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High School Musical 3's Ryan Evans still a coded gay character
Ryan's main purpose in the series is to act as sidekick and foil to his twin sister Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale), an over-the-top diva bitch who lives in a swirl of pink and expects everyone to fall down at her pedicured feet. (Sharpay's big song "Fabulous" is destined to become a drag anthem for the ages.) In HSM 3, the Evans twins get an elaborate musical number called "I Want It All," and sharp-eyed viewers will catch Ryan ogling a shirtless male dancer for about a second and a half. But can't Ryan aid and abet Sharpay in her shenanigans, throw jazz hands, and be an out gay teen at the same time? He can — on stage, anyway. In the touring show High School Musical on Tour!, gay playwright David Simpatico makes Ryan’s queerness a touch more overt, putting pictures of pin-up men in his locker (his male classmates all have pictures of women) and even allowing Ryan to swoon a bit when BMOC Troy brushes past him in the hall. And it’s not like the young audience to whom the HSM franchise is aimed doesn’t read between the lines. After AfterElton.com ran an interview with Simpatico and officially “outed” Ryan, one teen blogger linked to the story under the headline, “BREAKING NEWS! Ryan Evans is Gay! Also the Sun is Hot and the Sky is Blue!” Which brings us back to the Disney Channel, a company that has to simultaneously entice young eyeballs to the set without doing anything to upset parents. An out gay teenager in a tweener movie? Not looking likely. After all, teen network The N recently became a completely separate network from its former partner, the kiddie-centric Noggin, at least partially because “family values” advocates were complaining that a cable network aimed at kids featured queer characters on Degrassi: The Next Generation and South of Nowhere. At this summer's Television Critics Association Summer Tour, a reporter from AfterEllen.com spoke with Gary Marsh, president of Disney Channel Worldwide, who defended the network, noting, “There have been characters on Disney Channel who I think people have thought were gay. That’s for the audience to interpret.” Pressed by a writer from AfterElton.com on whether it was fair for gay viewers to have to “interpret” those characters, Marsh responded, “Well, just to speak sort of in the 30,000-foot level first, we don’t deal with sexuality on the Disney Channel in general. That’s just sort of not where our audience’s head’s at. They’re really a pre-sexual audience, for the most part, and so sexuality is not how we look to tell any kind of stories.”
Disney Channel
Worldwide President Gary Marsh Regarding the fact that there are boyfriend-girlfriend relationships in the HSM movies, Marsh interjected, “Yeah, but that’s not about sex,” as though having two boyfriends equals full-tilt boogie. And as to why there can be boyfriend and girlfriends but not two boyfriends, he could only note, “It’s just not something that we’ve ever had the opportunity to portray. It hasn’t been a place we’ve gone.” That last sentence is certainly true, although the one before it, not so much. Ryan Evans is a flamboyant, larger-than-life character, and the earth wouldn’t fall into the sun if we saw him hold hands with a boy. (Bear in mind, lead characters Troy and Gabriella weren’t even allowed to kiss until the end of the second movie.) The fact that the HSM movies handle Ryan’s nascent sexuality with tongs is all the more frustrating given the themes of the films themselves. High School Musical champions a shattering of high school stereotypes, whether it’s the jock boy and the brain girl loving to sing and dance or the big girl busting hip-hop moves (in HSM 3, she’s become head cheerleader) or the sk8r boi who secretly loves to play the cello. These movies encourage young people to think of themselves and their peers not, as The Breakfast Club once put it, “in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions” but as multi-faceted human beings who don’t have to follow the script that life or their class clique has written for them.
There’s
hope for Ryan Evans, though. The audience gets that he’s gay, and they’re
apparently OK with it. And as for Ryan himself, HSM ends with him
graduating from high school. And what drama club boy’s life didn’t immediately
get better once those four years were over? Submitted by on Fri, 2008-10-24 09:49. |
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No love interest?
Married Men Don't Count
Chad's hardly married, but
Chad's hardly married, but I agree with you that Disney needs to realize that two boys (or two girls) falling in love isn't any more sexual than when a boy and a girl fall in love.
And I wouldn't condone cheating of any kind, but Chad is written pretty much as gay as Ryan. Their interaction reads more as Chad finally getting an idea of his orientation than anything illicit. Mostly because he has far more chemistry with Ryan than any other character. Disney could've had a really interesting love story had they been brave enough to go there.
Outfits
This is undoubtedly why Lucas Grabeel was cast in "Milk"
--where he wears a dress.
