#they’re still on about George and how ‘stereotypically gay’ Michael acts

[aemiron-main]

no  because once i am done all my other shit today i have to go back and rewatch the jazzercise scene and the fact that mike is later shown in front of the rainbow jazzercise logo and the fact that they chose a GEORGE MICHAEL song for the jazzercise scene specifically and how george michael was criticized by other gay artists for “acting straight” (cough mike cough) and how tarzan boy in s4 is about a gay man trying to convince another gay man to join the gay lifestyle (similar to the people who were criticizing george michael and trying to covnince him to join the ‘more gay’ aspects/communtiies of music and stop appealing to the cishets) and how THAT doesnt JUST tie into mike ‘acting straight’ but also more than that into the perceptions of what someone ‘acting straight’ or ‘acting gay’ is and how people dont believe that mike is gay because he doesnt fit their stereotypes of gay men and how they’re seeing him through a Will Lens.  and how theres a difference between criticizing george michael for ‘acting straight’ vs criticizing him for continuing to appeal to and possibly reinforce cishet stuff/for hiding his sexuality and how its a complex issue and how sometimes people HAVE to hide and how george michael WAS very flamboyant but was still ‘hiding his sexuality’ just like how mike IS very ‘attention seeking’/loud sometimes but thats BECAUSE hes so invisible esp in terms of his sexuality and how george michael was kind of outed/had a situation happen that pushed him to come out and how another queer artist, boy george criticized george michael for not coming out sooner/criticized him for not coming out before he came out and how take what im saying here abt ‘acting straight’ and george michael ‘hiding his sexuality’ because im going to criticize/analyze those ideas later and im just explaining What some people believed/how they saw him not necessarily what *i* believe about him and its a nuanced issue that  i AM going to make a full post on specifically in regards to how it ties to a.) mike and his queerness and how that queerness is presented and the subversion of stereotypes in st and b.) how this ties not only into other ST soundtrack choices but also c.) ties specifically into the fact that STEVE AND DUSTIN were the ones watching the jazzercise dude during that scene and trying to speculate about him and what steve and dustin represent and AGHHHHHH TORMENTED BY THOUGHTS 

[full-course-identity]

It’s a special sorta satisfying to check the blog of a BNF you blocked (I saw a blog I was looking at had reblogged a post of theirs) and seeing them complaining about being miserable in their fandom experience after their posse ran off every potentially cool person by being loudly insufferable antis.

“The tag sucks now” lmaooooo get rekt you gigantic asshole. Maybe consider that your constant discourse and nasty attitude is the cause.

[uh0hsp4ghetti0]

My thoughts on the obc of BMC

I saw it live and I'm listening to the album as I write this

The original off Broadway cast. The album for the show in Jersey feels like a fucking party. It makes me so happy. Everyone sounds like they're having fun, and you can feel everything their characters are feeling even though you can't see them. In A Guy That I'd Kinda Be Into you can feel how giddy Christine is throughout it. In the last line you can literally hear her smile. It makes me so happy. But in the Broadway version it's so bland, she probably said it with a blank face too. She sounded like she was having so much fun in the original. This just makes me big :(

WILL ROLAND IS NOT RIGHT FOR THE ROLE OF JEREMY. He was good in Dear Evan Hansen. I liked him in Dear Evan Hansen. He wasn't the main character in Dear Evan Hansen. Will Roland is not good in the main role. At least not for Be More Chill. He's trying too hard to be "dorky". Will Connolly was perfect as Jeremy. I get why Will C didn't come back for the obc, he's done with theater, but I'm pretty sure Will R left Dear Evan Hansen for Be More Chill. Will R was amazing live, the cast recording seriously doesn't do it justice, but still.

G-George 🥺. I love him but he overacted so much. It was not gucci. I don't know what it was about it, but it felt like I was watching a kid's show or something on Disney Channel. Especially the "my mothers would be thrilledddd." You know what, he sounds like a really stereotypical gay guy. He doesn't do the voice in the episodes of Superstore he's in, what is this?? Why is he doing this???

Jake. Fucking Jake. He was pulled straight from r/fellowkids. I hate him. He's the worst character. His actor's cool, he's fine, but the fucking character. Petition to bring back Jersey Jake. We want good Jake, not someone that sounds like a sixty year old white guy wrote him.

The whole show is very r/fellowkids. They floss. They fucking floss.

On the other hand, Jenna is amazing. She's way more fleshed out. I love her character way better here. It's outright said that everyone just uses her for her gossip. "I just wanted to be part of a group! Now, I finally am! And I won't let you take that away." The line seriously makes me feel for her. I just like her more :/ Also, her actor's fucking voice.

Oh my fucking god, The Play. It's so cool. I love it so much. And it's even better live. The acting is kind of :/ in the album, kind of quick and stinky, but the overall song. It's so much more realistic. Of course Michael wants an apology, he was treated terribly. And then the fucking "kung foo fists activate" and Will Roland's glitchy voice. "Why are you hitting me" was adorable in the show, not so much in the album. It's just. I love The Play. Except for the end, which pisses me off. The ending was amazing in the original, and so much more powerful. (Except when Squip starts speaking random Japanese)

Chloe's character. Brooke's character. That's all. They make me smile. (Edit from 2021: Fuck Chloe, I hate Chloe)

Fuck yeah, spank the Squip, Rich.

Rich in general 🥺

Christine's kinda :/. I don't have much to say about her. She's fine. She's more or less the same, I don't love her. Her singing is much better than in Jersey though.

Jersey Jeremy's a better person than Broadway Jeremy and that's all I dare to say about that.

"Oh Jerebear I'm ready", Michael's two moms, his gay patch, hentai cat girl statue in Jeremy's bed. Fan service much? I'm just glad they didn't do any boyf riends bullshit.

