Screaming Queens at 10 O'Clock

[andrewducker]

I went to see The Producers a few days ago, and came out of it feeling remarkably unsure of my feelings.

Not about the movie itself (it's a competent filming of a fun musical stage-show.  Worth seeing, with some wonderful moments.) but about its portrayal of gay people.

The director of the musical within the musical is gay.  And screamingly camp.  As is his "live-in" entourage.  All of whom delight in dressing up as members of the Village People and prancing around.  Except for the lesbian, obviously, who wears a shirt and is dumpy.

In other words, they're remarkably obvious caricatures.  Who are then used to make jokes about gay sex and campness.

Should I be offended by this?

I mean, I'm not gay.  And I know there _are_ remarkably camp people out there.  And also butch lesbians in shirts.

But if the caricatures had been similarly broad takes on, say, black people - we'd have been watching blacked-up white people doing a modern Black and White Minstrel Show, and a huge fuss would have been made.

So I feel like I should have been offended, but I'm not entirely sure.  Anyone else got a take on it?

Comments

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

That's true. :-) I wasn't fond of how Buffy:tvs treated gay male characters but I really liked that whole part of the 4th year where Tara and Willow get together. Nice writing.

[thishardenedarm.livejournal.com]

buffy had gay male characters? oh yeah, the fat guy that gets eaten by the worm-mayor. six feet under, good call actually, though not exactly mainstream. And give me "are you being served" over Graham Norton any day.

[andrewducker]

I just checked, for amusement value, and both Buffy and Six Feet Under are equally mainstream - three and a half million viewers each in the US.

Probably not all the same people - although I do wonder how big the crossover was.

Re - Gay males on Buffy

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that and it was always at the end of a joke. How many times did they wheel out the 'he might fancy Xander' gag? I thought the stuff with Andrew presumably being in love with Warren (and plotting with his 'ghost' in the final year) was potentially interesting, but it was -never- treated seriously in say the way that Willow trying to avenge Tara and destroy the world was.

With you about Graham Norton. Thankfully he doesn't seem to be around anymore. Either that or I'm just getting good at avoiding him.