ABC's New Gay Stereotypes

[ccharles000]

by:Fritz (pams house blend)

I was just invited to preview a pilot for a new comedy series from ABC. The show is called Modern Family and it has some of the most offensive stereotypes I've seen in a very long time.

There is a gay couple who adopt an Asian baby. I can't even begin to describe how offensive these characters were. Just looking at them in the photo above makes me want to scream.

They are both stereotypically queeny. Just look at the expression on the face of the one with the beard -- he's force feeding his husband because he's a chubby chaser. Isn't that hilarious?

There is also a Latina character who sounds like she's doing a Speedy Gonzales impression. Her accent is so forced and fake it can't even be called acting. She sounds like Rita Moreno's character from The Ritz, Googie Gomez.

Here's the formula:

* Bitchy blonde mom
* Dorky, half-retarded father
* Fowl-mouthed smart-ass kids
* Slutty teen daughter
* Sexy latina who marries much older man to stay in the country
* Grouchy old husband who married sexy latina
* Queeny gay couple with fabulous decorating skills and Asian baby
* Fat boy with crush on older girl

Most of the other people who reviewed this stinker said that the characters were too stereotypical.

One person wrote: "I'm not ready for gay parents."

If we're going to have gay parents on a TV comedy, they better not be like these disrespectful stereotypes. This is one of the worst portrayals of gay men that I've seen in years. What a step in the wrong direction.

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/12689/abcs-new-gay-stereotypes

[Starbucks Anarchist]

1. "Six Feet Under" had the best portrayals of gay characters, IMO.

Unfortunately, basic cable always has to rely on offensive stereotypes.

[JackBeck]

2. "Brothers & Sisters" has probably the best, as far as Prime Time goes.

During it's run, though, "Six Feet" had the most compelling and emotionally moving gay story lines I think I had ever seen on TV up to that point.

I saw that poster the other day in the OP and I wanted to hurl. It seems as if it's always one step forward, ten steps back, anymore.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

4. Hey!

:hi:

I haven't seen "Brothers & Sisters," but I'll take your word for it. But when I watched SFU, I was amazed to finally see a realistic portrayal of gay people/relationships on TV. The first-season episode that featured a gay kid as a hate-crime victim was one of the most powerful episodes of the entire run of the show.

[JackBeck]

7. Hi, buddy.

:pals:

Even just the way David struggled to acknowledge that fact that he was gay during the first season, only to finally come to terms with it after working on the body of the hate-crime victim, was just so intense.

[dsc]

14. I could relate with David on so many levels

The first two years of him on that show was about the best writing and acting I ever saw. Great character and great show.

[MattBaggins]

11. I like project runway for emotionally moing story lines

Gay and straight.

[fishwax]

15. i agree -- that was a great show for so many reasons

and that was definitely one of them.

[ccharles000]

20. I have never seen it but it sounds good.

[LostInAnomie]

3. If the Latina he's talking about is Sofia Vergara...

... he owes her an apology. That's her actual voice.

I'm in favor of any show that gets Ed O'Neill working.

[FreeState]

16. It is Sofia Vergara that is in the upcoming sitcom per IMDB n/t

[Prism]

5. Oh . . . wow

I haven't read the article yet. I can't get past the picture. Who are they appealing to with this? Were there no gay people with the network who took one glance, ran into an executive's office, waved the poster in the air, and screamed "Abort! Abort! Pissed off gays incoming!"

These are probably the same people who wonder why African-Americans get so cantankerous whenever they see black face.

[TokenQueer]

13. Bwahahaha!

"Abort! Abort! Pissed off gays incoming!"

:rofl:

No doubt. That thing ever getting greenlit is a jaw-dropper. I mean, really... Billy Crystal's character Jody on 'Soap' was a nicer portrayal and that was 30 years ago.