Jeremy and Christine's relationship is fucking adroable :/

"I can't hear knocking anym-o-O-ore" fucking broke me

The loser, the gEEk, or whatever

W-Weed socks-

I'm glad they didn't change Michael in the Bathroom. On the topic of song changes, what the hell is Halloween? They shortened it and added a tiny snippet at the end to make up for it??? It feels rushed and I dislike it

It's one am, this was a bad idea. Feel free to tell me if I fucked anything up :/

[quinnmorgendorffer]

Do you have any mbti ideas for AD characters?

Hey! Well, I have been thinking about it and I have some ideas lol. They’re a bit hard to figure out because, after all, it’s arrested development, meaning they haven’t really grown up, which makes seeing their cognitive functions harder to figure out. Someone did typings on funkymbti, but I don’t agree with all of them 100%, but I’m no expert. But, again, I wouldn’t mind taking a swing at it. My personal rundown, with explanations under the cut, is:

Gob - ESTP (this is the one I am the MOST confident on)

Michael - ESTJ

Lindsay - ENFP

Buster - ISFJ

George Michael - ISFJ

Maeby - ISTP

Lucille - ESTJ

Tobias - ENFP

George - ENTJ

Tony (mostly speculative) - INFJ

Gob - definitely an ESTP. Like, holy shit, he’s a stereotypical ESTP. A stereotypical ESTP is the partier, the jock, the popular kid. He’s totally in a Se-Fe (Extroverted Sensing-Extroverted Feeling) loop most of the time; basically his manic stages because, yes, I have to fit in the bipolar Gob theory whenever possible. Anyways, he seeks adventure and sex and drugs and alcohol and is somehow magically ALIVE, so he either has no limits or knows his limits, making me believe his Se is high. Fe explains his ability to charm people, as Mitch described him as someone who doesn’t even realize he’s being charming. To quote mbti notes, “Tertiary Fe often makes a person seem sociable or charming, which can easily be mistaken as Fe dominant. However, tertiary Fe often has a calculating underside, more likely to treat people instrumentally as tools/objects for self-centered gain (due to higher Ti). Tertiary Fe is more likely to produce relationship failure and social discord (than dominant Fe).” He’s able to observe the environment around him and come to conclusions from time to time, showing his SeNi, like putting together that his mom had been driving Michael in “My Mother the Car”. I said he loops in Se-Fe because his logic (Ti) is very much absent like...constantly. His logic is very abstract and not based in facts like Michael (a total Te user) is. Inferior Ni also explains his need to stick to being a magician despite his total failure at it; lots of tunnel vision can happen with Ni. So, yes, I’d say ESTP.

Michael - This person said ISTJ, but I lean more towards ESTJ, if only for the fact that he’s not nearly as introverted/independent as he likes to believe (he needs the family as much as they need him) and the fact that it means he’d have inferior Fi (Introverted Feeling), explaining his “robotic” nature. Fi also explains why he has his own set of morals that, quite often, go against his family’s. It also definitely explains why he thinks he’s more moralistic than his family but really isn’t; the lower something is in your stack, the weaker it is, but you still might think you’re good at it. The Te-dom nature makes him very driven by facts and logic, and having Te-Ne makes him come up with dry, snarky comebacks. SJs have a rep for normally being pretty traditional due to Si, which isn’t always true, but it works in Michael’s case. I think a lot of his s4 behaviors are signs of inferior Fi/being in a Fi grip versus inferior Ne/being in a Ne grip. To quote mbti notes’ spotting guide on inferior Fi, “Their failures usually involve: being too aggressive and then getting severe pushback, taking on too much then suffering exhaustion, or being so focused on bottom line efficiency/results that they neglect other important things.” ESTJ.

Lindsay - She’s definitely an Fi user; she has her own morals and ethics that aren’t decided by her family, so she’s an FP or TJ. They said ESFP, but I might honestly lean more towards an ENFP. When she’s stressed out, she goes back to Tobias, and in s5a, they have her leave to find her “real” family, which indicates an inferior Si to me. But when she’s less stressed, she’s able to change her life around quite easily. She changes her focus a lot, including what size of a cause she’s on, and she’s very adaptable, normally a high Ne trait. And Lindsay having the same functions as Michael but in a different order really helps explain why they tend to get along well, I think. ENFP.

Buster - Buster is a hard one, god. He’s been robbed of so much of his adulthood that it’s hard to figure out his cognitive functions. Stereotypically, I think he fits as an ISFJ (Si-Fe-Ti-Ne). Si-doms are stereotyped as being very into routines, and Buster had trouble leaving his routines behind when Lucille was in jail. He craves approval of others, particularly his mom and his older siblings, which could indicate Fe, and higher Fe tends to make people warm and friendly, which is definitely a Buster trait. Through Ti he’s normally able to come up with some logical explanations, like figuring out Uncle Oscar is his dad, but he’s not too concerned with logic. His Ne is basically non-existent, since his growth has been so stunted. But, yeah, he likes things to stay the same and he’s a sweetheart, so I’d say ISFJ.

George Michael - Definitely an ISxJ, since when he’s stressed, he easily falls into the grip of Ne - spiraling anxiety. To, again, quote mbti notes, this time on inferior Ne, “Their failures usually involve: being too anxious or worried (catastrophizing), being overwhelmed by too much novelty or rapid change, or micromanaging situations (sometimes due to unwillingness to delegate).” I think I’d go with ISFJ because I think he has to have Fe in his stack; he’s very worried about keeping peace and harmony, and while Michael keeps the family together, GM is the one who actually wants the family to be together. Fe is often about togetherness. ISFJ.

