Kenny O’Neal, altar boy, class treasurer, and elks club teen of the month, has so many questions about being gay- is he a bear, a wolf, a silver fox, a dolphin, a giraffe? He’d be a deer in headlights without the guidance of queer teen TV! Those of us who grew up with the slushy stained, musical misfits of Glee might be surprised to see what makes the cut for Generation Z. While the late 90’s and early 2000’s constituted the era of gay positive programing, emphasizing that this crush is so not a phase, with Gaga singing that we were born this way, more recent programming is challenging ontologized gay identity! This blog closely examines three such TV shows which reveal shifting American attitudes towards sexuality and so-called gay subculture.
Long gone are the story arcs about the marginality of gay teenagers, on the outskirts of the church and the family, instead we have ABC’s The Real O’Neals, “Just your typical all-American, Catholic, divorcing, disgraced, lawbreaking, gay family.” This series effectively queers the American sitcom, infusing camp and kitsch with formulaic family fiascos. ABC brings gay subculture to the center of Mainstream, Middle America, with protagonist and narrator Kenny O’Neal, a sweet, sassy, self-absorbed gay teen Moses as our guide through his wacky family of straight oafs and original Catholic gangsters.
Long gone are the story arcs about the traditional coming out narrative of an adolescent who has a queer feeling and struggles to communicate her new identity to the world. Instead we have Faking It, MTV’s romantic comedy about two best friends who are mistakenly presumed to be lesbian by their progressive high school, and must contemplate coming-out as straight. Described by the token conservative mean girl from Dallas, who happens to be the first Intersex series regular on television played by an intersex actor, Hester is a “Kumbaya, socialist freakshow of a high school” where diversity is a prerequisite to popularity. Childhood BFFs Karma and Amy ascend to adolescent stardom as Hester’s cutest couple, and the first same-gender Homecoming Queens! Everything is smooth sailing until Amy discovers she does have feelings for her best friend and must explore coming out as bisexual, questioning, queer, and eventually herself to a school that already thinks she’s gay!
Long gone are the story arcs about the scared queer teen bullied into the closet, instead we have Freeform’s Pretty Little Liars, a mystery thriller dominated by a motley crew of queer queen bees and villains. In a suburb like Rosewood, you might not expect a lesbian bar, or a body bag to fall out of your wine cooler, but you should expect the subversion of gay victimhood. These sophomore sleuths scheme in the shadows while caressing their girlfriends’ hands, without ever having to label themselves. You’ll find plenty of acronyms, from the notorious NAT surveillance club, poorly translated from Latin as We See All, or the bone chilling initials A.D. of the cyber stalker and killer, but don’t expect to see LGBT- that is so 2010.
These changes in media representation have some calling the past five years the era of Post Gay television, in which traditional signifiers of homosexuality have disappeared or become self-ironic, passé tropes. These three series were skewered by fans on sites dedicated to queer popular culture, and The Real O’Neals and Faking It, the two most recent series, were both canceled prematurely due to low ratings. Critical fans argued that our culture is not yet post-gay, and question whether this trend of not labeling or coming-out, or mocking the coming out process, is a return to the repressive dynamics of the closet.
Do these contemporary shows mirror Generation Z’s labeling practices, and understandings of identity and community that are just too queer for the rest of us? What does this era reveal about American attitudes towards homosexuality and so-called gay subculture? Was the revolution finally televised? And please, how do we know if we’re the dolphin? Better stick around and see what’s going down!
Raised on TV: Queer Adolescence through Syndicated Sexualities 