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From: sdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: Re: Showtime's BROTHERS
Message-ID: <1232@bbncca.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 27-Dec-84 18:59:48 EST
Article-I.D.: bbncca.1232
Posted: Thu Dec 27 18:59:48 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 28-Dec-84 05:51:13 EST
References: <277@ahuta.UUCP>
Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma.
Lines: 17

TV, at least, seems unable to portray gay men (I can't remember seeing a
lesbian character on TV) as other than queens or desexualized eunuchs.  In
both cases, the supposed "threat" is defused by compartmentalization or
neutralization.  Absent is any kind of role which integrates their being
gay into a fully realized character--one that loves, hugs, works and plays.

Though I agree that there are slim pickings even in other media, I can
think of a couple of exceptions.  Lanford Wilson's "The Fifth of July"
contains a Vietnam veteran and his lover as major characters, and it was
incredibly refreshing to see two together gay characters without a capital
"G" participating in the story.   "Making Love", a movie popular a few
years ago, for all its high-camp mawkishness, at least had the two gay
characters pretty swish-free (Harry Hamlin and Michael Ontkean, teen idols.)
-- 
/Steve Dyer
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