"Forbidden Love" video clip update: For the love of Olli

Listen, I'm just as wary of everyone else of perpetuating the cliche that one half of every gay couple is the "girl" and the other half the "guy".

But as Suzanne Westenhoefer, a great lesbian comic says, every relationship needs a little yin and a little yang. As much as we might not like to ascribe to Butch/femme, top/bottom stereotypes, most gay relationships I've met tend to fall along that type of division, at least to a certain extent.

Maybe it's the result of the relationship structures we have had modeled around us our entire life, who knows. But the great thing about gay life is that the yin and yang can be fluid and roles pass back and forth.

I will agree that shows don't tend to reflect that back and forth as well as I would like.

I have noticed (meaning my observation, others may have a different perception) that the gay community does tend to fawn over the actors in the "guy" roles more than the other actor in the pairings. Thore and Jake do seem to elicit more heavy breathing than Jo and Van (although why more people don't have altars dedicated to Jo, I'll never understand). It's also interesting to note that the gay rumors/speculation also seems to focus on the "girl" a lot more than the "guy".

www.thebittersuite.blogspot.com

I think it's hilarious that Axel comes into No Limits wearing a very less than manly shirt! LOL. I'm sure the costume department was having a laugh with that one!

On the whole butch/femme debate...why are you thinking Olli looks like the 'damsel in distress' for? Axel is a trained boxer, Olli isn't. Even a gay man who was the 'man' in his relationship would technically be the 'damsel in distress' if he wasn't a boxer himself. It just makes more sense for the VL writers to write it this way, because if it was Christian who was downstairs at this point he would be able to put up more of a fight. So it's nothing to do with stereotypes in my eyes, it's very realistic.

Christian is a gifted athlete and, as we just saw, a very talented boxer.  Naturally he's going to come across as more "butch" than Olli who may be in good shape, but isn't an athlete.  However, early after Olli's return we saw that he is quite strong on the weight bench. But, as already noted, Axel is a professional boxer, and was carrying a weapon to boot.  Olli was at quite a severe disadvantage there.

It's hard to find a "perfectly" balanced couple who are equal in everything.  Indeed, it's almost unheard of and I certainly don't know any.  Individuals are just that: individuals.

Ollian managed to pull further ahead of Nuke again today with all the public kissing.  Plus the stated (if sadly interrupted) plan to take a bath together.  Still, even being gay-bashed, at least Olli isn't in a wheelchair...

I wonder if Thore's popularity has something to do with the fact that his good looks are more conventional, rather than the fact that his character has a tougher time expressing his emotions (making him the "guy"). Jo is very handsome, in my opinion. He is so expressive that it's difficult not to fall for him. But Thore has more of the supermodel type of look. 

The victory scene was beautiful. In the previous episode, we noticed some ambivalent people in the audience, in addition to the supportive people, but that didn't matter because this moment was all about Ollie and Christian. That was a perfect moment.

The scene with Axel bothered me because violence bothers me. As I grow older, I'm less able, or less willing, anyway, to tolerate violence. I totally get that this show is not promoting or glamorizing violence in any way. And I understand that sometimes a story needs to include a negative action to show just how negative that action is. But it's still something I prefer not to watch.

However, since if it is going to be included, I hope it is done well. By that, I mean it should show that the damages done are real, but, at the same time, it should show that the person who was attacked can recover. If you see a character's successful struggle with finding their inner strength, then they are not left feeling like a perpetual victim. This happens more often that I would like to count to women on some american soaps. They get raped and temporarily traumatized, but they never have  a recovery proccess. They very quickly move back to normal. This leaves them in a permanent state of victimhood. It's as if it is an ordinary event for a woman to be brutalized, and if it should happen at any moment a woman should cry for a while and then get back to life as usual. Not that I think Forbidden Love will necessarily do this same thing with their gay characters. I just needed to get that mini-rant off my chest.

Michael,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPQ_xzXs5bY&eurl=http://gaydaytime.blogspot.com/

Ugh, Axel just has to ruin everything, doesn't he? I was hoping that his character would go away after Christian's boxing match but no luck apparently. Apart from the ending, that was a very lovely episode that showed how much Christian and Olli truly love and need each other.

Anyway, I hope Axel gets into trouble for attacking Olli like that. Hopefully after that we never have to see his ugly face again.

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R.I.P. - Heath Ledger [1979 - 22 January 2008]

R.I.P. - Sayif [2006 - 12 June 2008] - my cat, run over by a car..

What I meant was if Olli is to be called a 'damsel in distress' in this scene, then even a man who was the 'man' in his relationship would be called one also. But I don't think they should be called that in the first place, because Olli isn't a boxer therefore he will be the weaker person here going up against Axel. It has nothing to do with whether he's the woman in the Ollian relationship or not.