03/01/2005
Another Race?
Is it me or does a new season of The Amazing Race start every ten minutes?
My interest in this show died a few seasons ago but it could be sparked again with the addition to the line-up of Rob Mariano (aka Boston Rob) whom you'll remember (or not) became a reformed homophobe on Survivor: Marquesas after sexual tension with nurse John Carroll came to a boiling point.
After Marquesas, John told The Advocate, "Yeah, he called me after the episode where he called me the “big-time queer” and we had a nice long conversation. I explained to him how damaging those words are. The first thing he said was that he didn’t realize the word 'queer' was bad. He thought that gay people referred to each other as 'queers.' I said, 'Yeah, there is definitely a faction that does that, Rob. But the difference is that they’re gay themselves. But you use the word 'queer' as if it were a derogatory word for any number of ethnicities. He has true remorse about it.'"
Besides, Rob is just so dumb and pretty.
Posted 1:00 PM EST by Andy Towle in Film & TV | Permalink
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Agree with you about Rob! At least there are some gay folks back on the Race this time around... a boyfriend team from WeHo as well as a Mom/Gay Son combo.
Posted by: Ed | Mar 1, 2005 2:09:58 PM
If anything, Rob being on the show makes me NOT want to watch it. I hate the gimmick of putting a "known" person on the show.
Posted by: Patrick | Mar 1, 2005 2:29:36 PM
Ditto on the "known" people. At least that annoying Allison only lasted 45 minutes a couple of seasons back (which...to Andy's point...was probably 6 months ago). I know I'm slumming, but I can't help watching this show. It's one train wreck after another.
Posted by: kelly | Mar 1, 2005 2:55:16 PM
This is one of my favorite shows, and they're ruining it by casting reality has-beens. I can already see Rob mugging for the camera. Blech.
Posted by: Ryan | Mar 1, 2005 3:02:46 PM
I hate that Rob's on the show this season.
I don't watch Survivor, but I know who he is. And it sucks that these people are being put on the show, him, Amber and Allison from BB, because it's like they're celebrities.
And hell, Amber's already one a million dollars, and they're engaged, and they both did two seasons of Survivor, so they ended up taking the spot of someone else.
It sucks. And as they've already one a million, and as the CBS website has them listed as Survivor million-dollar winners, it really sucks they're given another chance to do this.
Posted by: Schroeder | Mar 1, 2005 3:03:04 PM
"...first thing he said was that he didn’t realize the word 'queer' was bad. He thought that gay people referred to each other as 'queers.'..."
Exhibit A in the ongoing self-delusional nonsense of "reclaiming" the Q-word. The linguistic equivalent of the AIDS virus, I thought it would die out through common sense, but it just keeps spreading and spreading and spreading. Over Christmas, one of my oldest straight friends, the first one to tell me [because I had no one GAY in my life to do it] that I could be a good person and gay, asked, "What word should I use?" Because I know her, I trust her good intentions far more than Rob's, but they both have a point. Oscar Levant once said "Out of the mouths of babes---comes oatmeal." and that's just what the jejune street queens who started the ridiculous usage have left us with.
Posted by: Lolly | Mar 1, 2005 5:56:24 PM
Race was my favorite reality show (actually the only one I watched regularly) even before season 4 with Reichen and Chip. Well, Reichen's turned out to be a fame whore and hypocritical soft "porn" meat puppet, and Race jumped the shark in Season 5 by casting the "little person." She was a dear and had a lot of heart but there was no way she could ultimately keep up with the others so it was not just stunt casting but cruel stunt casting. Then season 6's recycling of that homophobic bitch Allison, not to forget the psycho wife abuser and the Steroidettes and a flock of boring, interchangeable other teams. And now they've jumped the--what? whale?--by recycling more reality whores, and rich ones at that. And I've heard that they've gone back to their pre Reichen and Chip preferences for flaming queens. Who will we see in Season 8? Cojo and Carson?
Posted by: Jim | Mar 1, 2005 6:10:14 PM
"....Rob is just so dumb and pretty". After watching last night, I get the dumb part. But pretty??? Ick. To each his own!
Posted by: kelly | Mar 2, 2005 9:41:56 AM
My worst fears confirmed about the tres gay contestants on Race 7. As I couldn't stomach more than the first five minutes, the guy competing with his mom may be barely tolerable, though mere is not a good sign of the health of TAR given her proud proclamation of willingness/eagerness to lie--Honey, you're not on "Survivor" or "Big Brother." But the "boyfriends"--yeah, sure--are clearly cranking up the flame to High and purposely, just as scum stain Carson, playing the simpering, nelly fag for the amusement of the White Folks. Assholes for the ages.
