It isn�t the greatest time to be gay in America, what with Dubya pointing out how the desire for a loving and committed relationship demeans the sanctity of marriage, but today is the best time to be gay on TV! Witness, if you will, two of the hottest shows to hit the airwaves this summer: Boy Meets Boy and Queer Eye For the Straight Guy. (And really, you should. Witness them. Tuesday nights, starting at nine.)
To begin with, I�d like to discuss the first of these two shows. Boy Meets Boy is like any one of the dozen or so �Love Connection� shows on the air right now: Bachelor(ette) must chose between umpteen eligible Bachelor(ette)s, slowly whittling the field down to that one lucky person who gets to receive a proposal (except for the gay one, for reasons we've already discussed), which they accept because there are cameras around.
The catch for Boy Meets Boy -- obviously -- is that they�re all boys. Gasp! The other catch is that not all the boys are actually gay. Double gasp! Personally, I think that little twist takes it directly from groundbreaking to exploitative in the space of a New York minute, but that may just be me. Other people have protested to me that it�s great because it flouts stereotypes and blah blah blah, whatever. If you want to flout stereotypes, go make a documentary. James (the unabashedly adorable bachelor in question) is looking for love, not social politics. Plus which, my favorite is Wes, and now I�m terrified that I might be crushing on a straight boy. You know, again. Some more.
Queer Eye For the Straight Guy is slightly less controversial. Basically, it�s like Trading Spaces for the body and apartment, only cattier and with far less input from the object of the renovations. This program is much safer than Boy Meets Boy, because it brings gay men into the spotlight, but without all that romance stuff that makes Popes and U.S. Presidents all queasy, instead relegating the gay men to the more acceptable position of being gossipy and getting worked up over throw pillows. Which isn�t to say it isn�t still great, because it totally is.
Really, it�s brilliant (and the opening credits sequence is truly hilarious). I mean, sure, the whole �makeover show� has been done to death, but they really got a bunch of great personalities to make this one pop. Although I did notice right away that none of them seem to have actual real names. Well, except for Ted. But, like, Kyan? Seriously. I mean, I know there are gay men with regular names, because I�ve met both of them. I guess they aren�t quite fabulous enough to be on TV, though. I think it would be really awesome if one of the designers was, like, a great big drag queen named Fantasia, or something, and she�d walk around in those eighty-inch high heel boots that only drag queens can seem to operate successfully, and her specialty would be teaching people how to eat gracefully with chopsticks, because, let�s face it, somebody needs to spearhead that campaign.
And then, in this one episode, Fantasia would completely lose her shit, like, �Baby, hold the first one like a pencil. A pencil! Don�t you know how to hold a pencil? Fuck this! I can�t work under these conditions!� And then she�d take the chopstick and plunge it through the guy�s hand. In fact, maybe Fantasia was in the original pilot or something, but they had to edit her out of it after she killed someone with a Bundtcake pan at Williams-Sonoma! I bet that�s what happened. That would explain why she�s not on the show anymore.
Anyway, even without Fantasia, the show is still really funny, and you should watch it.
Someone Got Here By Searching For: nude peta ads And: �lena olin� + �evil� I�m Watching: Well, duh. I�m Craving: Sushi, now, thanks to that whole chopstick thing. Oh, and also Wes from Boy Meets Boy.