAY-TV began in May 2002 as an experiment in niche marketing, but quickly pulled in major advertisers like Dolce & Gabbana, Eagle Pictures and Renault (with an ad for the Clio that shows a male cop pulling over a car, looking at the male driver and whipping out his pad — to write not a ticket, but his phone number). The channel claims peak-hour viewership of up to 500,000 Italian households. The numbers may be small compared to the major networks, but they do contain a fabulous little secret: nearly half of the audience for GAY-TV is straight. "We do not want to create gay programs, but programs that come from a gay point of view," says the channel's director, Francesco Italia. "If we do something funny, everyone wants to laugh. If we talk about emotions, that's something everybody knows about. Some people may turn on GAY-TV and ask, 'Where are the homosexuals?' That's because they're used to seeing the images of gays on regular TV and they always seem to be in wigs and high heels."

France's Pink TV aims to use similar programming to reach thousands of French homosexuals, as well as to "seduce people who aren't gay, but identify with the values of freedom, tolerance and openness," says the channel's marketing and communication director, Pierre Garnier. Unlike the GAY-TV audience, who can pick up the channel free with a satellite dish, Pink TV viewers will pay an extra j9 a month to watch the selection of game shows, documentaries and lifestyle programs. A secure code will also allow access to four adult films it plans to air per week. This has caused the channel's launch to be delayed for two months; while France's broadcasting regulator csa has given approval for Pink TV to show porn, it's still not satisfied that the channel's encryption system is foolproof. Undaunted, Garnier says it hopes to gather 180,000 subscribers in the next three years. "The ideal is to have one-third gay boys, one-third gay girls and one-third straight viewership," he says.

Of course, gay themes aren't restricted to gay networks. Mainstream TV's attitude toward gays started growing up in 1997, when American comic Ellen DeGeneres came out of the closet in her self-titled sitcom. "It was an important lesson for advertisers and producers who are naturally cautious and who saw that people weren't freaking out, they were kind of interested," says Joshua Gamson, an author and sociology professor at the University of San Francisco. At the same time, advertisers began targeting gay audiences as members of a high-spending demographic. "Once it's demonstrated that you can have a hit with gay characters, commercial TV is amoral," says Gamson. "There are some limitations, but fear of other people's sexuality isn't one of them. A hit is a hit."

From Ellen, it was a quick jump to gay/straight sitcom Will & Grace and finally Queer Eye, with gay men replacing black people as TV's favorite subculture: the oppressed minority, once kept on the fringe, is now center screen defining the new cool. Thanks to Queer Eye's Fab 5 — a quintet of queens ranging from fruity to button-down who use their expertise in fashion, culture, cuisine, grooming and interior design to "make better" (because "makeover" sounds so temporary) a straight man's entire life — the show became a massive hit when it first aired in the States on cable station Bravo in July; it was soon picked up by the NBC network (which owns Bravo) and it now attracts some 7 million viewers every week. The show has been sold into syndication from Australia to Iceland. Advertisers love it, too, with the Fab 5 constantly name-dropping everything from furniture stores (like Pottery Barn and Domain) to shaving products (Neutrogena, Zirh) that the new-and-improved straight guy simply must spend his money on. "We've said this from the beginning, it's not a gay show," says Queer Eye creator David Collins, one of the coproduction team at Scout Productions (Collins is gay; his partner in developing the show, David Metzler, is straight). He came up with the idea in an art gallery in Boston when he saw a group of gay men jump to the defense of a guy being publicly berated by his wife for his poor dress sense. "Queer for us doesn't have a sexual connotation, but it means unique, different, an exciting perspective. All of our guys are credentialed experts. Being gay doesn't mean you automatically have style, taste and class, just like being straight doesn't automatically mean you don't."

This week, U.K. cable and satellite station Living TV will start finding out whether its audience — 12 million mainly female, mostly straight viewers a month — is also going to fall for the Fab 5. "Women up and down the country will recognize the potential in their slobby hetero husbands or boyfriends or partners," vows Living TV director of programming Richard Woolfe. The producers at Living are so confident of its popularity that they're already cooking up a homegrown version, although a planned January launch has been postponed.

