My fellow contributor, Alan Scott, brought this story by Chris OGuinn of AfterElton.com to my attention. The clips that have been compiled in the article (it’s 3 pages long) are from Make It or Break It on the ABC Family network.
Admittedly, I’ve never watched the show myself, but I have watched a handful of programs produced by ABC Family and I’m found them to be interesting enough that I’ve usually watched them in their entirety. One aspect that has stood out to me in the past is their protrayal of LGBT characters. They don’t use inflammatory material, tired Glee-style stereotypes, or the over-the-top hyperbole of The New Normal. What I’ve seen on ABC Family is primarily LGBT characters being portrayed as they exist in real society–dynamic, diverse, many-cultured, and going about their daily lives just like heterosexuals.
What stood out about this particular example was the description of Max’s (our character’s) sexuality. His true struggles are acknowledged. It’s not easy being in the middle. What is even more striking is Max’s straight friend’s reaction upon discovering that Max is bisexual. No hyper-hetero “I have to punch you/something to restore my manhood” no panicked fear and aggression. It’s very unusual to see this kind of portrayal. Personally, I want to think about it some more, but watch the videos, I’m curious what insight you readers have on the issue.
So-called “stereotypical” behavior in my gay friends never really bugged me, so it didn’t bug me when I saw it on Glee. The fact that the “stereotypical” behavior on Glee didn’t feel authentic — that’s what rubbed me the wrong way, I think. I mean, some guys genuinely like show tunes and fashion. I know I do! I just wish people wouldn’t fake their interests to appear more gay or more straight or more masculine or more whatnot. Our culture has definitions which are too narrow for each of those concepts, especially masculinity. Think of King David from the Bible — he wrote poetry and played the harp — he’d be bullied mercilessly in certain circles for not conforming to the dominant culture’s idea of masculinity.
Fortunately, I think certain Christian cultures — PHC included — aren’t so terrible when it comes to masculinity. At least when I was at PHC, many guys expressed themselves in very quirky ways which would have been ill received elsewhere. I’m reminded of an email a gay buddy recently sent me which I’ll excerpt here:
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http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2012/12/10/why-do-gay-guys-hate-other-gay-guys
I think the documentary film maker oversimplifies his friend’s statements in the article, and never really grasps that the young guys he’s interviewing are leveling some valid critiques of the gay community that it needs to address before it can ever hope to be a healthy place.
I also find it funny that in my christian guy friend group, my straight guy friends are not all that bothered by “stereotypical gay guy” tropes, and that I have never felt a need to project a masculine identity onto myself within that group, but I certainly do with my secular gay friends…
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A buddy of mine from the King’s College wrote this. King’s and PHC are similar in many respects and I’m proud of both colleges for embracing guys who project masculinity in, let’s say, queer ways. Obviously, neither school is perfect — far from it. Both have a lot of work to do, but I’m optimistic.
One day, PHC might even allow Catholics to attend. Yeah, I’m even optimistic about that.