May 2004 Cover
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Bravo's hit cable series "Queer Eye for the Straight
Guy" is a remarkable phenomenon. In it, five homosexuals offer
grooming and decorating tips to an un-hip heterosexual guy. By
following gay advice about hair removal
and puff pastry, the straight guy's previously slovenly life is,
supposedly, transformed into something more fabulous than it was
before his queer make-over.
At first, "Queer Eye" seems an advance for the gay
cause-- who'd have thought just a decade ago that an overt gay
sensibility would be so embraced by those marketing television shows
and all the products they
peddle? And yet, there is something profoundly unsettling about Queer
Eye's vision of gay life.
In all the consumeristic blather about gorgeous shoes, trendy
bistro fare, and wrinkle-reducing night creams, Queer Eye offers not
one scrap of insight about courage, individualism, or brotherhood--
the more
enduring qualities that can come from living as a homosexual in a
heterocentrist world. And since sponsors do not want viewers to be
distracted by reminders of nasty gay sex, the Queer Eye guys are
utterly neutered. The
biggest contribution gay guys could offer a straight buddy would be,
of course, access to the handjobs, suckoffs, and buttsex that
straight life doles out in miserly portions. But instead of
liberating their straight guinea pig, the
Queer Eye guys prissify and perfume him. Indeed, the Queer Eye show
has the discomfiting feel of a 1950s high school Home Ec filmstrip
aimed at teen girls aspiring to be perfect ladies.
Happily, though, the gay movement has also seen the rise of
an antidote to the impulse to de-sex and re-package gay life as
nothing more than correct purchasing decisions.
Initially conceived as a remedy to the marginalization of
older gay men who did not have the smooth skin and lean muscles of
porn stars, the Bear movement born in the 1980s asserted a radically
non-exclusive
sexuality. For Bears and admirers, the male body was not an enemy to
be exfoliated, deodorized, starved, and painted over. Bald pates
became signs of masculinity, not reminders of dreaded aging to be
hidden under expensive rugs.
Hairy backs signified virility, not cause for painful waxings. And
larger Dionysian bodies joined slim ephebes and muscled bodybuilders
as potential objects of sexual attention.
The Bear movement reminds us that no one needs the correct
hair highlights or designer sheets to be sexual. No matter ones age
or weight or hairiness, Bear mentality offers a welcome escape from
both Madison
Avenue-inspired anxieties ("does my cologne go with my
socks?") and narrow visions of sexual possibilities
("people over 40 having sex-- yuch!"). By disregarding all
the consumeristic hoopla trumpeted by Queer Eye, Bears-- and
other similarly enlightened souls-- can shed needless insecurities
and take on the appealing self-assurance that comes from projecting
ones real self, not an off-the-rack image.
Today's Bears carry on the wonderful message of gay
liberation: you are okay the way you are. Trying to be straight (or
the hippest, best-dressed Queer Eye model) is not only psychically
taxing, but also bespeaks
a decidedly unappealing lack of self-confidence. Rejecting worldly
notions of what's important (whether that be a heterosexual identity
or Prada shoes) develops trust in one's own self, the foundation for
life and love based
not on imagery but reality.
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