After Elton should have supplied you with a pic of the frock-clad Lucas, Alonso.
I would fervetly hope
Well I hate to be the one to break this to you--
but not only has he heard of it, a previous Kenny Ortega-directed boycentric Disney musical
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104990/
is one of Gus' all-time favorites.
Van Sant and Twinks
Is it just me, or is it correct to observe that Gus Van Sant has a thing for twinks? Mala Noche, My Own Private Idaho, Elephant, Paranoid Park....
When I read that Grabeel had been cast in Milk, it didn't surprise me at all. Of course, this doesn't negate his obvious and considerable talent as a filmmaker. Elephant is one of the best films of the decade, imho.
Check out my blog: http://radicalsexy.blogspot.com/
Speaking of "Coded Gays" of the past --
Here's Busby Berkeley's spectacular "The Lady in Red" number form In Caliente featuring the fabulous Winnie Shaw and the great Edward Everett Horton. It shows a group of mature tuxedoed "Sugar Daddies" being wooed by a bevvy of scantily-clad Pre-Code cuties. But at one point Horton ends up in the arms of another "Sugar Daddy"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tpjdakeHeA
Kenny Ortega
Yes Kenny Ortega is openly gay
Gary Marsh is an a**hole
That's all there is to it... Gary Marsh is an **shole. How on earth can anyone in Disney say they don't discuss sexuality? Not sex, asshole, but sexuality. All my childhood I had to sit through every single Disney movie of a boy pining for true love with a girl, or a girl pining for a guy, or a couple who makes everything OK in the end by having a baby (oh wait -- that IS sex!). I KNEW that was not my sexuality. To equate showing a boy crushing on a boy with 'dirty sex' is -- yes I'm going to say the 'h' word! -- homophobic. Gary Marsh's obvious lack of compassion or empathy should disqualify him as a spokesman. Ah well, screw him, "some day my prince will come"....
Editor's Note: Please watch the profanity, ESPECIALLY in a subject line. People read this site at work and we don't want to cause them trouble.
Technically, what Disney
Technically, what Disney delves into is romance. And the mass market perception still is that gay = sex = not for kids. For all the talk of "liberal Hollywood", it's so corporate and cautious that while Mattel has its Pink and Schoolgirl Ryan dolls out, it's also got a prom 2-pack set with Ryan and Kelsi.
Here's a statement from a former Disney employee who has post-canonically outed a character: http://s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=8320
There's a long way to go, but I am sure I will see a teenybopper Spin/Marty remake (yes, as in yaoi slash ho-yay they actually kiss like Troyella) in my lifetime.
This bugs me more and more
This constant refusal of Hollywood's producers not to acknowledge or even portray gay characters because of the belief that gay = sex has become one of this year's major themes, hasn't it?
And I'm absolutely sick of it. It is reductive and offensive and needs to end.
Check out my blog: http://radicalsexy.blogspot.com/
It's the corporate culture...
There is no "liberal media" when the studios answer to stockholders and work their darnedest not to offend potential customer groups, even when some of these groups oppose each other. So you have the phenomena of "plausible deniability", especially in the heavily consumer product kid properties. That is the progressive stance here. I hardly doubt that Hasbro's GI Joe screenwriting contract some years back (from an earlier attempt to bring it to the big screen) with its ban on gay characters is the exception.
In the franchise world, I would keep my eye on Harry Potter because this is the first major film/tourist (theme park coming soon!) franchise with a major confirmed gay character. I am extremely curious how this affects future business. Will it hurt, as corporates tend to fear? Stay steady, causing no real harm? Gross more than before? None of these could be completely cited as the result of Dumbledore's outing alone. But it's something that could be a precedent brought up in pitches for gay-inclusive kid/toyetic properties in the future.
That would be an uncertain test
While Rowling has openly stated that Dumbledore was gay, he was also very elderly and effectively celibate. His sexuality is also only implied, never directly stated, in any of the books. This rather makes him the ultimate case where sexuality is irrelevant to the audience.
This is in sharp contrast to the world of teenie-bopper movies where even when sex is not depicted in the movie teen audiences consider it as being impied everytime any characters look like they're going to hook up.
Remember that a stunning number of people still consider it "flaunting our sexuality" when we walk down the street holding hands with another guy, even without any other PDA beyond that. Thus it's not surprising that in trying to produce a bubble gum world "safe" for Middle American audiences any implication of a gay character as anything but celibate is considered too risky. Disney in particular would be sensitive as they have been the subject of some of the most ridiculous protests based on paranoid delusions in history. Anyone remember the great "Penis Towers on the Prince's Castle on The Little Mermaid movie poster" controversy?
