Tuesday, March 2, 2004

THE LEGEND OF BAGGER KRESSLEY: Renee Graham of the Boston Globe nails what I missed: isn't the real problem with Queer Eye for the Straight Guy that it's just another "magical negro" show?

She writes:
[O]n "Queer Eye," the Fab Five, more often than not, are working to make their straight subjects more acceptable to the women in their lives. As the show plays with stereotypes of style-challenged straight men and trend-perfect gay men, it also reinforces long-held notions of minority groups existing only to improve the lives of (usually) straight white people. Though the idea of straight men being fussed over by gay men may seem like progress, it's really just another twist on the "magic minority" idea fostered for years, especially in such recent films as "The Green Mile," "The Legend of Bagger Vance," and, more recently, "The Last Samurai" starring Tom Cruise.

So long as the "Queer Eye" stars remain nonthreatening homosexuals, their popularity, which has already spawned a book, a CD, and various award-show appearances, will remain intact. . . . America may embrace gay men who don't stray too far from stereotypes -- it's no mistake that the cliched and flamboyant Kressley is also the most popular figure -- but it isn't as easily accepting of gay men with political opinions and relationships of their own for which they demand legal recognition. So, as long as they use their homosexual know-how for the sole purpose of heterosexual betterment, "Queer Eye" will continue to mollify the straight masses.

At least it's better than calling it a "gay minstrel show", as Noy Thrupkaew wrote for The American Prospect in August. ("The Fab 5 players work with a scathing yet warm professionalism that is a joy to behold. But at the end of the day, must they return to their Batcave, their chic servants' quarters? . . . After their work banishing the horrors from straight men's closets, it seems especially wrong to ask the dream teamers to adjourn to theirs.")

More of my general QESG-backlashing is here.

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