If you have a series that you like, and it covers lots of different wacky plots (the dog, the neighbor, the annoying boss, etc.) You like this show. Then they write in that the main character is gay. All right, no surprise anyway. Now it seems like every plot is about the neighbor reacting the someone gay, the annoying boss reacting the someone gay, a gay person with a dog, you sort of see a pattern there. And maybe you use the phrase “Preaching to the choir”. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the show, so I probably am not accurate in my description of the series’ plots. But my point is that I was not used to seeing such care and dedication made in a show to make sure we all know someone is gay. If I were to see on “Roseanne” that every episode was about Roseanne being fat, I’d get a little sick of that too. (And I am a fat person, so I am “fat-sympathetic”, but enough is enough, I’d say…)
Now, it was Ellen’s show, she can write whatever she wants. And, of course, since the majority of TV/Movies have not been about gay people, if she wants to balance the scale a little by doing a high percentage of episodes with a gay element in them, fine with me. But if I get sick of seeing the same theme played over and over again, well, she’s lost my viewership. Not that that is a great tragedy…
And, I might add, just because a TV/Movie plot does not directly note that a character is gay, does not mean that the character is automatically straight. I am sure many TV/Movie characters have been written without any sexual preference being speicified. They could be either/or. It was not an element of the plot.
By the by, if anyone is interested, this June my very very very good friend Steven Capsuto is having his book published: Alternate Channels,, which is a history of the portrayals of GLBT on TV and radio from the 1930’s to the present (kind of like Vito Russo’s The Celluloid Closet but for television). It’ll set the record straight, as t’were, on gay characters, plotlines, etc.
I’m not sure if this is what the original poster was saying or not but I agree with the comments. After coming out of the closet Ellen forgot that the point of entertainment is to entertain. She just seems to walk on screen and make the point that she is gay without having a point behind it. being gay is not a plot, and need something else to even stand as a premis. In the Birdcage Robin Williams was a gay character, that needed to be gay for the plot to work, but just being gay on screen makes a really boring show. Someone also mentioned not needing hetero actors to make such a big deal out of it and I completely agree. I won’t watch Decaprio, Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt, Jenny McCarthy, or Supermodels staring in crap cause the whole point seems to be “I’m hot as hell to the opposite sex, so we don’t need a story.” Basically I don’t want Ellen to keep telling me she’s gay, 'cause as celebrities go she is enirely not worth my noticing.
Do you ever get the feeling that everybody thinks you’re paranoid?
Again, the storylines after she came out dealt with her coming out to her parents and building a relationship with another woman. Interacting with parents and looking for relationship partners are pretty standard fare for sitcoms regardless of the sexuality of the characters. Think of Sam Malone on Cheers and Dan on Night Court. No one would think to say of these two extremely aggresively heterosexual characters “I never saw such care taken to show that a character was straight” because str8 is what we TV viewers expect. It’s really easy for people outside the show to look at it after the fact and talk about how it was “too gay” but the fact is that Ellen and her writers were breaking new ground. No one had ever written a show around a lead gay character before (Hello Sydney does not count as he was completely desexualized) so rather than blast them for being too gay I would hope that people would be able to understand the difficulty of their task and maybe cut them a little slack.
The presumption of heterosexuality exists unless specifically rebutted.
The reason the later episodes of “Ellen” lost my viewership was because there was some element of strain, or uneasiness, “preachiness” in how these gay elements of the stories were handled. It’s a tough balance, and not all shows, and writers, succeed in getting a theme or point across without seeming “preachy” to the viewer. But this is just my opinion, and my personal reason why “Ellen” lost my interest. I realize that the show was ground-breaking, and it was definitely a great career risk for Ellen to come out at all in her show. I am not unsympathetic to that. However, that doesn’t mean that I was pleased with the results of the writing, or the way plots were handled on the show. It’s a matter of writing, I guess.
If Ellen’s character had taken up beekeeping half-way throught the series, and every episode earnestly dealt with beekeeping from then on, the show probably would have lost my viewership as well. I’d just get sick of hearing about beekeeping. (And I have nothing against bees, or beekeepers.) On the same token, if Ellen had gained a lot of weight, and every episode dealt with her weight, how her family and relationships dealt with the weight gain, I’d also probably get a little tired of hearing about that too. Hey - I’m I’m entitled to call something “preachy” when it strikes me that way. And I’m entitled to think “I don’t feel like watching this show anymore - seems like it carries on too much about beekeeping these days.” Doesn’t mean everyone will agree with me.
Sez who? Where is this written? I understand that many people will assume what they will assume, and sure, probably many people assume straightness in TV/movie characters. But I doubt that every TV/film writer was specifically thinking “This charwoman must be straight” or “This policeman must be straight” as they are writing. Not every time they are creating a character for fiction. I’ll bet many times it doesn’t even occur to them to think about that specific with every character they are creating.
The presumption of heterosexuality exists unless specifically rebutted.
And was challenged with a
Says American society. Does every writer writing one-line or two-line characters put a lot of thought into the sexuality of the character? No, but the presumption is the character is heterosexual. Be honest; do you stop to consider that the charwoman could be a lesbian? Doubtful.
I don’t generally think about it either way. Oh, I’m not saying that I never have assumed that the charwoman in any given TV/Movie drama is straight, as opposed to gay. I probably have done that, from time to time. I probably have also assumed the charwoman was gay from time to time - maybe she reminded me of a gay person I know. The reasons why we assume things can sometimes be complex.
It’s just that as a general rule, I don’t think about it. Unless the charwoman talks about her personal life, a husband, etc., why should I think that she is gay, or straight, or anything? If someone were to ask me “Do you think that charwoman is gay or straight?” I’d say “I have no idea.” It isn’t as if the charwoman’s sexual identity is foremost in my mind, unless there is something in the way her character is written that makes it obvious, one way or the other.
I do not believe that every character in every TV/Movie is written with a specific sexual preference clearly in mind.
This is surely overstated, especially for recent films. What about Robin Williams’s and Nathan Lane’s characters in The Birdcage? What about Rupert Everett’s character in My Best Friend’s Wedding? An even better example is Simon Callow and John Hannah’s characters in Four Weddings and a Funeral, where, despite being important characters, it’s only revealed fairly late in the film, and only just offhand, that they are gay. (Yeah, O.K., one of them dies, but from a heart attack.)
But you are presuming that everyone out there is tacking “straight” labels onto every TV/Movie character, “unless specifically rebutted”. And while that may sometimes be the case, it is not always the case. Sometimes we just don’t give a damn, don’t think about it either way, i.e. don’t care. Some of us are not thinking about the charwoman’s sexual identity, and if asked, would confess to having no opinion or clue as to whether she was straight, or gay.