I would say Dumbledore is a
I would say Dumbledore is a transition figure. We all know he's gay now, the media went to town whereas Ryan is pure coding and straddling the fence of the culture war. Both are all sorts of problematic (dead and tragic is the realm of the gay and likely gay in Potter) but they are precedents for the gay-inclusive franchise model we're inching towards. Inch by inch is annoying but we're talking about a franchise pop culture that still shies away from leads other than straight young white males.
I finally watched the first HSM and it strikes me as a tv movie mix of Singing in the Rain, Swing Kids, Grease, and Zanna Don't. I think it's pretty overt for what it is, with Chaylor being the sorriest quickie final number couple since Newsies. I actually like Taylor, but I felt the whole thing was an afterthought. So where's their duet? Well, isn't there one in 2? With Ryan and Chad.... oh. LOL
guilty pleasure
I know I can't help it, but I love these movies!
Maybe because Disney is no longer putting music numbers in their cartoons (which I miss so much), but where else can you see modern day musicals...i mean it, where? I would love to go see one!
-S
Maybe Ryan just "sounds" gay
afhickman
"The mountain has wings."
Surprisingly, Stephanie Zacharek penned a positive review of HSM3 in today's salon.com: http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2008/10/24/high_school/. Her thoughts on Ryan:
"The fact that 'HSM 3' makes a place for a character like Ryan without definitively spelling out his orientation is part of what's endearing about it. This is a movie for preteens, after all: There's plenty of time in the future for "Am I or aren't I?" worries; maybe, for some kids, it's just enough to see a kid on-screen they can relate to, for whatever reason."
Sounds fine to me.
Ah, jeez!!!
. . . I've never gotten into the High School Musical franchise. . .
. . .Camp did it first (and best), to me. . .
. . . but if you think about it, the whole thing is gay. . .
. . .especially so, to my teen nephews and their buddies!
'nuff said.
After all, teen network The
After all, teen network The N recently became a completely separate network from its former partner, the kiddie-centric Noggin, at least partially because “family values” advocates were complaining that a cable network aimed at kids featured queer characters on Degrassi: The Next Generation and South of Nowhere.
Is this a fact?
What's with Disney?
Remember that Walt Disney was the guy who fired Tommy Kirk, his biggest teen male star, when he found out Tommy liked boys. And who at Disney decided to fire out lesbian Lauren Lloyd as president of Disney, after she greenlit what was to become the whole HSH phenomenon.
I have yet to see any of the HSM films. I kinow it is is a gay card must, and, I do love musicals. It is ust they seemed like a Disney Theme Park show put on screen. Maybe they are better than that but they still seemed ho-hum. But you have to be a clueless idiot (and many family values-types are) not to know that Ryan is as gay as they come, but totally unaware. Zac Efron is never going to be the next Fred Astaire, the whole thing is so oversaturated and each generation of tweeners moves on, and quickly.
But, how cool would it have been to give Ryan a FERNANDO'S HIDEWAY-style number as he goes to his first gay disco. Now that's Fosse. But probably out of character for a still unaware teen boy, who's friends probably alrrady know but don't want to say anything. Maybe they can do it when they make the film JULLIARD AND BRODWAY, where Ryan has to choose between his ballet classes and a part in a big Broadway show. Yeah, right!
INSIDEGUY
hmmmm
I am a huge fan of the high school musical series (hey, I'm a teenager), and I especially like the movies' attempt at encouraging kids to be different. Yes, there are Disney boundaries to these differences, but it's still something.
I'm not sure how I feel about Ryan being gay. On the one hand, he is so gay to quote my brother, but even just saying that makes me feel like I'm perpetuating a stereotype. Ryan may be flamboyant, but we don't necessarily need to equate that with being gay. Perhaps the fact that he doesn't have a relationship is positive; it lets kids express themselves without associating that expression with a sexual orientation. But on the other hand, of course Disney wouldn't allow Ryan to be out. They are a corporation founded on family values, and at the moment that doesn't equate with sexual diversity. It's complete BS that Disney doesn't deal with sexuality (I watch Disney, and its foundation is heterosexual love.). Disney has also tackled other social problems, such as racism and ableism, but I think we are a long way away from seeing a Disney movie centred on coming out. I hope someday it will happen, but I'll probably have grandkids by that time
I may be straight, but I'm not narrow.