Let's Hear It For The Gays!

Happy Pride, everyone! And happy gay-marriage-is-legal-in-NY! I'm so gonna be dancing my face off tonight. To celebrate, I thought I'd talk about some of my favorite gay television characters. We've still got a long fucking way to go in terms of media portrayal, and I am purposefully ignoring Glee completely on this list - you can go back and read some of my Glee posts if that's what you're interested in, but their characters are so poorly maintained that while I love first season Kurt I kind of hate a lot of second season Kurt and we won't even get into their TERRIBLE track record of biphobia. So. Let's start with a good one.

Alastair/Athena, "Huge"

I have been trying to get everyone I know to watch Huge with me and everyone says, "Yeah, that sounds great," and then we never do. But it is THE BEST, you've just got to start watching and you'll be hooked. Now, not to give too much away, but Alastair is an incredible character. He's super awkward and weird and no one really gets him and he's totally open about finding power in the name Athena and wanting that to be his nickname or whatever and when the jock kid calls him that out of kindness and acceptance you will CRY and if you don't you are made of permafrost. Anyway, what's great about Alastair is that he is pretty much the embodiment of "Questioning". He's totally queer but is still figuring out what that means and even though he may have curiosity about guys he's got it about girls, too and is really just trying to be himself and find the best way to do that. He's not afraid to be genderqueer and embody the feminine along with the masculine and most of all he doesn't want people making assumptions about him based on what they see or hear. Alastair is one of the main reasons why Huge is so great, and probably one of the main reasons it was cancelled, lest teenagers realize it's ok to be whoever they want to be or some other TERRIBLE lesson like that.

I should just end this list now, because it just can't get any better than that.

The Cast Of Will & Grace (minus Grace)

Will & Grace is one of those shows that doesn't really get talked about anymore. I don't think I've mentioned it once in almost a year of this blog. But it really was, for at least the first few seasons, revolutionary, brilliant, and hilarious queer comedy. Sure, there were some issues with stereotypes, but Eric McCormack and Sean Hayes are such great actors that they dealt with those unavoidable roadblocks with grace and dignity. Megan Mullally's pansexual Karen is one of the greatest television characters of all time; they should have ended the show before Harry Connick, Jr came on to ruin everything and created a spin-off called Jack & Karen, because who wouldn't watch that? I remember seeing two men kiss on primetime TV, and how powerful that was for me as a little baby queer with an uncle about to get gay married. I love, love, love Sean Hayes (if you haven't seen Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss, do it NOW) and think he deserves tons of credit for making flamboyance into something more than a limp-wristed caricature and for showing the world that it's ok to be stereotypically & effeminately gay, but that that doesn't mean that's ALL you are. I think it's safe to say that the television world would not be what it is today without Will & Grace.

Chandler & Phoebe, "Friends"

Both totally bi. Like, so bi I've considered writing a dissertation about how bi they are. Really the argument could be made for all of the so-called heteros on Friends, but Chandler and Phoebe are the most obvious about it. I love when Phoebe slips in a sly reference for her love for the ladies and it is totally NBD and that Chandler's queerness just subtly becomes part of who he is.

Your Summer Watching List

It's summertime, y'all! Maybe not officially, but it's sunny and warm here more days than most and the kids I work with are starting to go ca-razzy (thanks, Tom Haverford), so that means that summer is upon us. Ron Swanson gets what I'm talking about. And you know what they say, April showers bring May season finales, so as all of the great and terrible shows from this year start to end my mind looks ahead to the wasteland of nights with nothing new to watch. Oh, sure, you could do something silly like go outside in the summer, but once you're tired of that or the fog starts rolling in or if you live in a place where it actually gets too hot to go outside, well...that's what this list is for. It's a reminder of shows you may have forgotten about or put off watching until you had the time, and of the shows that will be airing new episodes this summer that are worth checking out. And, IMO, summer is a time for shows that are silly, lighthearted, and not too thinky (unless you're Mad Men, but there's no new Mad Men until NEXT YEAR. *SOB* Blame the effing bureaucrats.). That's why you'll find Wipeout on the list, but not Breaking Bad (which is too dark, depressing, and gruesome for me any time of year, thankyouverymuch), along with some of my favorite shows that I haven't gotten a chance to talk about on here yet.

Away we go!

For Realsies: SAVE HUGE!

Huge has been cancelled. Give me a moment here.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooOOOOO!

Ok, I'm back. Feeling angry, sad, and prescient, but I'm here. Seriously though, the bastards cancelled it, just like I said they would. But thank the Lorde, Jezebel has started a petition to save it. You can sign it here, and even if you haven't had a chance to watch the show yet or don't really care, you should really just sign it because Huge is, no joke, one of the best shows on TV. Plus, you don't even have to enter your email! It'll take you three seconds.