Maeby - I definitely agree with the typing done on her as an ISTP. Her Ti-dom nature makes her very prone to being a bit rude and cynical, as well as independent and she can figure things out on her own. Inferior Fe pops up in her being unintentionally (or sometimes truly just intentionally) cool or rude to people around her. Hell, she purposefully tried to make GM feel bad for no reason. She’s definitely someone who lives in the moment (Se) and she’s able to get things to fall into place...most of the time. Definitely Se in her nature, so I could also see ESTP as well, but her Fe seems to be her biggest blind spot and she lashes out when she’s upset. And to quote mbti notes, “However, tertiary Ni often leads to very superficial judgment, more likely to carelessly dismiss deeper meaning or potential for growth (due to higher Se). Tertiary Ni is more likely to have a dejected or cynical attitude about what is possible in life (than dominant Ni).” Let’s not forget how she ended s4 by refusing to say she made a huge mistake. ISTP. 

Lucille - another tough one. I’m sure most people would put her as an ENTJ since that’s normally considered “the mastermind”, but I don’t know. I’ve always said the child most like her is Michael, so I could definitely see ESTJ. Te-Ne would explain how she’s able to think so quickly on her feet, both in regards to lying to people and with her insults. She’s definitely set in her ways, a definite Si related trait. Her active blind spot is definitely her morals, much like Michael, but she’s a bit better at hiding it since she is older. ESTJ.

Tobias - I think the person who typed on funkymbti did a good job with ENFP. From the mbtinotes on dom Ne/inferior Si “Their failures usually involve: not being able to prioritize the best ideas to pursue/develop, carelessness with details that leads to failure, or feeling restricted such that they cannot access inspiration/hope for long periods.” Ne explains his willingness to give up the career that he had for decades as well as how he’s willing to change what kind of performing he does. I’d say FiTe works because he’s not necessarily into harmonizing and he’s definitely devoted to what he thinks is right to him, not necessarily what people tell him to do, since he has no problem pursuing an acting career despite everyone telling him it’s a dumb idea. ENFP.

George - Eh, I do my best not to think about him lol. I actually 100% agree with this person’s reading on him and would definitely say he’s an ENTJ. His family are chess pieces to him, he’s always scheming, very much a Te-Ni trait. His inferior Fi makes him pity himself when he’s stuck in a bad situation. Yeah, I’ll stick with ENTJ. 

Tony - I’m not sure there’s really enough to work with for him at this point. I’m tempted to say INFJ, since that makes him Gob’s “mirror” type, meaning his has the functions in the opposite order of Gob (ESTP would be Se-Ti-Fe-Ni and INFJ is Ni-Fe-Ti-Se), and that’s supposed to make people a “perfect” match. But, since they’re same, maybe he’s an ESTP? Lol. Well, he definitely has a singular vision like a Ni-dom would, which is making it as a magician (contrasted to Gob’s inferior Ni that he always falls back on that one vision, Tony’s whole life is definitely magic). Again, from the mbti notes page, this time on inferior Se, “In low moments of weakness, they become very rash or extreme in behavior.” This could explain what we hope is just him faking his death (where are you s5b???). He claims he’s good at faking being gay and definitely has some manipulative, suave tendencies that could be an upper Fe trait. So, yeah, why not? INFJ.

I’ll also say the Steve Holt gives me ESFJ vibes (very sweet and warm, popular, goes with the flow, values family) and Ann Veal seems like an IxFP (guided by her own morals and ethics). I could definitely be wrong, though.

[aion-rsa]

How Love, Victor Accurately Portrays The American LGBTQ Experience

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This article contains spoilers for Love, Victor season 2.

When it was announced that the iconic 2018 rom-com Love, Simon would receive a spinoff TV series, many worried it wouldn’t be able to find its own unique portrayal of sexual orientation awakening. In the hands of thoughtful showrunners Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger and the endearing lead performance from Michael Cimino, Love, Victor is able to cast a wide net of LGBTQ perspectives for the audience to learn and connect to. 

That’s why Hulu’s teen romance series has developed a niche, but rabid fanbase in the past year. As an audience, getting to follow along with Victor Salazar (the aforementioned Cimino) on his journey has been an honest and raw reflection of so many viewers’ experiences with their own sexuality. With the second season having premiered on June 11, excitement has been building to see where the title character goes now that he has a boyfriend and has come out of the closet to his family. 

No piece of media can ever be an all-encompassing overview of one group’s experience, but this show has really turned into a unique survey of the gay landscape, from sexual questioning, to sexual awakening, self-acceptance, and finally learning to live in a world where others don’t respond well to you being your true self. 

There are many stereotypes in media about what it means to be gay, and too often they depict a white, upper-middle class character with family and friends who have no qualms about queerness. The happy-go-lucky approach does not show outsiders just how tumultuous and heartbreaking it often is to grapple with being non-straight. Love, Victor engages the viewer and invites them to learn about a wide variety of LGBTQ struggles. Victor is Latino, lower-middle class, Catholic, and dealing with the upsides and downsides of being a gay man who skews more masculine than feminine. 

Victor has internalized homophobia throughout the first season, taking awhile to figure out that it is indeed okay to like men, no matter what his conservative Latinx parents have taught him in the past. When he reveals his sexuality to his mom and dad in the second season, the audience is treated to the juxtaposition of the parents’ differing reactions. Victor’s father has an easy time putting his love for his son ahead of his ingrained value system; Victor’s mother has a much harder time grappling with whether to put her religion or her son first, but the payoff in that journey is something to behold (and will make you cry). This decision from the writers gives the show a way to relate to the widest array of watchers in the target audience, and shows that love can trump bigotry if you have a decent heart and adore your family. 

Arguably the most tasteful analysis the show pulls off is its depiction of the limbo you are placed in as a gay person, particularly a gay man, where you are stuck between two different worlds based off of your gender expressions. Victor is traditionally masculine, one of the stars of his high school basketball team, yet his teammates feel uncomfortable with him in the locker room. For those who think this type of homophobia is an outdated trope, take a peek at any of the comments on social media at the beginning of Pride celebrations when any male sports teams lend their support to the equality movement. To a sizable portion of the population, being gay is still synonamous with being less masculine, and Victor feels the pain of his being outcasted from the guys he hoops with in a very raw way. 