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

6. check out One Live to Live

and the gay characters on that show

[FreeState]

17. I've been watching that off an on

I like the issues they bring up but I have not seen it in a week so dont know whats happened. All I know is they are both HOT:)

Im hoping they don't pull a All My CHildren with them like they did with Bianca (Shes off in france and only comes back when they need a ratings boost).

[malletgirl02]

8. ABC

I wish I could say I'm surprised, but I'm not. ABC is a crappy network.

[targetpractice]

9. "force feeding his husband because he's a chubby chaser"

That's not funny... It's a real dysfunction (some say fetish) where one person in a relationship overfeeds the other in order to ensure they gain weight. Maybe because of a sexual attraction, but more likely a form of abuse and control.

I haven't seen the show, but I hope it never airs.

[izquierdista]

19. Just wait for season 2

To keep interest up, the families will have to be even more dysfunctional:
* Bitchy blonde mom ===> develops a drinking problem and gets a DUI
* Dorky, half-retarded father ===> gets a urinary problem; forced to pee in some bushes, he is arrested and listed as a sex offender
* Fowl-mouthed smart-ass kids ===> go into junior high and karma craps on them as they get bullied.
* Slutty teen daughter ===> ends up on the Bristol Palin path
* Sexy latina who marries much older man to stay in the country ===> gets racially profiled, tasered, and detained by an ICE sweep at her job
* Grouchy old husband who married sexy latina ===> finds out his health insurance doesn't cover triple strength Viagra
* Queeny gay couple with fabulous decorating skills and Asian baby ===> find out that baby is related to Kim Jong Il and he wants it back.
* Fat boy with crush on older girl ===> gets hooked on meth when someone tells him it will help him lose weight.

Boy I just can't wait for season 3!

[Mojambo]

10. This was one of the shows I was interested in.

I heard it's got a mock documentary type set up.

Here's hoping it's not quite as bad as this piece makes it out to be.

I really like Ed O'Neil.

[Shagbark Hickory]

12. Bright side: One less time slot for reality shows (with sterotypical characters) n/t

[REP]

18. Baaaaaarf, just based on the poster

Really, ABC? Really? It sounds awful and looks worse.

[Bluenorthwest]

21. ABC. Where can I begin?

They are in fact so conservative that they like the crap they produce, they make it that way intentionally.
I boycott ABC programming, not so much as a gay man, but as a Democrat. They made the TV movie 'Path To 9-11' designed to portray GW Bush as heroic, and Bill Clinton as holding the blame.
During the Primary debates, the ABC debate caused great anger around here. I did not see it, as I boycott ABC and expected it to be a farce. But people here sure reported it to be just as ABC ordered it to be. Stacked and slanted.
If I had been one of the candidates, to be clear, I'd rather have debated on Foxnews than ABC. ABC is even more biased, and is far more effective at communicating that bias in the guise of entertainment or news. I dislike both outlets intently, but ABC takes the cake.
And now this. Of course, ABC's pinnacle of 'comedy' is According To Jim, which is a dated bit of stereotyping of 'family life'. ABC's culture has always been regressive and conservative which is just the wrong environment for comedy. Or for human life. Or news. It is not a coincidence that they keep making backward material. They try to be backward. They actually try.
This new show will fail, basically all ABC comedy fails, but this one will doubly fail for their target audience will not enjoy the characters no matter how nasty the stereotypes, and people who would enjoy such characters will be offended at the atavistic portrayals. It is easier for a rich man to go through the eye of a needle than for an ABC sitcom to flourish.
A step back to the 80's shows that this is an ongoing situation. NBC had Cheers. CBS had Roseanne. ABC had Mr Belvedere. Just not in the same league at all. And forgetting quality for a moment, just the choices of characters. Roseanne featured a working class family trying to make it in a tough world, lots of love, little money. Belvedere was about an affluent family with a freaking butler who solved their problems for them. Lots of money, love imported in servant form.
ABC. Already Been Cancelled. This show might as well have Already Been Cancelled. It is as good as gone. Over already. So over that when it goes down, it will take cast members with it. Glug, glug, glug.