You guys are the best. Much cooler than those idiots (Dwight-voice) running ABC Family.

Image via JessWeiner.com

Damn The Man - Save Huge!

So...Huge has ended. For now. And because ABC Family only ordered a measly 10 episodes, we're left in the middle of camp when all the drama and relationships are finally coming to a head! Bastards. Now we get to the problem with ABC Family: namely, conservatism.

This is not to say that conservatives hate fat people. I'm sure, no, I know many are fat themselves. It's just that the network seems far more willing to support the psuedo-propaganda and terrible acting and even worse writing of The Secret Life of the American Teenager (hint: the secret is S-E-X) than a show that has a nuanced and realistic look at the actual lives of actual fat teenagers. A show that has a character who is proud and comfortable with his fluid sexuality and gender presentation. A show that has a character whose parents pretty much represent the people in society who believe that all fat people need to be happy/successful/worthwhile is to lose weight. A show that has numerous characters who used to be fat and are still trying to learn to love themselves. A show that calls characters out for disordered eating disguised as diet tricks.

And so I'm worried. I'm worried that the execs at a company that apparently gets to determine what "family values" are are going to watch the show and say, you know, this isn't what we want our kids watching. We don't want them getting any ideas about pride and self-expression and hooking up with your camp counselor. We don't want them knowing how complicated life can actually be.

Not to mention that there is always going to be someone saying that no one wants to see fat people on TV...which is completely ridiculous, given that we live in a fat country. Face it - we are fat. We are so fat that the city I live in had to pass rules stating what kinds of snacks we can let kids eat at school. We are so fat they had to ban Fruit by the Foot and make kids start eating actual fruit. I think it's kind of ridiculous, and that there are ways to teach kids how to be healthy without forbidding certain things (because when food is forbidden it automatically becomes more desired - at least I know that's one of the things that led to my own weight issues)....just like there are ways to let teenagers know it's ok to be fat and value your own health simultaneously.

I think really I'm afraid for the future of Huge because in many ways Hollywood gives little value to originality or relatability and instead cares entirely about money (surprising, I know). When there's a show that doesn't fit in to the way they think they should be making money, they cancel it, or market it so poorly that they are able to find an excuse to cancel it (a la Arrested Development, The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brian, Pushing Daisies, etc). And I love Huge so much that I am just waiting for the cancellation shoe to drop - because I know the studio execs are itching for an excuse to destroy the best thing to show up on teen-oriented television in forever. I guess it's not just about ABC Family - I simply have no trust in Hollywood in general to keep the good things on my screen.

So go send them some feedback or simply "like" Huge on Facebook. Little efforts like that can make a big difference in these digital times, when a visible and vocal audience can actually have an impact. I already lost Party Down this summer, I'm not sure I could stand it if I lost these characters too.

And for pity's sake, if you're not watching, go do it now. The most recent seven episodes are on Hulu, or you can always go find links on Sidereel and start from the beginning.

BTW, if you'd like the link for the picture up top I'll give it to you, but I got it from a CNN Health article on childhood obesity that I'd really rather not link to. So, I'm not trying to steal this image, but fuck you CNN and your fatist bullshit.

More seconds, please!

Let's Talk About Huge

I am always looking for new shows to watch, especially in the summer (although, i have to say, what with Mad Men and Persons Unknown and Psych and Entourage and Royal Pains and Weeds coming up pretty soon, things haven't been too bad.). And this is the summer I fell in love with Huge.

The premise of Huge is: fat teenagers at fat camp. And at first I was a little apprehensive, but then I learned that it's created by the woman who did My So-Called Life and her daughter, so - ABC Family indeed (Huge airs at 9pm Mondays on that channel). Then I watched the pilot episode, and was blown away.

Like with many ensemble shows, There is a theoretical main character (TMC), but I've found that in many of these cases (How I Met Your Mother, Party Down, Community) the focus quickly equals out and the primary and secondary characters reach equal footing. Huge is like that. Ian (the Isaac lookalike played by Ari Stidham) is everything I could ask for in an awkward, shy, painfully un-confident leading man. Chloe (Ashley Holliday) is like any number of girls I know - and the relationship between Chloe and Amber is all-too-familiar for me. Alastair (Harvey Guillen) is so endearing it makes my insides crumple. Becca (Raven Goodwin) is quietly fierce. Trent (Stefan Van Ray) is hot and broken. Piznarski (which, excuse me, was Piz from VMars' name first) (Jacob Wysocki) is like any number of boys I know, using humor as a shield. And the two TMCs fit into this ensemble perfectly, leaving enough space for everyone to shine.

The first TMC is a girl named Will, played by Nikki Blonsky from the Hairspray remake I refused to see, and she is fat and angry and she's not gonna take it anymore. She's been shipped off to fat camp by her terrible-sounding absentee parents, but here's the kicker: she loves her body and doesn't want to lose weight. Which is awesome - but it doesn't mean that she doesn't have her own insecurities, or that her militant fat pride doesn't have negative consequences for herself and others. Also, she has blue streaks in her hair (that are clearly not clip-ons like Tina's on Glee) which let us know that she hates the system.