But it doesn't end there. The channel has another show that casts gay men as lifestyle gurus. Starting Nov. 19, Straight Dates by Gay Mates sends two gay men on a mission to find true love for a hopeful (and sometimes hopeless) single gal. The dynamic duo, Max and Michael, will pull men off the street, send them on a date with that week's Lonely Heart and watch the date from a secret room, all the better to tell the lady where she goes wrong. The idea is to bring a woman's gay best friend to the small screen. "Because we tell them when their bum looks big in those jeans or if they're dating a loser. And they listen and trust us because we have no ulterior motives," says Richard Hastings, the show's creator. "Gay men can just tell a woman the truth, like, 'You're being a real bitch.' If a straight man said the same thing, it would be offensive."

The two heroes may be homos, but Straight Dates is targeted directly at straight women, so great care was taken to make sure the show was just gay enough. "Gay men have their own humor and it can be kind of bitchy, so we had to make sure the humor in this show crossed over and was accessible to women," Hastings says. "If Max and Michael have to criticize our single girls, they'll do it with a wry smile and give her a hug afterward."

Not everyone is happy with the newfound success of queer TV. While there has been no public criticism in Italy, in the U.S., conservative groups like the American Families Association have launched campaigns to boycott companies that advertise during queer shows. And some gay media critics chafe as well. "It's not an insulting stereotype, to be told that I'm extra-fabulous, extra-witty and extra-attractive. It's just not accurate," says Gamson at the University of San Francisco. "The idea that we're all experts in upper-middle-class mores and consumption habits ... produces a lot of invisibilities by celebrating certain kinds of people within the population and not others." But Andy Medhurst, a lecturer in media studies at the University of Sussex, argues that gay-themed shows and channels are an improvement over the limp-wristed sidekicks of yesterday's sitcoms. "Diverse visibility, even if it falls into certain categories, is still more than it was 20 years ago," he says. And gay activists in Italy say GAY-TV is already having a positive impact. "Only through television can you reach certain 18- or 25-year-olds who live in the small towns and feel isolated from other gay people," says Luigi Valeri, spokesman for national gay-rights association Arcigay. "The image of gays on television is moving closer to the reality." And on the way, it has just about everyone seeing pink.
With reporting by Emily Brady/Paris and Jeff Israely/Milan

ixoy

Is it just me or do these shows seem to reinforce the stereotype that we all swan around rooms passing queeny style judgements on people. There seems to be little or no sign of diversity in any of the shows that they're highlighting. Instead people feel safe and cossetted with the notion that the gay man is always a Judy Garland-loving, Versace-wearing, haute cultured-individual.

Nowhere (besides some HBO output) do I see a bit more diversity in the representation of gay people. All gay men don't love Judy Garland - in fact I know none who do (OK there's Kylie instead). Is it just like gradual baby steps here that we're seeing? Get the public used to a certain type of gay men before introducing them to the notion that they're not so readily-identifiable in mannerisms and could be *scary music* all around you! Or should I just be happy these baby steps are there at all? Maybe I just want the corporations that be to hurdle down that path until nobody has to blink an eye or write these articles anymore....

yellum

Well said. I've seen Queer Eye and really can't identify with the gay guys on it.

Tom Coates rips into the show and the whole idea which he thinks is camping up the camp stereotype even more. I have to agree but right now I also know what you're saying about it being a foot in the door.

Once the idea that there are gay people in this world gets injected into peoples heads the idea can then be refined. I'm not sure is it the /best way/ to go about this but it is a /way/ nonetheless.

Michael6754

It is a misperception that gay people are more stylish than straight people. Anyone spending time on the scene can see that. Some are stylish, some aren't. Why do so many people on the scene wear tight t-shirts and trainers??

ixoy

Exactly. Go on the scene and you'll see that - shock! horror! - gay men can wear the same clothes (stylish or not) as straight men. The world's going to end if we can't immediately distinguish them!

.. As to why they wear tight t-shirts. Well it's 'coz they've a 20" waist from eating nothing but their friend's bitchy comments....

Lukin Black

Originally posted by ixoy
.. As to why they wear tight t-shirts. Well it's 'coz they've a 20" waist from eating nothing but their friend's bitchy comments....

lol!

I have the fashion sense of Worzel Gummidge, tbh.

The first thing that this kinda thing is gonna do, though, is let lots of gay people know they're not alone. Then it kinda says well, you should be ultra-stylish, have interior design and shopping as hobbies, listen to all the 'divas' etc.

