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More March madness
Lavender Tube
Published 03/17/2011
by Victoria A. Brownworth
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Breakdown poster child Charlie Sheen. |
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Beware the Ides of March – and beyond, apparently. Before the earthquake and subsequent tsunamis in Japan, the big TV event was Charlie Sheen's psychotic break. Sheen's breakdown begs the question of the Tweetable information age: Why is it so hard to look away from an accident? Every night we'd find ourselves waiting for the next installment in the Sheen devolution saga even as we told ourselves watching was a twisted voyeuristic display of something pretty base. As Craig Ferguson noted about a week into the Sheen epic meltdown, it was starting to feel like looking through the peephole at Bedlam. Jerry O'Connell noted on another talk show, "It's just not funny anymore."
Yet we were stunned that so much news coverage barely noted Sheen's long history of violence against women, which included the "accidental" shooting of his former fiance Kelly Preston, and assaults against two of his three wives and a series of "escorts."
Violence against women still seems to be acceptable in Hollywood and beyond, as Mel Gibson's recent plea bargain in the beating of his former girlfriend attests. Singer John Legend on The Insider noted that someone with such a long history of violence against women was clearly very sick and should not be given air time. Legend's girlfriend was more succinct: "Get some help, you psycho!"
The horrifying events in Japan snapped us back from TV reality to real reality. Shame on us for getting so caught up in one man's screwed-up behavior when the real world is such a (literal) disaster.
The Japan quake also drove President Obama out from whatever secure location he's been hanging out in. His press conference was a disappointment, but then Obama didn't drink Tiger Blood at the podium, although he did talk about winning and did blow a lot of smoke. The question that caught our attention was from ABC's thorn-in-the-side of the White House, Senior Correspondent Jake Tapper. Tapper brought up the most egregious news-you're-not-seeing issue: the torture of Bradley Manning.
We've been wondering when Manning, the soldier accused of leaking thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks, some of which are said to have provided the impetus for the recent spate of revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa, would ever hit the news. He finally did in the press conference.
Here's a little back-story on why this story has been ignored. Manning is gay. His anger with DADT is said to have been a factor in his leaking of the documents. Manning was arrested May 26, 2010, and has been kept in solitary confinement under brutal circumstances ever since – denied access to even a pillow and blanket in the cell in which he is forced to spend 23 hours a day. Back in January, Amnesty International was so concerned that his treatment was "unnecessarily harsh and punitive" and in "breach of the U.S.A.'s obligations under international standards and treaties" that it entreated Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to address Manning's circumstances immediately.
Here is what AI objected to in Manning's treatment: "23-hour/day solitary confinement; barred even from exercising in his cell; one hour total outside his cell per day where he's allowed to walk around in circles in a room alone while shackled, and is returned to his cell the minute he stops walking; forced to respond to guards' inquiries literally every 5 minutes, all day, everyday; and awakened at night each time he is curled up in the corner of his bed or otherwise outside the guards' full view."
March 5 it was revealed by The New York Times that Manning's treatment would include forced nudity, which is specifically banned by the Geneva Conventions as inhumane. Manning will be required to be totally nude throughout the night, and also in the morning outside his cell for check-in. This is supposedly to ensure that Manning does not harm himself. But according to the Pentagon, Manning is not on suicide watch, which means the nudity is just more torture.
Tapper asked Obama about Manning. Obama told Tapper: "With respect to Private Manning, I have actually asked the Pentagon whether or not the procedures that have been taken in terms of his confinement are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards. They assure me that they are. I can't go into details about some of their concerns, but some of this has to do with Private Manning's safety as well."
Manning's safety? Seriously? And since when do we ask the foxes how well they are guarding the henhouse when the world's premiere human rights organization says their mouths are full of feathers?
Oprah channel
The battle between fundamentalist Christians and queers is long-standing. On Oprah's new network OWN, veteran reporter Lisa Ling addressed that conflict as part of an ongoing series called Our America. Check out her series at OWN.com. Ling could not be a more sympathetic journalist on social issues, and her previous Our America piece, on transgendered pre-pubescent kids, was amazing, as is the piece on queers and Christianity.
Is it just us, or are the TV shows with queer characters still terrified of anything sexual unless it's sexy kissing lesbians, like Callie and Arizona on Grey's Anatomy? Here's one bothersome trend we've noted in the past couple of weeks. Three gay male couples on three different shows (all of which happen to be on ABC because ABC actually has queer characters) have recently adopted children. On the March 6 episode of Brothers & Sisters, Kevin and Scotty's adoption of Olivia was finalized. Good news, right? Especially since the two are married, having done so in the brief pre-Prop 8 window in California, where the show is set. Maybe.
Over at Desperate Housewives, Lee and Bob adopted Jenny, whom they were showing off on the March 6 episode. Modern Family started out with Mitchell and Cam adopting a baby girl, Lily. Tangentially, our solo lesbian TV couple Callie and Arizona, also on ABC, are now having a baby.
We don't mean to impugn parenthood. (Except maybe the awful dramedy of the same name over on the fifth network, NBC.) But why are all the boys having babies? (Bob and Lee and Kevin and Scotty both tried surrogacy first.) And why are all the kids girls? Call us cynical, but we think the rehabilitation of gay men in shows by gay men (both DH and B&S have gay creators, Marc Cherry and Greg Berlanti, respectively) is also an effective neutering tool. These couples have been turned into cuddlers, as opposed to sexual beings (and both shows are rife with on-screen hetero sex). Giving them all girl children takes any threat of the specter of gay men having sexual feelings for boys out of the equation.
We understand risk aversion. But we would prefer to see some queer sex on the tube to formally situate gay men and lesbians in the same sexuality zone as straight couples on the tube. Sexuality is part of adult life. So let's see it, please. Gay men can be dads, sure. But they are always going to be sexual creatures as well. Let's not cut off their balls just to make the straight viewer see them as wholesome. B&S also has the older gay couple of Ron Rifkin and Richard Chamberlain. Show us more of them, please. They are both HIV+ and too old to have kids.
NBC has a terrible sitcom called Outsourced, which you likely haven't seen. We wish we could tell you to watch it, but in good conscience we cannot because the show is just filled with racist and ethnic "humor" that we frankly find offensive. Alas for us, one of the only out transgender actresses, Aneesh Sheth, will be appearing as a transgender character throughout April on the show, part of NBC's Thursday night comedy lineup. So we recommend you DVR the show and see if she improves it. We doubt it, but we hate to ignore a queer player on the tube just because the show itself sucks. And who knows, she could improve it.
ABC's newest drama debuts next week, Body of Proof with Dana Delaney (Desperate Housewives, China Beach ). We liked Delaney in a recent star turn on Castle, but we find her "brash" neurosurgeon-turned-pathologist hard to take. The show could get better, but don't count on it.
If you aren't watching the tube, you don't know what you might miss. So you really must stay tuned.
(Source: Bay Area Reporter)
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