He then quits the team in the third episode of the second season, only to be poked fun of for being a “former, straight-acting jock” by his boyfriend’s gay friends. In one of the most revelatory lines in the whole series, Victor asks his teammate Andrew (played by Mason Gooding), an eventual ally, what is the perfect amount of gay to satisfy everyone? Too gay to play sports and not gay enough to hang out with more traditionally queer folk, where exactly is he supposed to turn to find his true family? This question is the most daring one that Love, Victor asks of its audience. The show expects you to examine your own opinions on gender norms and expressions regardless of sexual orientation, and teaches everyone that there is no one way to structure your identity. Victor as a character is a canvas for a myriad of interests and personalities, demonstrating the diversity of the Western LGBTQ+ experience. 

This variety is also dissected in what is likely to be the most controversial storyline of the latter half of season 2, when new character Rahim (played by Anthony Keyvan), a closeted classmate of Victor’s, reaches out for some support. As Victor’s relationship with Benji (played by George Sear) starts to go awry, Rahim becomes a confidant, a close friend, and possibly something much more than that. The love triangle that develops as the finale closes will irk many viewers, but that might be in line with the writers’ intentions.

Benji represents many of the privileges that exist in pop culture with gay men: white, rich, and possessing socially liberal parents, he doesn’t fully understand many of the hardships in Victor’s life. On the other hand, Rahim is an Iranian Muslim, with enough flamboyance to match well with much of Victor’s traditional machismo. They are kindred spirits in many ways, and all of their different gayness meshes in a way that is aptly described by Rahim as “magical”. Comparing and contrasting a mixed race relationship (white person with a racial-minority person) with one where both parties are non-white gives the audience a lot to chew on. All of the intricacies of race, gender expression, and sexuality intertwine when Victor and Rahim are together, forcing the narrative to dig deeper and making the show something truly special.

The sheer amount of side characters and the short runtime (each episode clocks in at around 30 minutes each) leaves some stories feeling a little rushed, which would be one of the only flaws in the show’s exploration of teenage sexuality. With the time that is given, you don’t always get the full picture on the peripheral of the main plot, but relationships like Victor and his best friend, Felix, and the bond that he shares with his ex-girlfriend, Mia, are also valuable to the portrayal of a gay man’s inner circle.

Victor and Felix (played by Anthony Turpel) are a beacon of hope that a gay man and straight man can remain as tight after the coming out process as they were before. There is no sexual tension and absolutely no insecurities from Felix that Victor may come on to him; the latter issue is one of the preeminent reasons so many queer people have for holding off on being themselves, as they don’t want their friends to view them any differently than before (I, for instance, had an aunt who dropped one of her longest friendships when she found out the woman was a lesbian). They talk about their sex lives, go to each other for relationship advice, and just have a whole lot of fun; they’re bros (or bone brothers, according to Felix). Victor and Felix do not represent the majority of gay/straight friends, rather they portray the idyllic potential of this scenario in a world that will hopefully become fully comfortable with it some day soon.

As the first season came to a close, Mia (played by Rachel Hilson) is heartbroken after Victor cheats on her in the process of figuring out his sexuality and the showing of her forgiveness in the second season is one of the highlights of the series. Gay men keeping their friendships with ex-girlfriends after coming out is a common stereotype, but it’s rarely shown with such tenderness as in this series. The Victor/Mia bond demonstrates the ways platonic love can be so powerful it can confuse those engaged in it. This makes figuring out one’s sexuality even more confusing for many in the LGBTQ community, and the interpretation of this trope is very warm as seen in these two characters.

When making a TV show that represents a group of people who have been traditionally discriminated against, it is not enough for the characters to simply exist; these folks need to be a reflection of the society that they are fictionalizing. Unfortunately, depictions of the LGBTQ community on screen have long been restricted to one-dimensional sidekicks (the Gay Best Friend trope, examined perfectly here by The Take)  and cheap stereotypes (Carol on Friends was used to insult Ross’s masculinity, insinuating that he turned her lesbian because he wasn’t man enough for her). 

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In Love, Victor, the core discussion around how masculinity, conservative social norms, and the gay experience can merge into one lifestyle is extremely compelling for a myriad of reasons, not the least being that parents of children who look, act, and behave just like Victor can see how normal all of this is. Being gay is so much more than who you are attracted too; sexuality relates to every sector of a person’s life and how they are perceived by the society around them. No other show on TV right now can claim to be as aware of all of these topics, all while making you laugh, cry, and think. Victor says in the second episode of season 2 that he hopes to inspire someone else to be themselves one day; he’s surely already done that tenfold. 

All 10 episodes of Love, Victor season 2 are available to stream on Hulu now.

The post How Love, Victor Accurately Portrays The American LGBTQ Experience appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[flauntpage]

The Velveteen Dream is WWE's Chance to Move Beyond Gay Panic

Patrick Clarke Jr. is only 22 but he has come a long way since 2015, when he finished 9th in the WWE reality series Tough Enough. These days you probably know him better as the Velveteen Dream, sexually ambiguous, gender-fluid ascendant NXT superstar. On Saturday night, he participated in one of the marquee matchups at NXT Takeover: War Games, an extremely entertaining affair that ended in a close loss to the unbeaten Aleister Black and served as the culmination to what has been one of the most interesting feuds on NXT television for weeks.

For as athletically gifted as Velveteen Dream is, it’s his innate, unteachable ability to truly inhabit a character that puts him lengths ahead of where most wrestlers are at the same age and experience level.

There was certainly no guarantee that Clarke was going to be able to make this kind of character work, but he has completely thrown himself into the role, and wrestling fans—not stereotypically known as a particularly progressive or tolerant audience—have responded in kind. The course of his career going forward will say a lot about how WWE, which has a long history of reducing these types of characters to lazy and offensive stereotypes, has evolved—or hasn’t.

