Random Question: Is It Okay To Like So-Called Stereotypical Characters?

Gays on Television
Bryan Safi's Current TV piece on "TV's Gay Friend Obsession" got me thinking–is it okay to laugh at (or with) characters that embody gay stereotypes? 
They're the snarky fags to the hags who are obsessed with sex, fashion and the finer things in life. One could say that this is some sort of minstrelry of our culture, but sometimes an actor's character isn't too far from their actual identity. 
I mean, Mario Cantone's actual presence in reality isn't that far off from his Sex and the City role as Anthony Marentino, right? It could be argued that hating that character for perpetuating a stereotype is actually a facade for a prejudice towards effeminate men.
On the other hand, I've had friends sincerely tell me that they think Will & Grace has set back the gay rights movement, particularly because of Sean Hayes' portrayal of Jack McFarland. While I would never go that far, I will say that his character bothered me because it was such a caricature. He just didn't seem like a real person.
When our characters become one-dimensional that's when we should sound the siren, but lashing out at any character who's "stereotypical" is not the solution. I was recently feeling guilty for enjoying Alec Mapa on the former UPN series Half & Half, but the truth of the matter is that I know people like him–flamboyant 30-something receptionists who can't get their shit together because they're too obsessed with themselves. If we hate the character do we hate that person?
– Dewitt

11 thoughts on “Random Question: Is It Okay To Like So-Called Stereotypical Characters?

  1. I resent that most of the regular gay characters on TV are effeminate. Go into a gay bar here in Long Beach and you will find many more masculine gay guys than fems. I am not anti-swish, but why not more gay roles for guys who are (as I see it) the majority and that is not ultra fey.

  2. that post also made me think…
    i was watching Brothers & Sisters the other day and i realized that they were a lot of gay characters…
    is it possible for a “non-gay” tv-show or whatever have too many gay characters?
    i mean, it doesn’t bother me but i think that it’s important to point it out

  3. guys that are born gay you can probably tell are way more feminine in nature… those of us that choose? well, we have ridiculously straight tendencies and deep low monotonous boring voices…
    variabilities exist, yeah, whatever 😛

  4. Who chose to be gay?
    They stereotypes are based on something truthful. I know guys like Jack, and I know guys like Will.
    Sometimes extremely effeminate guys make me a little uncomfortable, but then I ask myself why?

  5. I think it important to note that stereotypes are always grounded in truth (even and especially if not accurately representing that truth). so, if we dislike gay stereotypes, we only have the “community” at large to blame.
    and on another note, NO ONE chooses to be gay. it is dangerously naive to believe otherwise. sex and sexual orientation are built in from birth; gender and sexual expression are not.

  6. Well, the facts are that the entertainment industry still uses “gay characters” as comic relief… As for “Will & Grace” the characters of Jack and Karen were both so ‘over-the-top’ because they were meant to make the characters of Will and Grace more easily identified with. Karen was as stereotypical and “out there” as Jack, but no-one is going to think of defending the characterization of ultra-wealthy, pill & booze swilling, socialites.
    The media chooses the images and characterizations that will have the biggest impact. These are usually the stereotypical effeminate men. Note that the very funny John Goodman tried to play a gay man who was non-stereotypical and more like the masculine gays we all know, and the show never got off the ground. People “like” stereotypes. They can make fun of them, and if they can make humor about them, they are less threatening. If every every gay man looked and acted like Antonio Banderas, Robert Redford or even Sean Connery, people would be a lot more unconfortable because they would have to deal with finding them appealing and acknowledging their sexual attraction.
    I admit that I’m actually biased against the more effeminate of my gay brethren. But only because of the negative connotations that have been associated with the image because gays were so long villified and my earliest images of gays were the stereotypes.

  7. All of you “straight-acting” faggots owe any amount of comfortableness you have in your life to those that choose to be flamboyant. The only reason people have become more and more comfortable with homosexuality is because we have become more and more visible as a community, and we owe that visibility to the people that haven’t been afraid to be visible.
    And in reference to an earlier comment, to suggest that people who are “born gay” are effeminate and people who “choose to be gay” are masculine, that is such bullshit. You can choose to be effeminate or masculine (to a point), but you do not choose to be gay. Stop lying to yourself. The only people who can “choose” who to be attracted to are bisexuals, and that’s not even choosing who you’re attracted to, that’s choosing which attraction to act on.

  8. Oh Bill shut up…Straight acting gay men owe flamgoyant men nothing.Im am tired of hearing the pathethic excuse of those gays standing up for stone wall riots,when the riots were in regqrds to sexual clubs that consisted of drug activities.
    How can you be masculine and a faggot? The two words are a total contradiction of each other.One is to emasculate a male.How can you emasculate the naturally masculine?
    Sit

  9. Maybe you’ve got some negative connotations attached to the word faggot in your head, but I’ve reclaimed the word ‘faggot’ for myself, personally. A faggot is a homosexual, it implies nothing of personal mannerisms. If you want to allow yourself to be emasculated by a word, that’s your personal hang up, and I hope you seek some counseling soon.

  10. Excuse me Sit, but the Stonewall was raided because we homo’s were considered mentally ill and serving alcohol to the mentally ill was against the law…so get your head out of your ass and put something else there and let yourself revel in your masculinty, faggot.——–and i mean that in such a loving way.

  11. Wow, such hate. Be nice, guys.
    With Will and Grace, what I liked about all the characters was that they were so extreme, they made you feel good about being yourself. No matter how flamboyant or lazy or shallow or loose or selfish or immoral you may be, there was always someone on that show who outdid you, so it was kind of OK. At the end of the day, the lesson was tolerance and being able to laugh at oneself, which I think are pretty good things to spread.
    With some of the other shows, yeah, it can occasionally be annoying when the characters are very stereotypically gay/effeminate, but if it makes you laugh, don’t feel bad, I say.

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