Bret and his big mouth

Bret has been spouting off about Matt Bomer being in 50 Shades of Grey and about "crap" sitcoms. Predictably, most of the comments were from people calling him homophobic, but I could see where he was coming from, although he didn't put it in a way that endeared himself to people! Not that that is Bret's bag anyway. 

In the first article, Bret was pointing out that he didn't think that a gay actor is suitable for the part of Christian Grey. Which is fair enough when you think about it. As a woman who has discussed who should play Christian with friends, I know that we are very opinionated about who should play him, because the point of the book is for us to identify with Ana. This is a man who is supposed to make us go weak at the knees; someone who manages to evade Ana's best instincts to avoid him at all costs. 

Brett says no thanks (image). Matt does look a bit gay in some of his pics.

It says something about a director's attitude to women that he is choosing to pick someone straight over someone who is gay, because I'm sure that if Bret was casting the same film but with Alan instead of Ana, he would go looking for the hottest gay actor he could find. Bret pays us a compliment by looking for an actor who is "genuinely into women", as well as applauding our open-mindedness. But dammit, I think he's right. No offense meant to Matt or anyone who wanted him for the part, but we are supposed to be fancying straight guys here. I haven't seen White Collar but if what Bret says is right, Matt came across as "totally gay" and in some of the pics I've seen he doesn't look perfectly straight. Don't know about you, but I'd rather my supposed 'dream hunk' was totally straight thanks.  And this is not about having anything against gay actors. Bret doesn't have a problem with gay actors playing straight roles, just not as 'dream hunks' who are supposed to be every woman's dream.

I think this is part of the point that Bret is making. It would be fantastic if instead of getting gay actors to play straight roles, TV writers would just write more gay roles and get gay actors to play them. I can understand why Bret feels uncomfortable about Neil Patrick-Harris, because in a way, it's as if we are supposed to be laughing about the fact that he's gay but playing an womaniser. Perhaps this does a disservice to both him and us.Why not write him as gay? Because it would be too shocking to have a promiscuous gay character in a fluffy US sitcom. They would probably have to ramp up the camp, or settle him down with a nice camp boyfriend/life partner. 

I get similarly annoyed with the portrayal of disabled characters, who seem to be nearly always played by actors without disabilities (apparently called 'cripface'). I suppose I can see why the producers do it that way, but it is still a great shame. Glee is a big offender. Good for having a disabled character in Artie, but I notice that he never gets the girl. Coincidence?

Very nice, but should not be playing a blind man (image)

 I had a look at a Wiki list of gay characters in TV shows, particularly looking at shows that are on currently in the UK and who made them. There are a few sitcoms like Glee and Modern Family, some dramas like The Borgias, Smash, True Blood and Game of Thrones. Out of these we have the inevitable musicals and straight men playing gay roles. One production company came up a couple of times, HBO's dramas.

In the second article, Bret hates CBS sitcoms and call The Big Bang Theory 'gay'. I happen to like the show (and Modern Family), but again, I can see what he's saying here. Raj and Howard continually skirt around their big 'bromance' and the big joke on Raj is that he likes things that the other men consider 'womanly' like manicures. But then the whole show is centered around stereotypes: dumb blond, socially inept scientist, Jewish mama's boy. He's right about Modern Family too, in my opinion. It may be a bit more progressive than other sitcoms (in that it has openly gay characters), but you've still got a straight man running around playing a big ol' camp stereotype. Is that the only thing we can handle?! 

I'm not saying the UK is any better at this either. Other than in soaps and the occasional drama like Downton Abbey, we're pretty short on the gay and disabled characters too. We are not challenging stereotypes, and I think that is why Bret hates the way that homosexuality is presented. It's lazy and predictable, or hiding behind multiple layers of coyness to avoid offending anyone.  

Great quote from an article in the Guardian:

"Good depictions of disability involve characters who happen to be disabled, rather than characters who are consumed and defined by their disabilities alone."

Same for goes for homosexuality.