Queer Eye For The Straight Guy

[Rhys]

I saw only part of that episode...but from what I saw, the stuff in the art gallery was hilarious

 

[Quint]

I've seen two episodes, Butch and the rocker (think his name was John but can't remember). This is my mom's new favorite show; she's a registered fruitfly. I think it's hilarious! Plus I marvel at how thorough it is--the house makeovers are so extensive and fast, and I love the concept of making a fancy dinner. Makes me wish I were a straight guy in need of serious repair.

I think the flamboyant one overshadows the others a little too much; I hope to find more of a balance in future episodes.

 

[Queersetti]

There is a great article about the show in Entertainment Weekly.

It seems the idea for the show came when the producer was at an art gallery opening in Boston.

There was a group of gay guys there, and a woman was berating her husband for being a slob and pointing out how much sharper the gays looked than he did. They overheard her, took the husband aside and began giving him sartorial advice.

Seeing that, the producer realized what a great idea it was for a show!

 

[Pookie]

Gay taste? Here's straight talk
Tue Aug 5, 8:01 AM ET Add Entertainment - USA TODAY to My Yahoo!


By Craig Wilson, USA TODAY

Is it true, as some people believe, that gay men have better taste than their straight brothers?

Is it true that a gay man can stroll through a flea market, find the one and only good thing a valuable antique, even take it home, clean it up and put it out for all the world to admire?

Does a gay man have a special gene, an extra chromosome, something that allows him to put plaids and florals in the same room and not have them duke it out?

Good taste is subjective, of course, but any gay man worth his Eames chair will tell you he knows it when he sees it. And now the rest of America is watching.

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (tonight, 10 ET/PT) has been the summer's biggest surprise hit, albeit by Bravo's smaller standards. Still, its 2.8 million viewers last week set a ratings record for Bravo, leaping from a high of 1.7 million the week before. Seven episodes are being added to the original 12.

Five gay men who call themselves the Fab 5 each an "expert" in his field, be it fashion or design or grooming make over a hapless straight man who doesn't know DKNY from NYPD. (Tonight Show host Jay Leno (news - Y! TV) is next, when the five make over him, the show's band and the set on Aug. 14 and 15.)

Though the show's premise might be fun, is it fair? To straights or to gays? Is it even true?

After all, fashion icon and tastemaker extraordinaire Ralph Lauren is married with three children, while the gay community is still trying to live down Liberace, the prince of tackiness. And how does the "always-in-good-taste" gay man explain the flamboyance of Elton John (news) and Harvey Fierstein (news)?

Those questions aside, some gays are lamenting that the gays-can-only-decorate stereotype is again being hauled out of the closet.

Comedian Joan Rivers, who has known a few gay men in her day, says they should get over it. "The only straight male decorator I ever knew was the guy who decorated the Lincoln Tunnel," says Rivers, who supports the extra-chromosome theory. "Truly, what gay men have is both worlds, the women's sensitivity and the man's smarts. My life would be boring and not as beautiful without them."

Dan Berkowitz, director of corporate communications for Keynote Systems, a Web performance management company in San Mateo, Calif., doesn't understand all the fuss over stereotypes, either.

"It should all be taken in the spirit it's given," he says. "It's great fun. It's high camp."

As for gay men having the good-taste gene, Berkowitz says they just might. "I think we are more sensitive. More gay men are artistically minded, more sensitized to beauty and their surroundings."

Berkowitz's partner, JL Sears, is with Design Within Reach, the Oakland-based company that supplies the furniture for the room where the Fab 5 watch their creation play out his new role at the end of the show.

"It's all meant for entertainment," says Sears, whose newly refurbished home on San Francisco's much-photographed Alamo Square was finished hurriedly over the weekend for USA TODAY's photo shoot a Herculean feat a straight man probably would not understand, let alone undertake.

That's all fine and dandy, says Robert Verdi, host of cable's Full Frontal Fashion and Surprise by Design. But he says there's more to the gay community than "hair length, heel height and wall color. ... We're bigger than what you see there."

Verdi insists, however, that he doesn't want to look like a spoiled little gay brat about all this. In fact, he takes some credit for the Fab 5 becoming such a hit.

"Without sounding too egotistical, (lifestyle guru) Colin Cowie, myself, even (People and Today style commentator) Steven Cojocaru we all lit the way and paved the dirt road that these guys are now going down," he says.

Michael Bronski, a journalist and cultural critic, says the perception of who gay men are and what they are known for has changed dramatically, especially with the younger generation. He's teaching Contemporary Issues in Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender Studies at Dartmouth College this summer. Queer Eye was the topic of discussion last week.

"Some said these five were the same characters in Boys in the Band," says Bronski, referring to the now-classic 1970 movie about closeted gay men at a dinner party. "But we like them now. The bitchy queens are now the saviors, rather than guys to be pitied.

