Satire, for now, from the Onion:
"Seeking to honor filmmakers for fair and inclusive portrayals of the LGBT community, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation announced Sunday the establishment of a prestigious new prize to be awarded to any mainstream motion picture that gets even one thing right about being gay.
"We're not asking for a two-hour-long pitch-perfect exploration of the gay and lesbian experience—just a single accurate, believable detail that feels in any way telling or true-to-life," said GLAAD spokesperson Cheryl Weingardt, who promised a major cash prize and high-profile award ceremony to any Hollywood director able to deliver a film—any film at all—that includes a brief on-screen moment in which a gay character seems even somewhat authentic. "It can be a line of convincing dialogue, an emotionally honest reaction shot. All we ask is that you have someone gay in the frame for a couple seconds without it being completely insulting to the audience's intelligence."
Amen, Onion. (And yet didn't the genuine gay Marine homecoming pic [after the jump] that went viral yesterday look like something from an Adam Sandler movie?)
If you missed it, this is Sgt. Brandon Morgan returning last Wednesday from six months in Afghanistan to his mountainous boyfriend Dalan Wells.
Brandon told KHON-TV, “Most of the responses have been like oh my god I can't believe you're in love, congratulations,” Morgan said. “My mom's happy that I’m finally happy, my parents are ecstatic.”
"And yet didn't the genuine gay Marine homecoming pic that went viral yesterday look like something from an Adam Sandler movie?"
Yup. Ever since my last visit to Boyztown (to say nothing of the Castro), I've been thinking that if gay men had the power to control our media images and create our own culture, every character would be wearing t-shirts that say "This Face Seats Five."
Not that it would necessarily be a bad thing. It's just that we're torn between "positive images" and "authenticity", and there's no agreement about what a positive image is, or who gets to decide. Remember how the leathermen who appeared as extras in Friedkin's "Cruising" said that they were glad to be providing positive images of gay men for a change? I suppose we need a composite figure, split down the middle: half a leatherman with assless chaps, and half Rick Santorum. In drag.
Posted by: Duncan | February 28, 2012 at 10:29 AM