sexual intimacy beyond kissing was strictly prohibited - TG!

June 5, 2003 3:50 PM

Boy Meets... Boy?!!?

NBC-owned Bravo will court viewers this summer with American television's first primetime gay-themed reality dating series. But in a twist worthy of the bogus baron on Fox's "Joe Millionaire," some of the suitors are actually heterosexual men who were paid by the program to pretend to be gay -- unbeknownst to the eligible bachelor.
I'm not sure whether this will be an example of a leading broadcaster leading the sociological agenda, or of another chance to humiliate folk on TV for entertainment, but with a heterosexist flavour:

FOUND VIA SAFERSEX.ORG (THX, filchyboy)
posted by dash_slot- (35 comments total)

Ok - crap formatting, there's meant to be a [br] and italics stop for the last para. Oops, sorry.
posted by dash_slot- at 3:54 PM on June 5, 2003

Didn't Scott Amedure get a chest full of shotgun pellets when a similar type of prank was played on the Jenny Jones show?

Now that the gender-polarity is reversed for Bravo's effort, I ponder just how far straight guys have come since 1995. Or, perhaps, they've just been pulled along, kicking and screaming, by their need to be on television.
posted by WolfDaddy at 4:01 PM on June 5, 2003

Could homosexual men pretend to be heterosexual men in order to get paid to romance a homosexual man? How is Bravo verifying sexual orientation?

Maybe FOX secretly taped their own reality show where their contestants infiltrated other network's reality shows, like this one. What a great idea for a reality show! Man, I am f***ing brilliant.
posted by evinrude at 4:02 PM on June 5, 2003

already have it on Dismissed
posted by destro at 4:06 PM on June 5, 2003

My take is that if you go on a realty television show then you really deserve any godawful thing that befalls you.
posted by xmutex at 4:13 PM on June 5, 2003

A realty show, or a reality show.

I've no patience for real estate, y'know.
posted by xmutex at 4:14 PM on June 5, 2003

"some of the suitors are actually heterosexual men who were paid by the program to pretend to be gay"

Uh-huh. "Pretend". Riiiight.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:14 PM on June 5, 2003

GWM seeks straight-acting guy for good times.
posted by Nelson at 4:17 PM on June 5, 2003

Crash, two words:

Peter. North.

If he can "pretend" ... why not anyone else??
posted by WolfDaddy at 4:19 PM on June 5, 2003

Point well taken.

I withdraw my snarky comment. Of course they're pretending! And convincingly, too!
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:28 PM on June 5, 2003

You know, I was fascinated by this mostly because, even tho I often think of British attitudes, policy and law is more egalitarian than the same in America, I just can't imagine this happening here.
Maybe it's due to the ratings culture over there, US innovation in programming, the our parliamentary system....or ... ok, I may be prejudiced and/or ignorant.

Don't answer that.
posted by dash_slot- at 4:32 PM on June 5, 2003

Lest this abomination actually profit from the extra PR it is receiving here, I'd like to assert that anyone who turns this show on for a solitary second deserves a slow, public execution by paper cut.

Eyes forward! No gawking!

>HONK!<

Let's GO, people! Move along!
posted by scarabic at 4:37 PM on June 5, 2003

You didn't make the cut, scarabic?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:45 PM on June 5, 2003

Didn't Scott Amedure get a chest full of shotgun pellets when a similar type of prank was played on the Jenny Jones show?

Yh, that's the reality of violent homophobia, but my impression is that that is still quite rare, even tho catastrophically brutal. Basically, the killer couldnt just walk away - he'd been (in his eyes) publicly humiliated.

There's no risk of that type of surprise here - the attraction angle is known to all in the set-up. But, I ask you straight guys: what if you found yourself aroused, as it were, by accident, by another guy? Say when you were wrestling, or just goofin around?

Would that make you angry? Could you take it out on the other party for doing that to you?
posted by dash_slot- at 5:43 PM on June 5, 2003

"I ask you straight guys: what if you found yourself aroused, as it were, by accident, by another guy?"

Is there money to be had?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:01 PM on June 5, 2003

I've said it on my own site, and I'll say it here, any "straight" guy who can convince a gay guy he's gay has issues he needs to ponder...
posted by jonmc at 6:55 PM on June 5, 2003

Man, just when I thought American Idol Jr had brought this form of television to history's lowest point, this comes along. Unbelievable. Maybe they can have a beastiality reality show. Where men and women can woo the 4 legged creature of their fancy, for the entertainment of all the world.
Wowee, look at that guy work that sheep!! Check out the hogan on that horse, no way she can take it all!
I wish my wife would read more, then I could just throw the tv in the trash where it belongs.
posted by a3matrix at 7:14 PM on June 5, 2003

Let's just say that I once participated in a reality television show that required me to sit naked on a rock while women stomped my balls with stiletto heels, and ever since then, I've had a more enlightened POV about that whole "misfortune of others" brand of entertainment.
posted by scarabic at 7:23 PM on June 5, 2003

*ponders the inevitability of bestiality being mentioned*
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:24 PM on June 5, 2003

And to think they told me I'd be strapped to the slab and fellated by a chorus line...
posted by scarabic at 7:26 PM on June 5, 2003

what if you found yourself aroused, as it were, by accident, by another guy?