The second TMC is Amber, a blonde girl who could be described as curvy or chubby with a pretty bad case of societal pressure-induced body dysmorphic disorder. Amber is played by Hayley Hasselhoff, David's daughter, and all I could think when I realized that a few minutes ago is damn, that girl has already been through some shit. How many times has she had to call 911 for her dad? Too fucking many. Anyway, Amber is the skinniest one at camp, which makes her popular, hated, and envied. The boys all vie for her, but Amber is crushing hard on George, the cute teenage athletic leader, who clearly likes her back although she can't see it through all her self-loathing. In another scene a few episodes in, Amber runs into a group of kids from the neighboring tennis camp, and is able to pass for one of them.

The intersection of these two characters has brought up some very personal stuff for me, because I've been both of them. I have loved and been proud of my fat; I have hated my body and felt inferior to skinny girls. I have been the outspoken teenager who wants to believe her body is sexy but needs external validation, and I know what it's like to pass, and the surprise and relief that comes when you realize that people can think your body is normal and maybe even desirable.

I have also gone to camp. full disclosure: I love shows about camp. Camp (i went to Camp Celo, a very unique farm/hiking camp in the Black Mountains of North Carolina) was a huge part of my formative years, both as a camper and then as an assistant counselor during high school. I don't know if anyone remembers Bug Juice ("Bug juice, it doesn't come in a jar! Bug juice comes from who you are!" Anyone???), which was possibly the first reality show aimed at kids; it followed a group of pre-teens at a real camp, and I think it was on the Disney Channel. Anyway, I was obsessed. I also loved Salute Your Shorts, Camp Nowhere, Happy Campers (a movie that a guy I actually worked at camp with was in), Camp, The Parent Trap, Addams Family Values...I could go on. There is something about the concentrated relationships that occur when you're in a very intimate situation for a limited period of time that make for compelling stories and rich character studies. Plus, camp is just the best.

I was also a fat girl at camp - that's me on the right at age 16. I've always been the kind of fat that's in between being normal and being f-a-t fat, and eventually it got balanced out by my big boobs. I've got confidence, but like the kids on Huge, I was always afraid that to a guy, a skinny girl would be preferable to my curves. And sometimes she was, and that hurt, but I eventually found that there was always someone who wanted me, and that the douchebags who didn't weren't worth my time anyhow. Camp actually helped me learn to love my body, what with skinny dipping with guys & girls of all shapes & sizes and shirtless sessions and strip poker and inner tubing and playing "Jump, Shake Your Booty" in the rain and trading hookup partners like crazy. And sometimes - and by sometimes, I mean always - it was hard to go back to the real world, where everyone doesn't understand, accept, and love everyone else for who they are.

I miss camp.

So, after the first episode I basically fell head over heels for Huge. This is a show that speaks to me in a very strong way and, as i've found browsing the internet, has touched a lot of people. However, just by reading the YouTube comments on the preview shows how much fat phobia not only exists but is in many cases excused by society. Especially when it comes to hating on fat women. You know that scene in Juno when Steve Rendazzo makes fun of her and she talks about how it's because all jocks secretly want weird goth librarians? I think that's really at the heart of fat women phobia: because people have been conditioned to believe fat people aren't attractive, when they're attracted to them they feel ashamed. They blame that shame on the fat people for being attractive and socially subversive. Makes sense to me.

So I commend Huge for giving a pretty accurate portrayal of what it's like to be fat and confident; fat and self-loathing; fat and socially awkward; fat and athletic; fat and pretty; fat and poor; fat and weird; fat and sensitive....all in a world that celebrates thinness and is constantly telling fat people that there is something wrong with them and they need to change - in a location that basically tells them that to not lose weight equals failure. I also think Huge's characterizations of the complex camp director, Dr. Dorothy Rand (Gina Torres) and the Janice Dickenson-meets-Tracy Anderson athletic director (Tia Texada) provide accurate portrayals of the relationship that us fatties often have with the people (who may or may not care about them) who are trying to get them healthy (or skinny - they are not the same thing).

I think a lot of people won't watch this show because they believe that it's only for fat people. but it's far, far, more than that - it's about how difficult relationships, self-control, and honesty can be, at any size. it's about learning about who you really are so other people can't take it away if they try to bring you down. I think, in essence, it's about learning to be happy in a world where so much is out of our control. Plus, it's pretty fucking funny and completely entertaining.

So...ABC Family, who knew? Not what I would have expected. But seriously, go watch it - give it a chance and I know you'll love it...and I want to know my all-time favorite camp show is gonna be around next summer!