Am I being over sensitive?

[galadriel1010]

'Miracle Gay'. Not big and not clever. More immature and damaging, actually. If I thought it were a comment on how over the top the gay jokes are and the fact that it comes across as vaguely homophobic, then maybe. But I really don't get that feeling, I think it's more of the 'it's so gay' that's hurting young LGBT people so badly.

Comments

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

And let's not forget about Gwen's bit with the flight attendant - 'you're gay, you are so gay.'

I have to tell you that the Kai/Gareth panel was full of poking fun at JB. And there was a whole bunch of 'gay, he's so gay' stuff - but I do think that was in reference to JB's statements. Was I uncomfortable, you bet. Am I going to post about it, nope.

I had the same problem with the gay remarks in CoE. And I was told that it was 'gay TV for gay people' so I wouldn't get it. Uh OK. You won't catch me calling anything where characters get 'teased' in a similar manner about being Jewish 'Jewish TV for Jews.'

I think part of the problem is that RTD is the only producer (that I'm aware of) that is openly gay. So people want to defend him. But whatever his motivation, I think its really counter productive to have these throw away remarks. Maybe it is 'gay TV for gays' but lots of straight people, particularly young straight people see this - are we suprised when they then think that 'teasing' someone about being gay is OK? Maybe that's why on one of the major SciFi boards there was a thread titled, "ding-dong the queer is dead," cheering on Ianto's death because the show was too gay..with assorted jokes about him 'smelling queer' and 'taking it up the ass.'


I'd like to think that if Philip Roth was the only popular Jewish writer ever that I'd have the guts to say, 'I don't like him, I find him offensive, and yeah, I think he's a self-hating Jew.' Fortunately, I don't have that dilemna because there are many other Jewish writers who aren't IMHO self-hating Jews. But when there is only one openly gay producer I think its hard to acknowledge that he may not be serving the best interests of his community. But, not my call.

[fiwen1010.livejournal.com]

Mark Gatiss is also gay and just awesome. There's a lot of gay teasing in Sherlock, but it's never offensive like this.

And 'gay TV for gay fans', what a load of bollocks. It's aimed at the straight male audience just like everything else now. That was the great thing about Torchwood, it found a queer and female fanbase, but apparently we weren't good enough and he had to move on to 'America', which means 'straight, white America'.

I don't know if RTD is self-hating, particularly. I'd go for everything-hating.

[moonfirefic.livejournal.com]

Jack Kenny who executive produces Warehouse 13 along with David Simkins is also openly gay and even though there is a lot of UST between two of the female characters and an openly gay character joined the cast this season, he has been adamant that orientation is just a part of who they are and not the character's primary focus.

I think that might be one of the reasons that even when the plots are goofy, I still watch it. Torchwood used to approach the issue in a similar fashion, with a side bar of ribbing now and then that was always playfully rude, allowing the characters to be who they are and if they like to kiss boys, girls, both, or what have you - who cares?

The bits of Miracle Day that I have watched seem to had lost their way by defining who someone is, purely based on who they sleep with, but then again, I haven't been too keen on how Jack is written in it anyway, he seems hollow, almost caricature-like.

I tried to give it a go, I really did, but the bi-polar attitude of the writing towards so many issues and the whole ovens in the camps (I am not even going to get started again on that one) just put me off. Throwing random sex scenes in the middle of it to try and "bring back the audience" really isn't helping matters.

As to the poster - *shrug* I think it was meant as a juvenile bit of silliness and no real harm intended. Who knows? Maybe GDL has a secret love of Rocky Horror and was bored.

[fiwen1010.livejournal.com]

I'm really not sure what they're doing or where they went wrong. The characters should have been really interesting, but it's like they stuck the labels on without exploring where the labels came from. They're stick figures, and even Jack is paper thin now.

[lawsontl.livejournal.com]

The one thing that makes me read what you say about the panel and NOT cringe, is that John's usually the first in line to make fun of himself. And they've done this same sort of ribbing whenever he's there, too. He gives it back, and they have a wonderfully teasing dynamic amongst themselves. They turn into a bunch of silly boys together, which makes them quite fun. I just miss John being in it with them.

And there's a whole lot of gay folk who don't get it, either. Being a Kinsey 6 doesn't suddenly grant you understanding that no one else on the scale can have. The only thing that keeps me from flat out turning it off based just on the "gay" stuff is the fact that Jack Doesn't Care. And he usually just throws it back. If he were to start questioning himself, I'd probably throw something at the TV>

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

I think what bothers me the most is that its 'heroic' characters that mostly spout this stuff. Gwen (the only thing standing between humanity and doom), Andy and Johnny (the working class heros who fight back at the evil govt, Rex (who I don't think is meant to be a nice guy, but WTF). But no else does, do they? (Not watching so I may not be aware).

[fiwen1010.livejournal.com]

I really, really disliked Gwen for not standing up for Ianto in CoE. She had recovered herself (msotly) in my eyes, and then Clem called him queer, Ianto was clearly offended and she laughed it off. I like to believe that Ianto would have given her decaff for the rest of her Torchwood employment had he survived.

[fiwen1010.livejournal.com]

That's actually one of the things I loved about Torchwood, particularly the cast. I have quite an antagonistic sense of humour (and personality in general, really), and that sort of bullshitting affectionately is really comfortable for me. Children of Earth and, from what I've heard as a biased reader of blogs, Miracle Day, both depend on a much more slap-stick kind of humour, except not. In the first two series it was funny because everyone argued back. Now it's supposed to be funny because they don't.

[beesandbrews.livejournal.com]

I'd link if I could find it, but the thread is a mile long. There's a good discussion on who_anon about the use of humor in series 1 and 2 Torchwood vs later. The difference being in the first two you were laughing with the characters, and in the later ones you're supposed to laugh AT the characters which is a more mean spirited type of humor. But that goes with objectfication and so on which COE and MD are rife with.

[fiwen1010.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was in there somewhere. Came to it late on account of sleep or something, but it was a really interesting discussion. Whatever the haters say, the Torchwank has kept the meme busy and very interesting lately.

[bjewelled.livejournal.com]

Speaking as someone who works in the UK TV industry, I'll be honest: a lot of people in TVland are gay. As a result, I suspect that TV is probably one of the more gay-friendly environments to work in. In so far as no one gives a toss. I'd be very surprised if the US TV industry was different in that respect. Having not seen the new series, tbh, I can't comment on the overtones or whatever, but RTD really isn't the only openly gay producer. It's just that it's more known to the wider world because he's been in the public eye more.