If I got turned on my a man while wrestling or something... I dunno, I think I'd mostly be really confused.
posted by mosch at 7:50 PM on June 5, 2003

dash_slot: I just can't imagine this happening here.

To be honest, I can't imagine it happening here (in the US), either. I thought male homosexuality was still considered a ratings-killer, like mathematics. But television marches on.
posted by hattifattener at 8:00 PM on June 5, 2003

Man, just when I thought American Idol Jr had brought this form of television to history's lowest point, this comes along. Unbelievable. Maybe they can have a beastiality reality show. Where men and women can woo the 4 legged creature of their fancy, for the entertainment of all the world.

That's a very vehement objection, a3matrix. But it seems to me you're equating homosexuality with bestiality--though maybe I'm mistaken. Are you?
posted by saltykmurks at 8:10 PM on June 5, 2003

Any publicity is good publicity. The more mainstream homosexuality becomes, the better.
posted by gramcracker at 8:12 PM on June 5, 2003

homosexuality was still considered a ratings-killer

Yeah, but this is Bravo.
posted by WolfDaddy at 8:35 PM on June 5, 2003

and many um, forward-thinking? marketing agencies are priming the mainstream media for gay marketing (and no, I don't mean shit like the most recent Cuba Gooding, Jr. movie) as the homosexual market as an aggregate are pretty wealthy and untapped demographic.

Yeah, but this is Bravo.

heh heh heh.
posted by Ufez Jones at 9:56 PM on June 5, 2003

Apparently a3matrix has proved we may have another Scott Amedure case on our hands after this.

Homophobia seems to run rampant through certain people in MetaFilter, equating homosexuality with beastiality.

a3matrix, are you Rick Santorum?
posted by benjh at 4:52 AM on June 6, 2003

I just can't imagine this happening here.

I can. Channel 4, Friday night, 11.30pm, Denise Van Outen hosting. Actually no, make that E4 or BBC3.
posted by Summer at 6:36 AM on June 6, 2003

Maybe Bravo's Gay Wedding show went over well so they are trying to maximize a trend.
posted by rainbaby at 6:57 AM on June 6, 2003

I'm so totally stoked for this show. I think it RULES. It's not terribly unlike real life, or perhaps I just date exclusively among the psychotic lying freak population.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 7:25 AM on June 6, 2003

I refuse to let these be called "Reality Shows"... it's complete horseshit. They cease to be "reality" the second that the MTV Spring Break fame-whore contestants realize that the camera is on them. From that point on, it's their chance to show their "dramatic range", so that after the reality gig ends, they can land a goddamn guest spot on "Becker".

There are only 2 options on a reality show... Fight or Fuck. That's all the morbidly fascinated American tv audience wants to see. Don't think that the Producers of the show aren't reminding the contestants of this at every opportunity. For a show that is supposed to show "reality", they are more manufactured than most scripted sitcoms.

Reality shows = rubbernecking at car wrecks.

Can you tell that they get under my skin?
posted by BobFrapples at 8:19 AM on June 6, 2003

"Fight or Fuck. That's all the morbidly fascinated American tv audience wants to see."

Hmm... sex and violence. Yep, definitely only Americans would enjoy that. [/sarcasm]
posted by callmejay at 9:09 AM on June 6, 2003

What's the point of this show, exactly?

I thought the whole point of "Joe Millionare", "The Bachelor", "The Bachelorette", etc., was to watch the social and romantic aspects - who will he/she pick, how do the others interact, what is the final moment going to be like for that couple. Even the masked candidates (I forget the show) were at least all the same sex and orientation - the girl didn't suddenly discover she had fallen in love with another girl on public television. All of the candidates were romantically interested in the central man/woman of the show - that was a given.

This isn't about that at all - it's about using the gay angle to exploit and, potentially, deeply embarass the unlucky guy - what happens if he ends up falling in love with one of the guys faking it? That poor guy is stuck on network television trying to deal with the fact that the person he's interested in has been leading him on because the show's producers thought it would be "interesting" to film his reaction. This isn't 10 guys fighting for the attention of one guy, similar to the other shows, but instead a 50/50 proposition for the poor schmuck that's just been set up.

It'd be no different than if you'd taken a heterosexual guy and lined him up with 5 hetersexual women and 5 homosexual women. How would you feel if you fell in love with a woman on network television, where every word, step, and kiss had been filmed, only to have the woman tell you she's only interested in women and participated because the show's producers wanted to see how you'd react?

If they'd done this show like "Joe Millionaire", but with a same-sex theme, that'd be one thing. This just makes me even more depressed.
posted by FormlessOne at 2:56 PM on June 6, 2003

FormlessOne: word.

it's about using the gay angle to exploit and, potentially, deeply embarass the unlucky guy - what happens if he ends up falling in love with one of the guys faking it? That poor guy is stuck on network television trying to deal with the fact that the person he's interested in has been leading him on

The humanist point, as we'd probably agree, is simply that 'people-exploitation' is the thing we need to watch for.
posted by dash_slot- at 5:05 PM on June 6, 2003

But it seems to me you're equating homosexuality with bestiality--though maybe I'm mistaken. Are you?

No, I was not equating the two. I was pointing to the possible future television show we may enjoy, once the shock of this one has worn off. I thought that was kind of clear in my remark, but if not, let this clarify it.
posted by a3matrix at 9:32 PM on June 6, 2003