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IMHO "The Tyra Banks Show": The Gay Kingdom
Monday saw two "gay experiments" happen, with the same sad result. The first was The Tyra Banks Show's conducting a "social experiment" involving the "gay community". The second was my watching The Tyra Banks Show for the first time. In both cases, the experiment failed and the subject died. Of course this isn't the first time that Tyra has tackled gay issues. It was shows such as Gay For Pay, The Science Of Gaydar, and I Hate Being Gay that somehow led to Tyra's GLAAD Award for "Excellence in Media". I didn't see any of those episodes, but I have to assume they were GLAAD Award-worthy. Her latest gay-themed show is unlikely to win any awards, though. Don't get me wrong, I love Tyra. I think she's bubbly, good-hearted, and bat-crap insane. Just what I look for in a gay icon. But "The Gay Kingdom" was cringe-inducing, and as far as "social experiments" go, I think I'd rather participate in that Stanford Experiment.
The experiment involved seven members of the LGBT community coming together as "The Gay Kingdom" to assign roles for each other and basically undermine each others' confidence. Each person comes to the experiment already carrying a label, so we get the "masculine gay man," "feminine gay man," "bisexual man," "drag queen," "transgendered woman," "butch lesbian," and "lipstick lesbian".
What happens next is straight out of "Psychology 101", as the group has to assign the roles of king, queen, pauper, jester, cook, villain, and concubine. Needless to say, it does not go well as they battle over the choices, and the one fascinating aspect of the episode is how willing the group is to cling to the predictable societal roles. Michael (the masculine gay man) is named king, while Kayden (the lipstick lesbian) is queen. This doesn't sit well with Hedda Lettuce, who not only isn't awarded queen, but has to endure being awarded jester.
The rest of the roles are assigned, with the other Michael (the feminine gay man) as cook, Sam (the butch lesbian) as villian, Sasha (the transgendered woman) as concubine, and Jasen (the bisexual man) as pauper. It's Jasen who takes the brunt of the criticism in this experiment, with accusations that he's "confused" and that it's bisexuals who make it hard for gays to be accepted in society. And it'll only get worse for Jasen in the next part of the experiment.
After a tiresome segment about setting down "laws" for the kingdom, the last task is to vote on which member of the group should be banished from the kingdom. Unfortunately for Jasen, because he's bisexual he's considered an "outsider" in this gay kingdom, and unanimously voted off. Okay, some of this was interesting, but most of it was pointless. What was Tyra trying to show? That in the "gay community" there's dissent and difference of opinion? No kidding! That these seven people are representative of the millions of gays in the world? Please! By the end of the show all of the bickering and back-biting was giving me a headache, and reminded me again why I rarely watch daytime talk shows ... unless I'm assured of hearing "you are not the father!" Did you see Tyra's "social experiment", and if so, what did you think? Submitted by on Wed, 2009-04-29 14:00. |
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Just watched it on Youtube...
I mean, I get it. They want ratings, which means they are going to find the most provocative LGBT people they can find. It's amazing, though, that they found these people. Amongst their claims and decisions: bisexual men need to "get off the fence", every gay person they've met is hooked on drugs, they make the transgendered woman the town concubine, they make the "masculine" man the king and the "feminine" woman the queen, they vote out the bisexual because hes not "really gay", etc.
These people are ridiculous, but alas, it's entertainment.
Once again, Tyra fails to impress.
I have watched the Tyra Banks show only twice. Both times I was majorly dissapointed, and so I never watched it again. The first time, she was interviewing the stars of Twilight, and IMO she came across as a creepy old crazy lady. The second one was the "gay for pay episode". It is such an interesting and delicate topic, and Tyra handled it with the grace of a rhinoceros. The entire episode was "You're straight, but you have sex with men? Ewwwww!" I don't understand how she got the GLAAD award, and I'm glad I didn't watch this episode.
You too can be saved by the blog! www.savedbytheblog14.blogspot.com
I may be straight, but I'm not narrow.
Honestly
SEE HOW GAYS ARE JUDGING EACH OTHER!
That was the tag line for this show. What that means is that we (straights) should not feel so bad when we are judging gays, because they do it to themselves all the time.
Thanks for being honest and bringing this to light, but sorry to say, I could not stomach the entire show. Did I need to?
All one needs to receive a GLAAD award is the word 'gay' or 'homosexual' in your show, it can be spoken or implied, but more importantly you need a personality. A star. That would be Tyra, in this case. Whether her programs have merit for the gay community or, more importantly are exploitative, is beyond the point. Tyra is as star. GLBT people are desperately in need of Stars. It's what we live for, right?
It is telling that Tyra starts this show by flaunting her GLAAD award, as if she expectes concerned people from this community to call her on her soon to be revealed exploitation. She knows that her GLAAD award will thwart any attempts to call her out on her bigotry. She even said, "I feel like I have a pass to say this..." meaning that the GLAAD award is a get out of bigotry free card. So yes, before Tyra could exploit the LGBT community without impunity, she needed that award first.
We have seen this coming all along. I expected that the GLAAD award would come to mean that a recipient is allowed any manner of bigotry against our community and it will be used like that, because the award is given without merit to the recipient. But I am no less appalled that our community continues to support the people who exploit us.
What the hell was Heda Lettuce thinking? I would have walked out of the room as soon as reading the rules. She has no pride? I gather that who ever has enough self loathing to participate in an experiment like this is up for it. And what exactly did we learn from this experiment? It was designed to laugh at gays and chide our community, not educate us or more importantly the rest of the world. Shame on Tyra.
But because she has been honored by GLAAD, Tyra feels she has the right to humiliate us for profit. That was how she introduced this program. She has carte blanche. She is allowed to exploit gays because she has been given a GLAAD award, so fuck you if you don't like it.
Shameful, all around.
Why do I feel like I need to remind people that on average one GLBT person is murdered every week in this country because they are gay. This only reflects the crimes in states where they report hate crimes against gays and where there is undeniable evidence to support the claim of a hate crime. Believe me, there are many more murders happening because of hate against gay people. Tyra our awarded 'star' chooses to use her time not to tell that story but the story of straight boys selling them selves to gays and the story of strife within our community. For this she receives an award while the real story of our suffering, the murders, goes untold. Shame. Shame. Shame.
Tyra and GLAAD are the same, really. They are gay for pay, by that I mean they are for sale to the highest bidder, the highest ratings, the biggest stars, the most entertaining issues no matter how damning, illogical or shameful.
Tyra isn't the first to use her GLAAD award like this and "stars" like Tyra will continue to use their GLAAD award as an excuse to exploit gay people. GLAAD is doing a grave injustice to the community they have pledged to help. They have become the seal of approval for bigotry and exploitation. That is what the GLAAD award has come to mean. It's sad to witness our communities' resources squandered to promote exploitation.
GLAAD rewards people who are undeserving merely because we as a community enjoy our self loathing desire to rub elbows with straight stars. That encourages those 'stars' to use us and exploit our cause. Who is to blame, honestly?.