the awesome/terrifying freedom

it's guest mail day! yay!

faithful fan maryindiana:

Hello Joe,
I Have been on vacation and away from the internet for two weeks and I must say I have missed reading your blogs. I have never seen 'boy meets boy',but have to say the 'twist' sounded mean from the get go. But aren't all of these reality shows upping the ante? I read an article about the first 'disaster' to befall a show (Who Wants to Marry a Milionaire). They never reran the show,etc. once all was revealed about dear Rick Rockwell. But later the two rival 'creators' of most of these shows realized what a great thing it was to have a scandal DURING the shows run. Case in point "Sarah" of Joe Millionaire and her career in fetish films. Ratings jumped. On ' Married By America' one of the poor women fell for the man they paired her with. On the finale they had a wedding. Flew the families in,got everyone jolly on champagne and then had the ceremony. The minister said the vows,asked her "Do you..etc.." to which she joyfully said "Yes,I do" same rigamarole to the groom but at the "Do you..etc." He looked pained and said "No..I am so sorry,but I am not ready to do this..I never meant to hurt you blah blah blah." WELL IT WAS A TRAIN WRECK. Her family was drunken and outraged,his was tipsy and relieved. The poor woman in her wedding dress fled into a closet hoping the camera crews would at least her to sob and scream in peace,but of course not. So is 'boy meeets boy' really a cloaked attempt to show how foolish gay men are or is it just treating them with the same contempt as we find on shows involving straight people?

Somewhere this meeting is taking place: " Let's have a show called 'Prison Bitch'. We'll take a white middle class guy from the 'burbs..give him three cartons of cigarettes and see how he fares in a MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON!!" "Oh my god that's BRILLIANT..but how about this..we have his falsely arrested on trumped up charges so that he doesn't KNOW he's on a reality show.." "Love it..let's get some sponsors..tie in with product placement..brainstorm with me..Life Buoy Soap..Hanes socks..? "Hanes? Oh I get it..for the beat downs with the rolls of quarters in a...got it!"

I have seen a few "Queer Eye" episodes and really loved them. I never saw the 'gay man as subservient' angle. I just thought it was fun and learned a few little things I didn't know. Carson Kressly is the only one on there who is really over the top. Which of course makes him my favorite. He's the funniest and borderline bitchiest. Some of the others are on the dull side. ( I want my Noel Coward-esque bon mots and I want them NOW!) Hutton Hayes needs to relax and look at television history. Women were,in the early days,bad drivers who got easily confused by minor household problems,couldn't manage the household finances and feared their husbands. Lucy Ricardo was treated like a child by Ricky half the time. On Andy Griffith the town was agog at the prospect of a "Lady Druggist". A woman with a degree in pharmacology! GET OUT! I could go on an on. Poor Redd Foxx was only acceptable as a junk man. The Jeffersons 'moved on up',but they were safely 'regular' folks with no particular education,power,etc. It wasn't until the 1980s that we got the Huxtables with their M.D. and J.D. degrees. The Nineteen Eighties. So pick a gender,race,religion, and think about how each evolved over time. The networks aren't so much hateful as they are run by idiots. But that's just my opinion.

and from eddie walker:

I was surprised that it took until today for you to post anything on BMB. It did have a somewhat anticlimactic finish, didn't it? Though I was thrilled that James didn't choose Franklin, I wasn't celebrating. Like Chris from your Tuesday post, I couldn't help but think back to James' publicity interviews where he did indeed seem bummed about the whole thing. Though I can't blame him -- I, too, would've been really pissed about the inclusion of straight guys into the process. I guess that's what I get for being a naive optimist.

What I want to know is, just how busy has Brian's phone been since Tuesday night?

oh side note, how excited was i to discover that hottie straight guy dan, wes, brian, matt, and most of the other 'mos are connected to me through friendster! isn't the incestual web of gay hookups fascinating?

and from kelleydear:

Hi Joe,

Don't worry, I'm not a stalker or anything. I just thought you'd get a kick out this bit of Clay Aiken news:

Excerpt from Elle magazine:
"That women are so moved by his presence that they hurl their undergarments onstage as if he were Elvis mystifies Aiken: 'Ruben always jokes with me that I could have any woman out there. He says, 'You need to hook up with somebody before you leave the tour.' But I try and explain that that's not what this is about for me. The reason women like me, I think, is because I don't threaten them. I realize Ruben's right, I probably could' - he pauses, blushes - "you know, but I respect women more than that.'"

Spoken like a true heterosexual man - NOT. The response from most of his fans has been, "Oh, how sweet! That's just what I want in a man!" I'm not hating on Clay here - I love the guy - but these women are kidding themselves.

The "non-threatening" thing is interesting. I wonder how that would change if Clay were to come out as a gay man? Would he be more threatening, because he's an evil homosexual, or less threatening, like Jack McFarland? I'm just rambling here. Love your blog!

keep 'em comin, folks!