NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/soc/motss/48357

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-18 | 3.5 KB

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From: [e-mail] (John Fisher)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: Re: Can you tell me about this TV show?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 17 Nov 92 14:53:22 GMT
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In article <[e-mail]>,
[e-mail] (Steve Dyer) writes:

> In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Michael Davidson) writes:
> >I have to admit to being a little confused by your remarks - this could
> >have something to do with the fact that I think that "Are You Being Served"
> >is one of the *worst* programs ever produced by the BBC.

There's a difference of perception here which is quite
interesting.  I agree with Michael.  I think it's a ghastly
show.

Are you British, Michael?

> >The character
> >played by John Inman is certainly not that of an openly gay man who is
> >out of the closet - it is at best a caricature of a sterotype .... (but
> >then so are all of the other characters in the program so perhaps it isn't
> >*quite* so bad).
>
> Well, yes, but the character seems to be written with a fair amount of
> dignity, and he's usually portrayed as superior to the others.  I find the
> show lacking in overt homophobia, though his foibles and characteristics
> are lampooned as much as the others.  I think he's a rather endearing
> character, even if he is a caricature of a stereotype.

There's a place for a gay man in traditional working class
life in this country (I'm simplifying, of course).  It
isn't the case that you must either conform to the norm or
be thrown into outer darkness.  There's this thin strip
between the two.  But you can only inhabit this strip if
you are prepared to obey the rules.

The rules grant you certain privileges, in return for being
decisively a figure of fun.  You have to be a figure of fun;
it's what stops you from being too threatening to tolerate.
It's not just a question of being camp;  you must be camp
in the right way.  The Inman character is okay;  Quentin
Crisp is not.

It's a kind of jester role, the Queer Jester.  You must be
strange and disruptive enough to be interesting, enough of
a joke to be fundamentally no threat.  Of course, in a
comedy show, the Jester sometimes wins.  In real life he'd
better not be so careless.

And yes, in some versions of it, there can be moments of
dignity.  But they are the sad moments.  That's when it
comes closer to the other role British TV reserves for gay
men:  the Victim Queen.  Destroyed by queer-bashers, AIDS,
suicide and the cruelties of his lovers, he yet manages a
wistful smile, a camp, noble tear... but for Gawd's sake
don't rock the boat.

Bleuccch.

When, in this country, liberal people wonder why gay men
don't behave with more dignity, why they can't be discreet;
when they ask, Where are the gay men like the lovely pair
of queens who used to live over the antique shop when I
was a kid, they're all so strident now;  it's the Queer
Jester and the Victim Queen they're really hankering after.

To ask whether a show which embodies this ideology so
perfectly is "homophobic" is meaningless.  The question
comes from another space-time continuum, as does asking
whether the Inman figure is an "out gay man".

And yes, there's a similar thin strip for lesbians to live
in.  But that's another story.

--John