# Goddamnit, I am not a fucking novelty object. Or, Fuck You, Bravo. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 14, 2003, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332 "2003-07-14T07:13:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cruktar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d9b06d/32.png) [@Cruktar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cruktar)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/1 "2003-07-14T07:13:07Z")
Fuck you, Bravo. Fuck you for the title of your new series, ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.’ Who are you to use that term? What gives you the right to use a word, Queer, with negative, and painful connotations for some people in such a flippant way? If the show were going to be formatted differently, say, a group of African-American men making over a Caucasion in ‘hip-hop’ style, calling it “N\*\*\*\*\* Eye for the Whitebread Guy” certainly wouldn’t be acceptable, so why is this? In their infinite wisdom, Bravo not only insults gays but heterosexuals as well. While we all get a raging hard-on the moment we see a Versace label, straight men wouldn’t know a pair of clean clothes if they were unwillingly sodomized by a starched pantleg. On a related note, I am sick and tired of the fact that gay people are portrayed in entertainment as nothing more than a fucking deformed McDonald’s toy. The public isn’t shown a gay man unless he’s prancing around and squealing loud enough to make a dog want to bash its brains out on a brick wall. Guess what? There are some of us who are functional. Even more shocking, there are some of us who aren’t interior decorators or label queens. Every time I see something that makes me think the playing field may be evening out, I realize that I am completely, utterly wrong. We’re either subversives, or amusing little things you can laugh at from a distance. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/2 "2003-07-14T07:19:32Z")
I don’t even get minorly aroused by a Versace label. I’m a bad homo who’s a sartorial traitor to the cause. _SOB_ ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/3 "2003-07-14T12:22:15Z")
Get over it. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/4 "2003-07-14T13:16:27Z")
I know a few gay guys who are beer-swillin’ good ol’ boys in raggedy sneakers and baseball caps. I gues thet’re not sufficiently Fabulous to be _really_ gay. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/5 "2003-07-14T13:40:40Z")
While I agree the show itself is groan-worthy and plays to stereotypes, I’m not as outraged as you seem. That being said, **Otto** , would you agree that there is some validity to the second half of **Cruktar** ’s rant. Other than the guys on **Six Feet Under** , most of the gay characters on television are nothing more than stereotypes. You see more Bobby Trendys than you do dignified, everyday gay folk. Is it worth getting upset over? ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/6 "2003-07-14T13:43:32Z")
Chill the fuck out, **Cruktar**! > [@](#): > > Fuck you for the title of your new series, ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.’ Who are you to use that term? What gives you the right to use a word, Queer, with negative, and painful connotations for some people in such a flippant way? The same right that lets universities teach classes in Queer Studies and that lets gay groups call themselves queer. You can’t appropriate a word for public use and then tell everyone hands off because it’s insulting; unlike Anne Heche, you can’t have it both ways. > [@](#): > > The public isn’t shown a gay man unless he’s prancing around and squealing loud enough to make a dog want to bash its brains out on a brick wall. Guess what? There are some of us who are functional. Even more shocking, there are some of us who aren’t interior decorators or label queens. I can see you’ve never spent any time at JR’s, a DC gay bar where label queens (or “poodles” as I call them) flourish in abundance. Yes, it can be annoying to be stereotyped, but as stereotypes go, I’d much rather take Bravo’s, which portrays us as well-built, handsome, sophisticated, and charming, than Jack Chick’s view of us, which is nowhere near as flattering. ---
**Author:** ![jeevmon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@jeevmon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeevmon)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/7 "2003-07-14T13:47:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Homebrew \* > \*\*That being said, **Otto** , would you agree that there is some validity to the second half of **Cruktar** ’s rant. Other than the guys on **Six Feet Under** , most of the gay characters on television are nothing more than stereotypes. You see more Bobby Trendys than you do dignified, everyday gay folk. Is it worth getting upset over? \*\* I don’t think that **Otto** has ever met a stereotype he doesn’t like. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/8 "2003-07-14T13:57:20Z")
> [@](#): > > You see more Bobby Trendys than you do dignified, everyday gay folk. Is it worth getting upset over? Not only Bobby Trendy (shudder), but the promiscuous, drugged-up, shallow men on **Queer As Folk** , flaming Jack and sexless Will on **Will & Grace** , and the two annoying queens on **Sex and the City**. In movies, there’s **To Wong Foo** , **Priscilla** , the weakling who gets mugged in **As Good As It Gets** , the self-loathing queens in **The Boys in the Band** and don’t get me started on **Cruising** and **The Silence of the Lambs**. You have a point that the media in general portrays us as wimpy, effeminate poodles or as unbalanced psycho killers. OTOH, there was the regular gay couple who were the only non-dysfunctional people in **American Beauty** , Russell Crowe as a single, masculine gay guy in **The Sum of Us** , the gay couple on **Northern Exposure** , the softball team in **The Broken Hearts Club** , and the shy guys who fall in love in **Big Eden**. > [@](#): > > I know a few gay guys who are beer-swillin’ good ol’ boys in raggedy sneakers and baseball caps. **Eve** when did you move to Texas, for I cannot believe that there are good ol’ boys in such Yankeefied locales as midtown Manhattan and New Jersey. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/9 "2003-07-14T14:07:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > \*\ ***Eve** when did you move to Texas, for I cannot believe that there are good ol’ boys in such Yankeefied locales as midtown Manhattan and New Jersey. \*\* Think farther East, dear, as in “Brooklyn.” ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/10 "2003-07-14T14:09:14Z")
Ah, so you mean Guido boys. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/11 "2003-07-14T14:25:29Z")
That’s Joisey. ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/12 "2003-07-14T14:39:08Z")
Nigger Eye for the Whitebread guy is so farking funny. I’m crying over here! ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/13 "2003-07-14T14:39:36Z")
> [@](#): > > Yes, it can be annoying to be stereotyped, but as stereotypes go, I’d much rather take Bravo’s, which portrays us as well-built, handsome, sophisticated, and charming, than Jack Chick’s view of us, which is nowhere near as flattering. “I like to think most gay men have hot bodies. Yes, it’s a stereotype, but I believe we should perpetuate that stereotype.” - Margaret Cho ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/14 "2003-07-14T14:53:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > **OTOH, there was the regular gay couple who were the only non-dysfunctional people in American Beauty, Russell Crowe as a single, masculine gay guy in The Sum of Us, the gay couple on Northern Exposure, the softball team in The Broken Hearts Club, and the shy guys who fall in love in Big Eden.** Other than the **Northern Exposure** and **American Beauty** , however, your examples are popular in the gay community almost exclusively. I’d add in **All Over the Guy**. But how many folks in the heartland have seen those movies? ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/15 "2003-07-14T14:57:00Z")
Look…I’m not interested in your “Gay Pride” parade. I’m only on Madison Avenue so I can exchange this Banana Republic stretch shirt for a diferent size just like any other straight guy. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/16 "2003-07-14T14:58:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cruktar \* > **Fuck you, Bravo. Fuck you for the title of your new series, ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.’ Who are you to use that term? What gives you the right to use a word, Queer, with negative, and painful connotations for some people in such a flippant way?** David Collins, the creator of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” show is gay. Max Mutchnick, the creator of “Will and Grace” is gay. Russell Davies, the creator of “Queer As Folk” is gay. If you don’t think that they’re illustrating the full range of homosexual life choices, maybe you should get cracking on your own screenplay. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/17 "2003-07-14T14:59:35Z")
> [@](#): > > Other than the Northern Exposure and American Beauty, however, your examples are popular in the gay community almost exclusively. I’d add in All Over the Guy. But how many folks in the heartland have seen those movies? Well, they have all been on cable movie channels in the last month. so at least folks in the heartland who get HBO/Showtime/ Cinemax/TMC have access to them-whether the good Christians in the heartland will watch pro-gay movies is another question. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/18 "2003-07-14T15:07:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Homebrew \* > Other than the **Northern Exposure** and **American Beauty** , however, your examples are popular in the gay community almost exclusively. I’d add in **All Over the Guy**. But how many folks in the heartland have seen those movies? The gay couple in **Best In Show** was stereotypical but probably the most functional and sympathetic of the bunch - with possible exception of the couple from Florida, though they had quite a set of quirks, problems, and other oddities themselves. Then again, the whole film was about strange and stereotypical characters and the often-weird world of dog shows, so it’s probably not the best example to be judging by. It’d be nice to see a lot more shows/films where gay or lesbian couples could just be there and treated casually, not like they’re a Big Thing or Sideshow Act. I recently read a couple interviews with the “food guy” from this show, as he used to do restaurant reviews for _Chicago_ magazine and so it’s been getting some more coverage around here. He’s now some kind of editor at _Esquire_. Wish I could remember more about it, but he seemed pretty upbeat about it, and said it was intended to be tongue-in-cheek and along the lines of the other makeover-type shows. ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/19 "2003-07-14T15:17:39Z")
I’ve seen _All Over the Guy_. I liked it a lot. What was that phrase the guy kept mis-using? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332/20 "2003-07-14T15:31:43Z")
I’m curious as to what people thought of _Happy, Texas_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamnit-i-am-not-a-fucking-novelty-object-or-fuck-you-bravo/188332.md?page=2)