To really understand the type of character The Velveteen Dream is, you have to take a look back at professional wrestling history. As long as it has existed, it’s been a medium that plays on its audiences most basic fears and desires. Up until the 1940’s it was mostly an endless cycle of the same generic story—clean-cut hometown hero vs. evil foreign or ethnic stereotype—but it didn’t really begin to resemble what we recognize as pro wrestling until generic Nebraska boy George Raymond Wagner grew his hair out, bleached it platinum blonde, donned an extravagant cape and became Gorgeous George. Coinciding perfectly with the rise of television, he quickly became one of the most famous and highly paid athletes/performers in the country, single handedly dragging both the wrestling industry and American culture itself into a bold, modern direction. He did this not by appealing to a sense of nationalism, but by challenging and mutating what were then very rigid gender norms, and causing the massive audiences he would draw both on television and in person to simultaneously fear and revere him.

Since then, this eagerness to challenge traditional views of gender has become one of pro wrestling’s most recognizable tropes, from Gorgeous George to the Exoticos of lucha libre to Adrian Street. In a way, it’s one of the most progressive things about the sport—there have been gender non-conforming or queer-adjacent characters in pro wrestling for a lot longer than most other mainstream storytelling mediums—but at the same time it’s reactionary; a way to play on the basic prejudices of its audiences in order to sell tickets to a violent spectacle. Although wrestlers like Ric Flair, Rick Rude, and Shawn Michaels have incorporated various elements of this particular trope into their personas to tremendous success, it was always in service of their portrayal as heterosexual lothario figures. Any time in the modern WWF/E era that a character has attempted to really lean into the inherent homoeroticism of the business, it’s almost always ended up as a negative, reactive exercise in shock value and, in wrestling terms, cheap heat. A tool that a villain uses to gain the upper hand by turning his good guy opponent’s traditional masculinity against him.

From “Adorable” Adrian Adonis, who began his career as a generic bruiser and was re-branded in the early 80’s as a walking collection of every negative homosexual stereotype imaginable, to late 90’s tag team Billy & Chuck, who started as a comedy act in the vein of SNL’s ambiguously gay duo but eventually led to a now-infamous “wedding” segment that was denounced by GLAAD, WWE has repeatedly botched any efforts at portraying these kinds of characters with anything resembling subtlety or nuance. When Darren Young came out and was subsequently supported publically by the company, many believed it was a sign that WWE had turned a corner in this regard and were serious about presiding over a more inclusive modern era, but it’s hard to square that with the reality that Young was unceremoniously released a few weeks ago after a few minor pushes never went anywhere. Goldust was the closest WWE came to a genuinely subversive, androgynous character, and his appearance in the still squeaky clean era of mid-90’s wrestling essentially kickstarted a more adult-oriented focus that would lead to the biggest boom period in the company’s history; but this may have had more to do with Dustin Runnels’ skill as a performer, as Goldust’s initial storylines with Razor Ramon and Roddy Piper veered into ugly homophobia and the character’s ambiguous elements were eventually toned down.

“I think the evidence is pretty clear that Vince McMahon and the WWE treated queerness as a device for generating heel heat and had zero interest in channeling gender-fluidity into a positive "face" trait,” said Josh Howard, sports historian, wrestling fan, and co-author of A Secret Fascination, a study of gender non-conformity and masculinity in pro wrestling.

His co-author, writer and queer theorist Elizabeth Catte, was inclined to agree.

“I think many of the wrestlers who did gender non-conforming gimmicks were reactive, in the sense that they were reacting to exaggerated stereotypes of masculinity that are native to wrestling, but also to our culture itself (a bit like camp),” she told VICE Sports.

Yet despite the company’s negative track record, The Velveteen Dream feels like an opportunity to do something that rises above the outdated and inherently-conservative form of storytelling they’ve always relied on and present a gender-fluid character that actually feels progressive and subversive. The feud with Aleister Black has served as a tremendous opportunity to show that the character works under a bigger spotlight, and at the same time has really challenged Black, himself one of the company’s top prospects, to transcend the limitations inherent to his own persona—a stoic Satanist who kicks people in the face—and prove he is capable of backing up his significant in-ring ability with equally compelling character work.

NXT audiences have indicated that they’re happy to be along for the ride. During their match at War Games, Dream—ostensibly still a heel—was just as popular with the crowd as his opponent. And when Black pointedly said his name in a brief post-match promo and later glanced back at Dream while making his way up the ramp, finally giving him the precious acknowledgment he had been demanding, fans cheered hysterically.

In 2017 and beyond, wrestling audiences are ready for boundary-pushing characters and storylines that aren’t simply vehicles for gay panic and subsequent homophobic rage. The question now is whether or not WWE is ready as well. If they can take advantage of Velveteen Dream’s significant gifts as both an athlete and performer and truly embrace the unapologetically non-conforming elements of his character, it will go a long way to proving that their talk of being a more modern, progressive company that has moved beyond its reactionary conservative roots is more than just empty corporate jargon.

The Velveteen Dream is WWE's Chance to Move Beyond Gay Panic published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[amtushinfosolutionspage]

The Velveteen Dream is WWE’s Chance to Move Beyond Gay Panic

Patrick Clarke Jr. is only 22 but he has come a long way since 2015, when he finished 9th in the WWE reality series Tough Enough. These days you probably know him better as the Velveteen Dream, sexually ambiguous, gender-fluid ascendant NXT superstar. On Saturday night, he participated in one of the marquee matchups at NXT Takeover: War Games, an extremely entertaining affair that ended in a close loss to the unbeaten Aleister Black and served as the culmination to what has been one of the most interesting feuds on NXT television for weeks.

For as athletically gifted as Velveteen Dream is, it’s his innate, unteachable ability to truly inhabit a character that puts him lengths ahead of where most wrestlers are at the same age and experience level.