"Some of the students did say the show reinforced the 'good-taste' stereotypes that gay men are neater, cleaner, fussier and dressed better," he says. But some of the students also referred to the Fab 5 "as the new Charlie's Angels, even fairy godmothers, literally, who have the ability to transform straight men."

Eric Marcus says, "Plenty of people secretly dream of being made over by gay men in a way they imagine we operate ... masters in design, cooking, fashion."

But Marcus says America is in for a shock. "A lot of us are sadly impaired in all those fields."

When he interviewed 20 long-term gay couples in their homes for his 1999 book Together Forever, Marcus says many of his subjects were in desperate need of a gay makeover themselves.

Marcus says that when the gene "mystery" is unraveled, "it will be discovered that some gay men have special abilities in some areas ... just as some straight men have special abilities in some areas."

Manhattan magazine executive Tricia Kasner, an avid antique collector and decorator and friend to many a gay man, won't hear of such nonsense. She still believes gays have an extra good-taste chromosome. Maybe two.

"Of course they do," she says. "We just had dinner with a gay friend. He could spend all day organizing your cutlery drawer, and you'd be very happy he did. Why is that? I don't know." Kasner calls Queer Eye "hysterical."

"If only someone would come in and take control of my life like that, I'd be thrilled."

Simon Doonan, creative director at Barneys New York, has one problem with all this: He doesn't think straight guys need any help.

"I feel passionately that people need to look like who they are. Janet Reno (news - web sites) should look like Janet Reno," he says. "Straight guys need to look like straight guys."

While he finds the show amusing, Doonan feels sorry for the guys being made over. "They look like deer trapped in the headlights. ... They're like sitting ducks."

So he has a suggestion for the show's producers.

"What I think they should do would be to have these queens make over another queen. Now, that would be entertaining."

Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=680&ncid=762&e=5&u=/usatoday/11508437

 

[Queersetti]

"Simon Doonan, creative director at Barneys New York, has one problem with all this: He doesn't think straight guys need any help.

"I feel passionately that people need to look like who they are. Janet Reno (news - web sites) should look like Janet Reno," he says. "Straight guys need to look like straight guys."

While he finds the show amusing, Doonan feels sorry for the guys being made over. "They look like deer trapped in the headlights. ... They're like sitting ducks." "

I think that is just nonsense. The reason the show has become popular with straights as well as gays is because they don't try to change the straight men, just help them bring out the best in themselves.

Funny how the same media that didn't have any objection to negative stereotypes about gays all these years are suddenly concerned about positive ones.

 

[Pookie]

"Some of the students did say the show reinforced the 'good-taste' stereotypes that gay men are neater, cleaner, fussier and dressed better," he says. But some of the students also referred to the Fab 5 "as the new Charlie's Angels, even fairy godmothers, literally, who have the ability to transform straight men."

It seems that ANY image is going to be criticized.

 

[Brekke]

ihttp://www.msnbc.com/news/947560.asp


this is an article about the show from newsweek, very good. i havent been able to see it myself, cant figure out what channel and what time/day its on.

 

[deliciously_naughty]

ihttp://www.msnbc.com/news/947560.asp


this is an article about the show from newsweek, very good. i havent been able to see it myself, cant figure out what channel and what time/day its on.

bravo on tuesdays at 10

cbs (whatever network friends is on) on thursday at 10 (?)


I loved the episode with the proposal!

 

[Queersetti]

bravo on tuesdays at 10

cbs (whatever network friends is on) on thursday at 10 (?)


I loved the episode with the proposal!

It's NBC.

Try to catch the Bravo version though, the NBC ones are cut down.

 

[bozinka]

Check Bravo regularly

I know they play it in reruns - because I always watch it during the afternoon. Bravo will often replay past episodes. I've seen them all now, and think they are HILARIOUS! I'm trying to find the Jay Leno one - has it aired yet?

As for the straight men looking like deer caught in the headlights... UM - They have to agree to be on the show, so it's not like the Fab 5 are just going in and taking over, unwanted. They've been asked to be there. That's what the st guy wants. Get over it!

I would love to get my brother on that show - but I don't think he'd ever agree to do it. You know Jeff Foxworthy - ya might be a redneck... That is so my brother!!! LOL...

 

[Queersetti]

Re: Check Bravo regularly

I know they play it in reruns - because I always watch it during the afternoon. Bravo will often replay past episodes. I've seen them all now, and think they are HILARIOUS! I'm trying to find the Jay Leno one - has it aired yet?

As for the straight men looking like deer caught in the headlights... UM - They have to agree to be on the show, so it's not like the Fab 5 are just going in and taking over, unwanted. They've been asked to be there. That's what the st guy wants. Get over it!

I would love to get my brother on that show - but I don't think he'd ever agree to do it. You know Jeff Foxworthy - ya might be a redneck... That is so my brother!!! LOL...

The Leno makeover will be aired on the Tonight Show in two parts, I believe, this coming Thursday and friday.