Playing It Straight

If there is one adjective which really annoys me, it is the term "straight-acting". To me it carries so much internalized homophobia and self-loathing that anyone who uses it on themselves immediately creates a negative impression. While I do understand that society sets sexuality up as a straight/gay binary, this is completely presumptious. Just because one does not have a penchant for footy team shirts or walks with a certain swishiness does not make one homosexual.

So it was with a mix of annoyance and curiousness that this weekend the Pink insider watched Playing it Straight on 4oD. For those of you who have not seen it before, it is a twist on the traditional dating programme where one girl is sent on a series of dates to find the man of her dreams amongst a bevy of 10 eligble bachelors. In this particular case the twist is that half of them are gay. If she picks a straight man, they get £50,000 each. If she picks a gay man she gets nothing, while he gets the entire £100,000 prize money.

For a good critique on this programme, and on the whole heteronormative dating show genre, do take a look at this rather marvellous All Business article on the contruction of reality dating show heterosexuality. The Pink Insider was most annoyed that the contest required the gay contestants to "go back into the closet", reinforcing the "otherness" of being gay. Yes, the alleged aim of the show, i.e. the breaking down of stereotypes, was noble, but when the gay chap who eventually won it proudly declared that he was not a poof, a little bit of me died inside. Why does anyone need to expurgate these so-called "feminine" characteristics to feel validated as a gay man?

Anyway, I am glad that the two contestants for whom I was rooting - the charming and well-spoken Alex and the exuberant and comic Jonny - both turned out to be homosexual. It had nothing to do with a gaydar, these two were, for me, the most balanced individuals on the show, who also just happened to be gay.