There was certainly no guarantee that Clarke was going to be able to make this kind of character work, but he has completely thrown himself into the role, and wrestling fans—not stereotypically known as a particularly progressive or tolerant audience—have responded in kind. The course of his career going forward will say a lot about how WWE, which has a long history of reducing these types of characters to lazy and offensive stereotypes, has evolved—or hasn’t.

To really understand the type of character The Velveteen Dream is, you have to take a look back at professional wrestling history. As long as it has existed, it’s been a medium that plays on its audiences most basic fears and desires. Up until the 1940’s it was mostly an endless cycle of the same generic story—clean-cut hometown hero vs. evil foreign or ethnic stereotype—but it didn’t really begin to resemble what we recognize as pro wrestling until generic Nebraska boy George Raymond Wagner grew his hair out, bleached it platinum blonde, donned an extravagant cape and became Gorgeous George. Coinciding perfectly with the rise of television, he quickly became one of the most famous and highly paid athletes/performers in the country, single handedly dragging both the wrestling industry and American culture itself into a bold, modern direction. He did this not by appealing to a sense of nationalism, but by challenging and mutating what were then very rigid gender norms, and causing the massive audiences he would draw both on television and in person to simultaneously fear and revere him.

Since then, this eagerness to challenge traditional views of gender has become one of pro wrestling’s most recognizable tropes, from Gorgeous George to the Exoticos of lucha libre to Adrian Street. In a way, it’s one of the most progressive things about the sport—there have been gender non-conforming or queer-adjacent characters in pro wrestling for a lot longer than most other mainstream storytelling mediums—but at the same time it’s reactionary; a way to play on the basic prejudices of its audiences in order to sell tickets to a violent spectacle. Although wrestlers like Ric Flair, Rick Rude, and Shawn Michaels have incorporated various elements of this particular trope into their personas to tremendous success, it was always in service of their portrayal as heterosexual lothario figures. Any time in the modern WWF/E era that a character has attempted to really lean into the inherent homoeroticism of the business, it’s almost always ended up as a negative, reactive exercise in shock value and, in wrestling terms, cheap heat. A tool that a villain uses to gain the upper hand by turning his good guy opponent’s traditional masculinity against him.

From “Adorable” Adrian Adonis, who began his career as a generic bruiser and was re-branded in the early 80’s as a walking collection of every negative homosexual stereotype imaginable, to late 90’s tag team Billy & Chuck, who started as a comedy act in the vein of SNL’s ambiguously gay duo but eventually led to a now-infamous “wedding” segment that was denounced by GLAAD, WWE has repeatedly botched any efforts at portraying these kinds of characters with anything resembling subtlety or nuance. When Darren Young came out and was subsequently supported publically by the company, many believed it was a sign that WWE had turned a corner in this regard and were serious about presiding over a more inclusive modern era, but it’s hard to square that with the reality that Young was unceremoniously released a few weeks ago after a few minor pushes never went anywhere. Goldust was the closest WWE came to a genuinely subversive, androgynous character, and his appearance in the still squeaky clean era of mid-90’s wrestling essentially kickstarted a more adult-oriented focus that would lead to the biggest boom period in the company’s history; but this may have had more to do with Dustin Runnels’ skill as a performer, as Goldust’s initial storylines with Razor Ramon and Roddy Piper veered into ugly homophobia and the character’s ambiguous elements were eventually toned down.

“I think the evidence is pretty clear that Vince McMahon and the WWE treated queerness as a device for generating heel heat and had zero interest in channeling gender-fluidity into a positive “face” trait,” said Josh Howard, sports historian, wrestling fan, and co-author of A Secret Fascination, a study of gender non-conformity and masculinity in pro wrestling.

His co-author, writer and queer theorist Elizabeth Catte, was inclined to agree.

“I think many of the wrestlers who did gender non-conforming gimmicks were reactive, in the sense that they were reacting to exaggerated stereotypes of masculinity that are native to wrestling, but also to our culture itself (a bit like camp),” she told VICE Sports.

Yet despite the company’s negative track record, The Velveteen Dream feels like an opportunity to do something that rises above the outdated and inherently-conservative form of storytelling they’ve always relied on and present a gender-fluid character that actually feels progressive and subversive. The feud with Aleister Black has served as a tremendous opportunity to show that the character works under a bigger spotlight, and at the same time has really challenged Black, himself one of the company’s top prospects, to transcend the limitations inherent to his own persona—a stoic Satanist who kicks people in the face—and prove he is capable of backing up his significant in-ring ability with equally compelling character work.

NXT audiences have indicated that they’re happy to be along for the ride. During their match at War Games, Dream—ostensibly still a heel—was just as popular with the crowd as his opponent. And when Black pointedly said his name in a brief post-match promo and later glanced back at Dream while making his way up the ramp, finally giving him the precious acknowledgment he had been demanding, fans cheered hysterically.

In 2017 and beyond, wrestling audiences are ready for boundary-pushing characters and storylines that aren’t simply vehicles for gay panic and subsequent homophobic rage. The question now is whether or not WWE is ready as well. If they can take advantage of Velveteen Dream’s significant gifts as both an athlete and performer and truly embrace the unapologetically non-conforming elements of his character, it will go a long way to proving that their talk of being a more modern, progressive company that has moved beyond its reactionary conservative roots is more than just empty corporate jargon.

The Velveteen Dream is WWE’s Chance to Move Beyond Gay Panic syndicated from http://ift.tt/2ug2Ns6

[flauntpage]

The Velveteen Dream is WWE's Chance to Move Beyond Gay Panic

Patrick Clarke Jr. is only 22 but he has come a long way since 2015, when he finished 9th in the WWE reality series Tough Enough. These days you probably know him better as the Velveteen Dream, sexually ambiguous, gender-fluid ascendant NXT superstar. On Saturday night, he participated in one of the marquee matchups at NXT Takeover: War Games, an extremely entertaining affair that ended in a close loss to the unbeaten Aleister Black and served as the culmination to what has been one of the most interesting feuds on NXT television for weeks.

