I’m happy to take the OP’s comments in #21 & subsequent at face value. Where he is in his life and locale, gayness is fully acceptable; just another personal preference.
OTOH, waving the token *whatever *flag in what’s supposed to be entertainment is distracting. Not for its whateverness, but for its blatant tokenism. The producers might think they’re preaching or they might think they’re pandering. But in either case they’re doing it unsubtly and pulling the focus off the entertainment. At least for some viewers.
My view is give it some time. As with the UN-flavored commercials of today, they’ll get better at making it less in your face and we’ll all become a lot more used to it. Both of which are good things. The world has a lot more variety in it than does almost every one of our individual lives. TV bringing that variety to us is good. Good for individual people and good for society as a whole.
For this thread, perhaps, but I find lots of things objectionable. And speaking of Ron Glass, as someone did, in the first season Barney Miller had a wife. Her role faded away as the creators realized the story was in the station, and he stopped being gratuitously straight.
I was looking forward to a serious and weighty discussion on the tactless and hacky overuse of artificial gravity in scifi shows, and whether or not we should tolerate (or celebrate) it, owing to an understanding of the conventions and limitations of story-telling in modern television.
Upon reading the actual OP, I was pretty confused for a while there. But now I’m straight.
Absolutely agree with the OP. In a couple of shows I saw recently, we see two hot lesbians going at it. For no reason except “hot girls naked”. Did not advance the plot at all. Such gratuitous gayness needs to be put down.
And didn’t they turn the camera angle so you couldn’t actually see Kirk and Uhuru kiss, but you inferred it to be happening although you were looking at the back of Kirk’s head?
I did not read that much into it. I never refer to my husband as my partner, I’ve been referring to him as my husband for over 20 years. I don’t do it to offend people, and if it does offend others I think that’s crazy. I don’t know the OP, so when he (assuming a he) refers to his wife that could be a female or a male. I just don’t see him rubbing his heterosexuality in anyone’s face by calling his wife his wife if he is a male and she is a female. My daughter and I were just having this conversation recently and we both agree, people have a tendency to wear their sexuality on their sleeves when we just don’t need to know.
I don’t watch Friends. And I don’t like being told how to watch tv. I’m a true rarity - a mostly canon shipper. There are few times I have to go otherwise, but not many. And I hate the fanon-prevalent hero/villain pairing. In my fanfic or head-canons, I like the characters to remain in-character - and sexuality (attitudes on fidelity, casual sexual activity, canon sexual histories; I dislike explicitly virginal characters given sexual histories or explicitly non-virginal characters made into virgins (or only had sex once) and I’ve seen both of those) and sexual preference is part of that. So is how they regard the murderers and torturers that are the bad guys. Otherwise, I’d just read fiction with original characters.
It also deeply saddens me that there can be non non-sexual important relationships in fanon these days. I mean, it’s good that homosexual characters can be shipped, too. It’s bad that I have so much trouble finding platonic fic for canonically platonic, but deeply important, relationships. Including those between siblings (same or opposite sex siblings).
Well, like I said, I don’t know the OP at all including gender. And, to answer your question, no, it would not. It’s not like he was posting about how much he likes potato salad and said something like I’m straight or I’m gay. That’s sort of my point, and I thought the OP’s point, sometimes it just doesn’t matter and we don’t need to know.
yellowjacketcoder’s last link (“the kiss”) is a still of the shot. Mostly side on, and their lips are in shadow. But there’s no doubt its real lips to lips.
