Page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 - Next

A slightly less tortured, but no less accepting, relationship between a gay man and a straight man came in Six Feet Under (2001-05). Series creator Alan Ball said that Nate's casual reaction to news of his brother David's homosexuality was deliberately designed: "We wanted to erode that myth that if you're a straight guy, you have to be threatened by gayness."

In the first season, as Nate and David get reacquainted when Nate returns home after their father's death, their wrangles are over how to run the family business. Though requiring a moment or two to mentally adjust, Nate gets on board with David's sexuality very quickly. And once David has overcome his remaining closeted scruples, the two brothers discuss their romantic relationships in a completely equal way, as two straight men would. As in episode 2:9 when David has been kissing Keith:

Nate: What's with the red face?
David: Oh. Um, Keith and I were... fooling around, and, well, he hadn't shaved.
Nate: You big whore!
David: Is it really bad?
Nate: Nah. Actually, yes. It's bright red. It's red as a baboon's ass.
David: Oh my God! I look like a burn victim.

The two brothers also represent a breaking away from the usual ‘gay man/straight man' polarity in terms of characteristics. David (in Michael C. Hall's subtle portrayal) has ‘gay' mannerisms, though he is not stereotypically camp. Nate is more conventionally masculine. Additionally, David is a church-attending Christian with quite conservative ideals while Nate is more of a hippie looking for enlightenment.

David, at the beginning of the series, is someone who has been shouldering his family responsibilities at the expense of his own happiness; Nate has run away from his. David is tied to the financial end of the funeral business, whereas Nate is more likely to be empathetic, sensitive and emotionally open with the families of the deceased.

These gradually improving representations on television and in smaller films may help to explain why, twenty-three years after Paramount's comedy Partners, there were three fairly major films released in 2005 that centered around a partnership between a straight man and a queer man. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, with Robert Downey Jr. as straight and Val Kilmer as gay. Where The Truth Lies, with Kevin Bacon as straight and Colin Firth as bisexual. And The Matador, with Greg Kinnear as straight and Pierce Brosnan as bisexual (or perhaps pansexual).

Instant progress over Partners can be seen in the way that ‘gay' and ‘straight' characteristics are balanced between the two buddies in these movies. Val Kilmer's detective Gay Perry dresses and grooms immaculately, has a hinted over-attachment to his mother, and a cellphone that plays “I Will Survive”. He also has an instant bullshit-detector and is tough as hell (unlike Downey Jr.'s straight Harry, a bungler who is in constant danger of getting his ass kicked).

Kilmer comes across as a strong gay man who is comfortable and proud in his sexuality, and feels no need to overcompensate by trying to avoid every stereotypically ‘gay' characteristic.

In The Matador, Brosnan's bisexual character is flamboyant (he paints his toenails), wildly promiscuous and without any family or stabilizing influences. But he is also tough and cool-headed in his conventionally macho job of assassin, whereas the heterosexual family man Kinnear is more prissy, fastidious, and easily frightened.

Page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 - Next