Posted by: Jim | Mar 2, 2005 1:21:28 PM
Jim...I actually didn't think they were playing up the "flame" as you put it. Many gay people do have an effeminate personality, with effeminate voice and manners.. believe it or not. Why does that bother you so? I think they are behaving according to their natural inclinations, and though you may not pariticularly find it attractive or appealing, I'd prefer to just accept people who act like themselves than to alter it to fit into some "norm" or to point of it out to them to make them feel uncomfortable. Gay people tolerate enough abuse and judgement from society than to have to take it from each other. Just accept people for who they are and allow them to act in manner that is natural to their own personality....as long as they are honest and true to themselves. How can any of us expect society to tolerate us as human beings when we can't even tolerate each other?
As far as the other gay guy on the show with his mother....I don't see why you felt like you had to bash him at all.
Posted by: Patrick | Mar 2, 2005 3:41:56 PM
Oh, Patrick, puhleeze! Did you not see their opening, image-setting interview with the gratuitous, obvious act-out-for-the-camera remarks about breaking nails and scratching out eyes? Jim wasn't saying there aren't gay men spontaneously like that (but I'll submit that anyone over 13, gay/straight/male/female/trans saying things like that are mentatlly-challenged). And I doubt if he thinks they don't deserve love and every civil right. But in that key moment (I, too, changed the channel after the first few minutes) they, I agree, consciously chose to do a routine--the fag Stepin Fetchit. "Gay people tolerate enough abuse and judgment from society"--yes, indeedy. I was first called queer in the fourth grade. I've been physically attacked by strangers, denied promotions, fired, and alienated from close family members. Have you every thought about the animus for such homophobia? It certainly isn't just religious nonsense, because we're attacked by devout and atheist alike. It is intrinsically tied to sexism and the irrational but ubiquitous rejection of the feminine male. The problem with stereotypes is not that they don't have any basis in truth, but that even "innocuous" stereotypes, e.g., all Blacks are great athletes, reinforce the belief in dangerous stereotypes, e.g., Blacks are innately less intelligent than Whites, all gay men are child molesters just waiting for the opportunity, women are emotionally unstable. Attitudinal social change does not occur without successful "marketing," and self-serving "queening" when one chooses to be in the public eye is simply bad marketing. It is the same problem I have with Carson Kressly and Cojo (and, however "naturally" queeny they are, anyone who thinks they don't fan it for the camera is a fool) and with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence--who mainly indulge their own ability to go to any lengths for attention at any cost.
The Black civil rights movement, however unconscionably slow its recognition was, progressed because they recognized early the practical need to put their best faces forward--i.e., what they understood white society's concept of "best." We, however, have rarely shown that sense, and the belief that recognizing such practicality is heresy, even antigay, contributed and still contributes to the spread of AIDS and, more recently, the destruction of crystal. The two TAR queens have a right to be the way they are. Any two gay men have a right to bareback. Any gay man has a right to rot his brain on meth. But when they consciously choose to drag (pun intended) such variables into the public eye, it's my right to say that I don't like their behavior affecting me and others. Though, after initially admiring him, I now think Reichen is a putz, and, if any of one's other senses returned after being dazzled by his looks you'd hear his own hint of mint, but I sure wish America was seeing a team like him and Chip for the next several weeks instead of more of the same old bullshit.
Posted by: Leland | Mar 2, 2005 7:11:20 PM
It's a tv show. I know gay guys like them and it doesn't bother me at all. Granted, a few times while watching the show I thought I was watching The Birdcage, but again, it is just TV. I don't see why every gay person who appears on TV has to be thought of as some kind of gay role model for all of America. It was just the first show, don't judge this couple until you see how they perform in future episodes. Practically every contestant on this show is portrayed as a cartoon in the beginning.
Now....can you tell me what was wrong with the Gay son of the other team?
Posted by: Patrick | Mar 2, 2005 7:39:04 PM
It's just a TV show. Jessica H. Christ, what an unoriginal, puerile defense. Where do you think Bufford and Betty Schmo get most of their ideas about people different from themselves since, apparently like you, they never read anything deeper than the quizzes on a package of Quaker Instant Oatmeal? Well, Beaver, consider media images and packaging. TV, movies, radio, music, popular mags, and newspapers that claim objectivity but usually fail most miserably in covering anything that differs from the status quo. Try going to your local video store, resisting the porn and Adam Sandler movies this time, and rent "The Celluloid Closet"--the documentary made from Vito Russo's analysis of decades of molding homophobic images of gays and lesbians in movies. It has lots of scenes from various films, lots of stars, and, if you use the slow motion feature you can even catch an erect penis apparently entering someone's ass in the clip from "Cruising"--so you can be entertained while, hopefully, educated. And, that TAR Momma's Boy? I think effeminate, self-important gay cypher pretty much covers it. Cheers. Oops. That was a TV show, too.
Posted by: Leland | Mar 3, 2005 1:12:37 AM
Are you on some type of medicaton???? The three people we are discussing here from the Amazing Race are human beings and are acting the way they normally would act....with possibly exageration that TV adds to ALL who are on it. If you don't like their mannerisms or how they speak, or anyone else's for that matter, then that is YOUR problem. From the rants you type out in this forum, I dare say it wouldn't be hard for one to judge you in the same light you are judging them.
Posted by: Patrick | Mar 3, 2005 7:44:52 AM