At the same time, perhaps it's the fact that it's more-or-less impossible to tell a lot of people are gay without being told it straight out, that most people only see the 'screaming queens' and come to think that gay == camp. Thinking about it, I think a lot of people can't take camp people seriously, and feel less 'threatened' (for want of a better word) by them, than by the fact that the mate/neighbour/passing friend that they can equate with, is actually gay, and it wasn't obvious.

ixoy

Originally posted by Lukin Black
Thinking about it, I think a lot of people can't take camp people seriously, and feel less 'threatened' (for want of a better word) by them, than by the fact that the mate/neighbour/passing friend that they can equate with, is actually gay, and it wasn't obvious.

Yup, I think you've hit the nail on the head. The knowledge that any one could be gay must threaten some people. Actually this brings me to an article I read in The Irish Times a few years back. It said that a high percentage of Americans wouldn't *want* to see a gay man in the movies - and the only way it was acceptable was in the role of fashion critic/comedic foil. As a consequence, studios and TV executives, are relucant to disenfranchise a profitable audience because studios need to sell tickets and TV execs need to sell advertising space. So it's up to the networks that don't rely on such means - HBO and Showtime for example - to push the envelope further and show that we're a bit diverse. And no, I can't dress well either

BuffyBot

On the other hand, maybe we worry way too much about what other people think of us? Whether we like it or not, we all conciously and/or subconciously use stereotypes - its pretty much human nature.

Sometimes I think this over-sensitivity regarding "stereotyping" is something which ends up making us a stereotype in itself. Perhaps we should just lighten up and accept that *some* people do act that way, perhaps even quite a lot. We are all individuals and should not let the dislike of someone elses personality traits be something that defines us.

Without these "stereotypes" on TV in the past we, as a group, would be in a much worse place than we are socially. Whether we like to acknowledge it or not, "stereotypes" have done (and still do) a lot to desensitise people about the whole "gay" thing and explodes some myths (Not that it hasn't propogated some in it's times, but you have to accept the good with the bad). You only have to look over the last few years to see how far we've come - and as time goes by we'll go further. We can't have it all now though as changing midsets and attitudes takes time, and we have to learn to accept this. Perhaps this impatience to be accepted now could become part of the stereotype. Where to then?

pugwall

The thing is, (IMO) most people believe that someone is gay only if they live up to this camp stereotype. I came out to 6 of my closest friends a couple of months ago and while very supportive, were completely shocked. They couldn't believe that I was gay. They now know that anyone could be gay. My line after telling them was 'I'm nnot the first gay person you know and I definately wont be the last'.
Turns out that I was the first although another mate came out of the closet soon after.

Great thread by the way....

Lukin Black

Perhaps you're right Buffybot, but I don't necessarily worry about the stereotype, rather it just annoys me a bit. Say about this much <

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>.

Saying that, seeing Irish stereotypes on tv annoys me this <

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> much :mad:

ixoy

Indeed Pugwall, it's been the same for me. Not a one suspected and were quite surprised (would have been more so if I hadn't made a crush of mine kinda obvious). It just never struck them I'd be this way, esp. when they saw the camp stereotype around them. And I'm not even a butch rugby type either (those who know me would laugh at the idea) - football and cars bore me. And still I've even been asked in the George if I was gay 'coz I wasn't pinwheeling my arms about and flapping my body to the beat of Kylie :rolleyes:

I have known folks though who couldn't relate to any gay people on TV because they weren't camp (or didn't perceive themselves as such) and thus, as a result, thought they themselves couldn't be gay since - look - all gay people are camp! Which is why I think that we need some positive non-camp role models so others can have something to identify with.

Lukin Black

Originally posted by ixoy
Which is why I think that we need some positive non-camp role models so others can have something to identify with.

I've spent the past while trying to think of any positive non-camp roles, and my list has come up pretty short (I dunno what Queer as Folk was like, as I didn't watch it) - none. I think as soon as people do find out that a character, or even someone in RealLife™ is gay, they spend ages looking for the 'signs', funny talk, funny walk, bent wrist, not liking football, cars etc. (all the clichés in other words). And I think that the stereotypes that are portrayed in television are mostly to blame for that.

oneweb

Originally posted by Lukin Black
I've spent the past while trying to think of any positive non-camp roles, and my list has come up pretty short

Bad Girls' Neil Graeling is a gay character and not at all the stereotype homosexual, Six Feet Under's David is another good non-completely-campy-queen.

It is a bit of a pity shows stereotyping gay people, but I do feel that people are becoming clued up enough to realise that not all people are the same as the stereotype.