What is Going On in the Head of "Newsweek" Reporter Ramin Setoodeh?

Editor's Note 5/13/2010: We published this way back in November when we first noticed a problem with this Newsweek reporter's coverage of gay issues. The mainstream media seems just now to have noticed.

Ramin Setoodeh

Newsweek's November 29th print edition has an article called "Kings of Queens" written by entertainment and culture reporter Ramin Setoodeh. The guy is probably best known for a January, 2008 interview with Clay Aiken where the prickly, pre-coming out singer sort of went off on him.

That Aiken interview was amusing, but Setoodeh's latest piece? Not so much. In summary, he posits that highly effeminate TV characters and reality show personalities such as Glee's Kurt or Project Runway's Christian Siriano might be hurting public acceptance of gays. As evidence, he points to the recent gay marriage losses in California and Maine.

I won't bother trying to poke holes in the Newsweek article's twisted logic — that terrain was ably covered by editor Michael Jensen's response on Friday and by the many thoughtful AfterElton.com reader comments it generated.

My interest in the Newsweek article is trying to figure out what sort of fevered mind would produce it. So I did a little research on Setoodeh and discovered what seems to be a running theme in his work: Effeminate gay guys need to butch it up.

Back in July 2008 Setoodeh got the byline for Newsweek's cover story about the death of Lawrence King, "Young, Gay and Murdered." You might think it strange that a young reporter who had previously only done celebrity interviews and movie reviews would be given such a serious assignment. Did he ask for it? Did the Newsweek editors think he would have a feel for the material?

Only they know for sure.

Either way, the article that resulted was offensive to a lot of people. For an example of the resulting ire, see BoxTurtle and also Straight, Not Narrow. Setoodeh's piece on King seemed to blame the victim, strongly conveying the idea that he would still be alive if only he hadn't been so in everybody's face about his orientation. If you traipse around school in women's heels and give out valentines to male classmates, you can expect bad things to happen.

Weird isn't it how similar Setoodeh's take on Lawrence King is to his take on effeminate gay TV characters. If you act effeminate, very bad things might happen.

"It's all your fault."

One of Setoodeh's lighter pieces, a review of G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra, is innocuous enough but still gives us a peek into the author's psyche. The review pans the recent action film but reimagines a far more interesting version in which the uber-macho G.I. Joe is gay but in the closet because of the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. Setoodeh closes the piece with this little anecdote:

I'd wasted enough of my time on G.I. Joe. But before I fled [the screening], I wanted to check in on an elderly woman who had come to see the movie alone. She looked shellshocked in the lobby, but it turned out that she was only crying tears of joy. Apparently, she couldn't wait for the sequel.

I started to back away, but it was so late that I didn't think it would hurt if I sprang my idea on her. What if, in the next movie, G.I. Joe were gay? Would she still buy a ticket? Her face lit up. "Absolutely!" she said. "Just because you're gay doesn't mean you're not powerful."

The world needs a gay G. I. Joe — closeted, sure, but powerful!

I can't say with certainty what Setoodeh's orientation is, although this statement at the very end of his "Kings of Queens" article seems declarative:

"There's so much more to the gay community than the people on TV (or at a gay-pride parade). We just want a chance to live and love like everybody else."

Sure sounds to me like he's including himself within the "gay community."

If Setoodeh is in fact gay then he's a bit easier to understand (if not agree with). We all know gay men who seem overly preoccupied with masculinity; the kind of guys that wear the term "straight-acting" as some sort of badge of honor.

If Setoodeh is one of those gays then possibly he feels like effeminate TV characters and reality TV personalities are some sort of poor reflection on him. If that's his preoccupation then I wish he'd own up to it. He could use his writing to intellectually grapple with his own issues with effeminacy, rather than try to spin that personal weirdness into something larger and culturally significant for a mostly heterosexual readership. (e.g. we lost gay marriage in Maine and California thanks to Christian and Kurt) .

So that's my best take on Setoodeh: If he is gay, he really wants people to know he's "straight-acting."

There's one other possibility. It could very well be that Setoodeh doesn't believe the crap he wrote in the Lawrence King piece or the "King of Queens" article. Maybe he's just angling for a gig as a professional talking head and he knows that a controversial article (even a dumb one) is likely to get him a few precious minutes on CNN or, more likely, FOX News.

Setoodeh already has some experience in front of the camera, popping up for inane sound bites on Nancy Grace and a mildly offensive appearance on Bill O'Reilly's The O'Reilly Factor (where he gave O'Reilly flimsy journalistic cover to flash those photos of Adam Lambert kissing a guy.)

Imagine how greatly in demand Setoodeh would be at FOX News if he were a self-identified gay man who would reliably take positions that are contrary to what the majority of GLBT people believe? After all, the traditional media often seems to reward minority reporters who prove they aren't biased by taking on their own community. (Time's John Cloud is another example.) If that is what Setoodeh's angling for, then his "Young, Gay and Murdered" and "Kings of Queens" pieces are a good start, but he should take it to the next level.

How about a piece for Newsweek where he, say, argues gays aren't mature enough for the institution of marriage, or out gay teachers are actually a threat to children. Something like that and he'll be well on his way.