By Riley Adams
Rebooting an “oldie but a goodie”, Netflix has brought back the 2003 tv series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. The show, as one might assume, assembles five openly homosexual men, called the Fab Five, and designates them to transform heterosexual men in different aspects of their life namely fashion, culture, grooming, food and design. The hosts of the show consist
of Antoni Porowski, Tan France, Karamo Brown, Bobby Berk, and Jonathan Van Ness. The main hook of the show is that each of the Fab Five specializes in a life aspect that they focus on during the makeover. During a typical episode, the Fab Five are tasked with improving the wardrobe, outward appearance and lifestyle of the client along with clarifying ideals and instilling values about the LGBTQ community among the public eye.
While the show is heartwarming and radiant, it’s also doing a fine job of raising awareness for the LGBTQ communities. Tan France says “The original show was fighting for tolerance. Our fight is for acceptance”. In many facets the show does exactly that; the Fab Five are seemingly accepted at the end of every episode by the client and most likely the viewers as well but is this fight for acceptance alone sufficient for society?
I’m not saying society shouldn’t accept the LGBTQ communities. No. I’m saying while the fight is worthwhile, it should be for something much more. I’m referring to the terminology homonormativity. Rather than fighting for acceptance, shouldn’t we be fighting for normativity and inclusivity? A big reason for conflicts among social constructs like Race, Gender and Sexuality are because we either see a certain type as normal and others as abstract and there is so much exclusivity. Homosexuality is still perceived as abnormal, as something that is alien to our society such that there still is the unnecessary labeling present, which is exhibited in the episodes when a person would refer to the Fab Five as gay men, rather than just men. In the show, the Fab Five are constantly called and identified as gays and homosexuals by the people who surrounded them, which they are, but what they, and we for that matter, should be aiming for is the time when they no longer have to be labeled but be fully embraced by society that the need to label them as such will be no more. Granted, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself and as anything does, this will take time. The LGBTQ community had to fight for tolerance just so they could start being considered a part of society and now it seems our society is in the acceptance phase.
Stereotypes are a part of human nature and something we do as a sort of “primal” instinct. We recognize patterns and use the determination of the familiar and unfamiliar to protect ourselves whenever we encounter a scenario, no matter the context, with someone or something having certain physical or behavioral characteristics. Just because stereotyping could’ve been some adaptation use to aid in survival doesn’t mean it’s relative to humans today, just like the small toe. Acceptance to me feels like all we are doing is putting a band aid over a broken bone and calling it fixed. To get to the heart of the issue, we need to think of addressing normativity and implementing it rather than just accepting
Throughout the last hundred years, among modern culture we have seen amazing changes in the way we treat and coexist with each other. Hell —170 years ago women’s rights seemed unfeasible and almost 70 years ago our schools were still segregated based on skin color. My point is while we are not perfect, if we are heading in the right direction, we could all contribute to make the world better.
Whether Queer eye is implementing the proper techniques to better integrate the normalization of LGBTQ communities or not; the show itself shows heart, brings forth a wonderful attitude and may draw a tear (or two).