The whole media world seems to be dishing and raving over Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which I find incredibly annoying, although I’d have been perfectly mesmerized by it if I’d been in front of a TV last night.
Positive coverage from Orlando Sun-Sentinel, the LAT, Pittsburgh Live, the Salt Lake Tribune (aren’t they too conservative for that?). Discerning cynicism from the Washington Post and of course Salon .
We’ve got two trends here. One of them is the metrosexual, which used to be known as “high-maintenance straight guys,” or “male grooming,” or just “fops and dandies.” Basically, men are now expected to dress well, trim their nose-hair, and so forth. I’m not sure this is a “new” thing though– men were expected to look good back in the day, and nose-hair trimmers have been around for ages. Stil, it was laugh-out-loud funny to hear The Economist, in discussing David Beckham’s supposed metrosexuality, discuss the trend in waxing the“Back, Crack, and Sack”. (Maybe it’s already too late for metrosexuals, though. Way-ahead-of-the-curve Vice Magazine has been mocking over-feminized straight men repeatedly, to the point of putting men with hairy backs in their DO section and putting the hairless South-beachers under DON’T.)
The other trend one is the gay-men-on-TV thing, as represented by America’s Fabulous Gay Friend. You’ve come a long way, baby. Now in addition to being Grace’s gay roommate, you can help out the straight guys without having them beat you to death or run screaming.
I’m not convinced that depicting gay men as style-obsessed, snark-dishing, crank-snorting divas is much of a step up from depicting them as Baron Harkonnen or the punchline of some joke about walking into the wrong bar. Nor, for that matter, is it very fair to portray straight men as filthy, sartorially incompetent, armpit-scratching knuckle-draggers. It’s probably amusing, which I suppose is what TV is for, but although it explains the stereotyping, it doesn’t exactly excuse it.
You ever go back and watch a movie from the 70s or 80s and suddenly realize how heavy-handed it was about sex and race? Yeah, that’s what this will look like in ten years.
Secretly Ironic 
The NEW new thing is actually the Marthasexual, straight men who love pinking shears and paper crafts! Forget the grooming part of the traditional Gay Experience, think interior decorating. There’s room for all kinds. Even straight guys who know how to match accent pillows. Everyone gets tired of going out eventually. Go go domesticity!
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I’ve been mocking over-feminized straight men for years, am I way-ahead-of-the-curve, too? I agree about the show, though — the NYTimes article on it was a bit pot of stereotypes (“a tsunami of gay energy”?? Made me laugh, though).
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