For as athletically gifted as Velveteen Dream is, it’s his innate, unteachable ability to truly inhabit a character that puts him lengths ahead of where most wrestlers are at the same age and experience level.

There was certainly no guarantee that Clarke was going to be able to make this kind of character work, but he has completely thrown himself into the role, and wrestling fans—not stereotypically known as a particularly progressive or tolerant audience—have responded in kind. The course of his career going forward will say a lot about how WWE, which has a long history of reducing these types of characters to lazy and offensive stereotypes, has evolved—or hasn’t.

To really understand the type of character The Velveteen Dream is, you have to take a look back at professional wrestling history. As long as it has existed, it’s been a medium that plays on its audiences most basic fears and desires. Up until the 1940’s it was mostly an endless cycle of the same generic story—clean-cut hometown hero vs. evil foreign or ethnic stereotype—but it didn’t really begin to resemble what we recognize as pro wrestling until generic Nebraska boy George Raymond Wagner grew his hair out, bleached it platinum blonde, donned an extravagant cape and became Gorgeous George. Coinciding perfectly with the rise of television, he quickly became one of the most famous and highly paid athletes/performers in the country, single handedly dragging both the wrestling industry and American culture itself into a bold, modern direction. He did this not by appealing to a sense of nationalism, but by challenging and mutating what were then very rigid gender norms, and causing the massive audiences he would draw both on television and in person to simultaneously fear and revere him.

Since then, this eagerness to challenge traditional views of gender has become one of pro wrestling’s most recognizable tropes, from Gorgeous George to the Exoticos of lucha libre to Adrian Street. In a way, it’s one of the most progressive things about the sport—there have been gender non-conforming or queer-adjacent characters in pro wrestling for a lot longer than most other mainstream storytelling mediums—but at the same time it’s reactionary; a way to play on the basic prejudices of its audiences in order to sell tickets to a violent spectacle. Although wrestlers like Ric Flair, Rick Rude, and Shawn Michaels have incorporated various elements of this particular trope into their personas to tremendous success, it was always in service of their portrayal as heterosexual lothario figures. Any time in the modern WWF/E era that a character has attempted to really lean into the inherent homoeroticism of the business, it’s almost always ended up as a negative, reactive exercise in shock value and, in wrestling terms, cheap heat. A tool that a villain uses to gain the upper hand by turning his good guy opponent’s traditional masculinity against him.

From “Adorable” Adrian Adonis, who began his career as a generic bruiser and was re-branded in the early 80’s as a walking collection of every negative homosexual stereotype imaginable, to late 90’s tag team Billy & Chuck, who started as a comedy act in the vein of SNL’s ambiguously gay duo but eventually led to a now-infamous “wedding” segment that was denounced by GLAAD, WWE has repeatedly botched any efforts at portraying these kinds of characters with anything resembling subtlety or nuance. When Darren Young came out and was subsequently supported publically by the company, many believed it was a sign that WWE had turned a corner in this regard and were serious about presiding over a more inclusive modern era, but it’s hard to square that with the reality that Young was unceremoniously released a few weeks ago after a few minor pushes never went anywhere. Goldust was the closest WWE came to a genuinely subversive, androgynous character, and his appearance in the still squeaky clean era of mid-90’s wrestling essentially kickstarted a more adult-oriented focus that would lead to the biggest boom period in the company’s history; but this may have had more to do with Dustin Runnels’ skill as a performer, as Goldust’s initial storylines with Razor Ramon and Roddy Piper veered into ugly homophobia and the character’s ambiguous elements were eventually toned down.

“I think the evidence is pretty clear that Vince McMahon and the WWE treated queerness as a device for generating heel heat and had zero interest in channeling gender-fluidity into a positive "face" trait,” said Josh Howard, sports historian, wrestling fan, and co-author of A Secret Fascination, a study of gender non-conformity and masculinity in pro wrestling.

His co-author, writer and queer theorist Elizabeth Catte, was inclined to agree.

“I think many of the wrestlers who did gender non-conforming gimmicks were reactive, in the sense that they were reacting to exaggerated stereotypes of masculinity that are native to wrestling, but also to our culture itself (a bit like camp),” she told VICE Sports.

Yet despite the company’s negative track record, The Velveteen Dream feels like an opportunity to do something that rises above the outdated and inherently-conservative form of storytelling they’ve always relied on and present a gender-fluid character that actually feels progressive and subversive. The feud with Aleister Black has served as a tremendous opportunity to show that the character works under a bigger spotlight, and at the same time has really challenged Black, himself one of the company’s top prospects, to transcend the limitations inherent to his own persona—a stoic Satanist who kicks people in the face—and prove he is capable of backing up his significant in-ring ability with equally compelling character work.

NXT audiences have indicated that they’re happy to be along for the ride. During their match at War Games, Dream—ostensibly still a heel—was just as popular with the crowd as his opponent. And when Black pointedly said his name in a brief post-match promo and later glanced back at Dream while making his way up the ramp, finally giving him the precious acknowledgment he had been demanding, fans cheered hysterically.

In 2017 and beyond, wrestling audiences are ready for boundary-pushing characters and storylines that aren’t simply vehicles for gay panic and subsequent homophobic rage. The question now is whether or not WWE is ready as well. If they can take advantage of Velveteen Dream’s significant gifts as both an athlete and performer and truly embrace the unapologetically non-conforming elements of his character, it will go a long way to proving that their talk of being a more modern, progressive company that has moved beyond its reactionary conservative roots is more than just empty corporate jargon.

The Velveteen Dream is WWE's Chance to Move Beyond Gay Panic published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[flauntpage]

The Velveteen Dream is WWE's Chance to Move Beyond Gay Panic

Patrick Clarke Jr. is only 22 but he has come a long way since 2015, when he finished 9th in the WWE reality series Tough Enough. These days you probably know him better as the Velveteen Dream, sexually ambiguous, gender-fluid ascendant NXT superstar. On Saturday night, he participated in one of the marquee matchups at NXT Takeover: War Games, an extremely entertaining affair that ended in a close loss to the unbeaten Aleister Black and served as the culmination to what has been one of the most interesting feuds on NXT television for weeks.

