fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2016 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2016 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 065 secrets from Secret Submission Post #288.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

18. http://i.imgur.com/YZLVU.jpg

That whole show was filled with over the top stereotypes. How was he any different?

Everyone was over the top, but besides Marc, Justin, and maybe Hilda, who was a stereotype?

Wilhelmina Slater was the typical super hot, ball busting, back stabbing boss chick. The type who would do anything and I mean, ANYTHING to get what she wanted.

Amanda Tanen was the typical hot looking, mean girl. (She did change a bit in the end though.)

Daniel was the typical womanizing, spoiled rich boy who wasn't really that smart but luckily has an awesome assistant in Betty. It wasn't until the later seasons that he took his job seriously.

Everyone was cookie cutter or at least a basic trope. You could tell who was who right and how they were going to act in future episodes in the pilot because they were such stereotypes.

But those are based on their personalities; it's not like they're racial or sexual stereotypes.

(no subject)

meadowphoenix - 2012-07-11 02:32 (UTC) - Expand

(Anonymous) - 2012-07-11 05:12 (UTC) - Expand

but i thought he wasn't gay on the show?

I think you're thinking of that fashion reporter. Marc was gay.

oh! then i agree with OP...i know it was 'just a bit of fun' comedy, but it really does perpetuate awful stereotypes :(

On one hand I can get your complain - on the other hand, such people actually exist, and there's nothing wrong with being hyper-camp it itself (though I can see how over-representation of a certain "type" of gay men in media could be problematic).

Personally I though he as rather sweet/cute.

I liked Marc too.

While I can also see the frustration at having the same stereotype covered in the media I've also seen how getting people to accept the more "flamboyant" aspects of a minority automatically makes a better situation for the "normal behaving" members of that group. Baby steps I guess?

I've seen the opposite actually. Ball-busting/homocidal dykes and limp-wristed perverted screaming-queens did no favours for queers. Once there started being OMIGOD NORMAL gender-class-conforming queers being visible in media, around the start of the millenium, it became less about terror/mockery/lockupyerkids and more a bridge to assimilation.

Now that you bring it up I realize I'm only thinking of IRL person-to-person interactions and that does not translate to media or social views. My bad.

loki - 2012-07-11 03:35 (UTC) - Expand

This. Some people fit the stereotype.

Exactly. The problem with getting angry about some stereotypes is that there are people who conform to them. Campy gay men happen to actually exist.

I think my favorite explanation of this was in Sommersturm where Oli is criticizing Nils for bing a campy, gay cliche with his "limp wrists" and Niels shoots back something along the lines of "everyone the way he is, right?" There are people who are stereotypes. You can condemn it as hurting gays or you can say, you know what? That's just how some people are.

It would be one thing if the show represented all gay men as being like Marc, but it didn't - when I was last watching it Marc had a boyfriend who wasn't even a little bit camp.
Over-representation is an issue but a lot of the people when people complain about camp gay men in the media they frame it as if 'real' gay men are not or should not be like that. Which is just icky.

Given the source material, I'm not surprised. Telenovelas are a cesspool of stereotyping of all kinds. I wanted to like "Los exitosos P&erez;," for example, but the gay stereotypes (in the Mexican version at least) hurt too much.

I...just took it to be poking fun at the stereotype? Then again, that's pretty much how I looked at the entire show during the time I watched it. /shrugs

I think you're a disgusting stereotype of a person with a stick up their ass. There's nothing wrong with being this kind of gay person. There are a lot of them, and they can be fantastic people. Being a sissyphobe and cracking down on people for being themselves and telling them not to be just because "the normals" don't like it is not doing anything good for the gay community.

That's true of many, many TV characters, lbr.

Part of the reason I like Marc is because he reminds me of friends I know who have very similar personalities to him. Some gay people do fit that stereotype and there isn't anything wrong with that. I agree that it would be nice to have a larger variety of portrayals of gay characters though (I wish the same thing about a lot of types of characters though)

Agreed

I agree that a wider variety of gay characters need to be on TV, and it's irritating that that sort of character is what pops into people's heads when they think "gay." But it always makes me uncomfortable when effeminate gay characters are dismissed. Effeminate guys (both gay and straight) do get a lot of shit as it is, both in the gay community and out of it. I think it's awful to say it's a "gross" stereotype, like being effeminate is a bad thing. And seriously, it took place in the fashion industry. There is truth to some tropes.

I liked both Marc and Justin. Yeah, they were stereotypes in some ways, but they were likable, and their stories were fun. I thought they did a good job building Marc beyond just a background bitchy gay assistant. (Tears forever at how Cliff was dropped.)

Bah, the reaction to this is like the reaction to complaints about Kurt on Glee... No one is (or very few people are) saying that omg, fey queeny gays are absolutely terrible, folks. Or that they don't deserve to be represented at all, even. The fact is, though, 2 out of 3 gay men on TV are exactly like this, and it gets old.

What we need are some more characters like the dude this journal was made for.

People reacted strongly to this secret because the OP called the character a disgusting stereotype, which dismisses and demeans people who actually have personalities like that in real life. If OP had simply said they wished that there was a more diverse portrayal of gay men, I don't think people would have had such a problem with the secret. Unfortunately, OP's secret reeks of sissyphobia and I can't blame people for being upset.

Why is that a secret? His character is a total stereotype, even though you find those types in the fashion industry.

I'm more annoyed because his character was inconsistent (and generally annoying.)