It is rare that I walk out on a play. Even sometimes when I am watching something that I don’t like, I feel I have to stay. But in recent memory, I walked out of a show at intermission, disgusted with what I saw on the stage.
Out of respect for the theatre company it will remain nameless. Yet I was pretty stunned by this show when a character described someone as a "poof" (English slang for gay) and minced about the stage with his wrist flailing limply in the air. Things progressed along that line with men carrying purses and "accidentally" humping each other...and that was just the first act. I was insulted and disgusted both at the production and the laughs from the audience. It progressively got worse, and I left. In fact, I have since heard from others that the second act was just as bad if not worse, making me glad for my departure.
Why is it that being gay is still acceptable as the butt of a joke? There is a fine line between enacting a satirical stereotype and making a mockery of millions of people’s lives, and it still seems to get crossed far too often.
GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is certainly watching out for it. While I don’t always agree with them, they do get it right and can be a great voice for the community.
For instance, GLAAD recently approached the WWE about some comments made by their top star John Cena about former wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson: "Just don’t go racing to Witch Mountain, Rock, ‘cause your mountain is Brokeback."
A week later he made similar comments about the company’s champion The Miz. "Do you really want to look back years from now and realize you shared your legacy with another man?! ....Wait don’t answer that," he said, continuing "Now The Miz and Alex Riley are co-champions and to celebrate it they’re going to move in together. They’re going to buy one of those tandem bikes and ride to bed bath and beyond to buy some duvets. And every evening they’re going to relax with a glass of warm Pinot Noir and watch The Notebook, or reruns of last season’s Bachelor. You want to be a mentor and train him? Well, tonight I’m going to train you on how to be a man."
To their credit WWE has apologized for this incident and is working with GLAAD on an anti-bullying strategy.
It is 2011. We should be well beyond "compromising gay positions" being funny. It should not be acceptable to say that someone thinks another person is a "poof" and jump directly to mincing about on stage and clawing at another male character while holding a purse. It should not be ok to imply that being gay makes anyone less of a man or that sharing a legacy with another man is a negative thing. People, including teens and kids, are killing themselves because things like this make it acceptable to laugh at gay people. It is not acceptable.
So how do we change this? I don’t know. I did express my anger to the theatre company, so maybe the message got through. WWE will hopefully think twice before writing similar content. But that is only two out of how many thousands of occurrences in entertainment every year that, intentional or not, promote homophobia.
It is not all gloomy however. While Glee continues to fluctuate this season in its quality and story, it has gotten several things right in the storyline between Blaine & Kurt (and Kurt and his dad for that matter), and now Santina and Brittany. On the valentines themed episode Silly Love Songs, Blaine and The Warblers visit a GAP store where they serenade Blaine’s crush, a store manager, with Robin Thicke’s When I Get You Alone. There was no elderly grandmother type in the store looking repulsed. No parents slapping hands over their child’s eyes to prevent the horror. The only one who had an issue was the receiver of the song. It was nice to see it expressed in a way that didn’t make light of the fact that it was a same-sex relationship.
There are certainly positives out there more and more, but every time entertainment treats same sex relationships or interests as a joke, it is a giant leap backwards.