For as athletically gifted as Velveteen Dream is, it’s his innate, unteachable ability to truly inhabit a character that puts him lengths ahead of where most wrestlers are at the same age and experience level.

There was certainly no guarantee that Clarke was going to be able to make this kind of character work, but he has completely thrown himself into the role, and wrestling fans—not stereotypically known as a particularly progressive or tolerant audience—have responded in kind. The course of his career going forward will say a lot about how WWE, which has a long history of reducing these types of characters to lazy and offensive stereotypes, has evolved—or hasn’t.

To really understand the type of character The Velveteen Dream is, you have to take a look back at professional wrestling history. As long as it has existed, it’s been a medium that plays on its audiences most basic fears and desires. Up until the 1940’s it was mostly an endless cycle of the same generic story—clean-cut hometown hero vs. evil foreign or ethnic stereotype—but it didn’t really begin to resemble what we recognize as pro wrestling until generic Nebraska boy George Raymond Wagner grew his hair out, bleached it platinum blonde, donned an extravagant cape and became Gorgeous George. Coinciding perfectly with the rise of television, he quickly became one of the most famous and highly paid athletes/performers in the country, single handedly dragging both the wrestling industry and American culture itself into a bold, modern direction. He did this not by appealing to a sense of nationalism, but by challenging and mutating what were then very rigid gender norms, and causing the massive audiences he would draw both on television and in person to simultaneously fear and revere him.

Since then, this eagerness to challenge traditional views of gender has become one of pro wrestling’s most recognizable tropes, from Gorgeous George to the Exoticos of lucha libre to Adrian Street. In a way, it’s one of the most progressive things about the sport—there have been gender non-conforming or queer-adjacent characters in pro wrestling for a lot longer than most other mainstream storytelling mediums—but at the same time it’s reactionary; a way to play on the basic prejudices of its audiences in order to sell tickets to a violent spectacle. Although wrestlers like Ric Flair, Rick Rude, and Shawn Michaels have incorporated various elements of this particular trope into their personas to tremendous success, it was always in service of their portrayal as heterosexual lothario figures. Any time in the modern WWF/E era that a character has attempted to really lean into the inherent homoeroticism of the business, it’s almost always ended up as a negative, reactive exercise in shock value and, in wrestling terms, cheap heat. A tool that a villain uses to gain the upper hand by turning his good guy opponent’s traditional masculinity against him.

From “Adorable” Adrian Adonis, who began his career as a generic bruiser and was re-branded in the early 80’s as a walking collection of every negative homosexual stereotype imaginable, to late 90’s tag team Billy & Chuck, who started as a comedy act in the vein of SNL’s ambiguously gay duo but eventually led to a now-infamous “wedding” segment that was denounced by GLAAD, WWE has repeatedly botched any efforts at portraying these kinds of characters with anything resembling subtlety or nuance. When Darren Young came out and was subsequently supported publically by the company, many believed it was a sign that WWE had turned a corner in this regard and were serious about presiding over a more inclusive modern era, but it’s hard to square that with the reality that Young was unceremoniously released a few weeks ago after a few minor pushes never went anywhere. Goldust was the closest WWE came to a genuinely subversive, androgynous character, and his appearance in the still squeaky clean era of mid-90’s wrestling essentially kickstarted a more adult-oriented focus that would lead to the biggest boom period in the company’s history; but this may have had more to do with Dustin Runnels’ skill as a performer, as Goldust’s initial storylines with Razor Ramon and Roddy Piper veered into ugly homophobia and the character’s ambiguous elements were eventually toned down.

“I think the evidence is pretty clear that Vince McMahon and the WWE treated queerness as a device for generating heel heat and had zero interest in channeling gender-fluidity into a positive "face" trait,” said Josh Howard, sports historian, wrestling fan, and co-author of A Secret Fascination, a study of gender non-conformity and masculinity in pro wrestling.

His co-author, writer and queer theorist Elizabeth Catte, was inclined to agree.

“I think many of the wrestlers who did gender non-conforming gimmicks were reactive, in the sense that they were reacting to exaggerated stereotypes of masculinity that are native to wrestling, but also to our culture itself (a bit like camp),” she told VICE Sports.

Yet despite the company’s negative track record, The Velveteen Dream feels like an opportunity to do something that rises above the outdated and inherently-conservative form of storytelling they’ve always relied on and present a gender-fluid character that actually feels progressive and subversive. The feud with Aleister Black has served as a tremendous opportunity to show that the character works under a bigger spotlight, and at the same time has really challenged Black, himself one of the company’s top prospects, to transcend the limitations inherent to his own persona—a stoic Satanist who kicks people in the face—and prove he is capable of backing up his significant in-ring ability with equally compelling character work.

NXT audiences have indicated that they’re happy to be along for the ride. During their match at War Games, Dream—ostensibly still a heel—was just as popular with the crowd as his opponent. And when Black pointedly said his name in a brief post-match promo and later glanced back at Dream while making his way up the ramp, finally giving him the precious acknowledgment he had been demanding, fans cheered hysterically.

In 2017 and beyond, wrestling audiences are ready for boundary-pushing characters and storylines that aren’t simply vehicles for gay panic and subsequent homophobic rage. The question now is whether or not WWE is ready as well. If they can take advantage of Velveteen Dream’s significant gifts as both an athlete and performer and truly embrace the unapologetically non-conforming elements of his character, it will go a long way to proving that their talk of being a more modern, progressive company that has moved beyond its reactionary conservative roots is more than just empty corporate jargon.

The Velveteen Dream is WWE's Chance to Move Beyond Gay Panic published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv