Welcome back to the weekly edition of a graduate student maintaining his sanity! I'm your host, Spencer, and I am delighted to share with you another entry into all things gay.
This past month has been truly exhausting-- and I mean that in the best way possible. Between thesis work, classes, researching, and running a tournament with the speech team, I am up to my neck in project and due dates. The brilliance of this blog is that there is no specific time to post things for you all to read. And for that matter, there is no limit to what I write. So I just want to thank you all for being patient and staying updated with me.
Fortunately, we begin this week with a look at the UK edition of Queer as Folk. I won't lie. I love the US version of Queer as Folk. It tells a fascinating and particularly insightful story about the queer community, and as the seasons progress, the stories become denser and intricately crafted. Its a series to admire. Admittedly, I have not watched its predecessor, but I relished in the writing of the series. I wanted to know precisely how the UK Queer as Folk impacted its audience. I soon became surprised by a lot of the cultural significance. When writer Giovanni Porfido discusses the series barrier-breaking impacts, I realized that there is a distinct cultural shift between the United States and the UK. For one, for many years leading up to the series' premiere, homosexuality was illegal in the United Kingdom. Up until 1967, being gay was an illegal act-- one that could cost a man his life. Clearly, the show was controversial and I can imagine this being the case. However, as Porfido notes, the characters "were depicted as complex human beings, sometimes behaving nobly, sometimes badly, who happened to be gay and whom homosexual desires and pleasures were just part of who they were" (p. 58). In other words, it wasn't just enough to say "Yes, gay people are here. What now?" They needed to be fleshed out, expanded upon. Relying on the stereotype would be negligent. They must "do" gay.
Porfido argues that, "cultural representations do not simply mirror reality. They also construct and fabricate it" (p. 61). It must go without saying here that what we see is not just a facet of entertainment anymore. It is an omnipresent force that tells us what to be and how we can achieve that. When you think about it, that is more fascinating than we might initially think. I, for one, often take advantage of this fact-- I sit in class on a weekly basis, discussing how media is powerful, that anything I watch will have a profound effect on me, blah blah blah. But then I go home and watch three episodes of The Good Wife in a row. What does this mean? Why do I engage in the spectacle of it all?
Maybe that's it. Maybe because it IS a spectacle. Beyond the mere escapism aspect, what draws me to shows that feature predominantly gay characters? Why do I constantly lament about the severe lack of gay shows on television currently? In Queer as Folk's case, it "clearly readdressed these forms of symbolic and material injustice by bringing uncompromisingly realistic images of gay life to the center of the national televisual arena" (p. 63). If anything, I urge to to acknowledge this. Don't just read it and move on. Let the thought of that marinade. For some reading, you are straight. You may be a man or a woman. For others, though, you are gay and reading this. Or, you identify as queer in some capacity. The severity of a show that depicts gay love-- in all its awkwardness and all its candor-- is important. It carves out a space for the queer community. It legitimizes the queer community. THAT is why we need shows like this. I am not saying go out and watch every gay show that you can, nor am I saying that all queer depictions are flawless and unblemished. Far from it, these shows are flawed. They are far, far, far from perfect. But what would it say to these shows if they were perfect? That we had nowhere to go but backwards? No. We have to keep looking forward.
And perhaps that is what Queer as Folk represents.
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