Social Bookmarking Soulmate

I think I found the one.

I know it sounds crazy, and we haven’t officially met yet, but sometimes you find people and BAM! it just hits you, right? Let me introduce my new significant other.

Her name is celechi zero.

Okay, so I don’t actually know if she is a girl. Is it bad that I assumed that she was a girl because she was looking at articles that dealt with female portrayal (and all its faults) in the industry, among other things? 

Maybe it is. I’ve become pretty cynical these days.

I digress.

The top tags for this…person are as follows: racism, Hollywood, sexism, race, film, culture, rape, casting, colorism, feminism.

Any of these sound familiar to you?

I’m just gonna lay it all out there. celechi seemed to line up pretty perfectly with what I cover in my blog. They say opposites attract, but sometimes, you stumble upon the perfect match.

celechi zero is a quiet one. She (or he) doesn’t really comment on the articles she (or he-okay, for all intents and purposes, we’ll call her a she) bookmarks. Merely, she highlights sections of the article that stood out to her. I like that. Sometimes standing behind a statement is all you need to do – no embellishments, no add-ons. This one’s got quiet strength.

celechi’s bookmarked about ten articles, meaning she’s knows how to play the field, but she’s still new to the game. One small drawback (everyone has their flaws, guys), she seemed to have bookmarked a whole bunch of articles in August of 2013, a couple in December, and hasn’t bookmarked since. It’s okay! I’m sure she’s still out there fighting for the cause, as they say. Maybe she just wanted to make her legacy short and sweet. To the point. I like that.

The best part about celechi? She bookmarks some really, really interesting articles. If I could, I would talk about all of them, but here are a couple that really stuck out to me:

What’s The Difference Between Cultural Exchange and Cultural Appropriation? on “The Good Man Project” – The writer tackles the issue of cultural appropriation, and how often the issue is taken to either extreme: complete ignorance or wracking guilt over each little thing. The writer suggests that in order for cultural exchange to happen, there needs to be a mutual understanding of respect. For so long, cultures persecuted through oppression have been carefully picked through by well-intentioned white people, these people only glorifying certain aspects of that culture that they deem is “exotic” and “cool.” The writer insists that if you are a guest, act like a guest. Treat the culture with honor, not as a weird ritual. Only then can free-flowing exchange happen without fried nerves.

As I’ve touched upon actors playing characters of different races, I think this is extremely relevant. Perhaps Hollywood could learn a lesson or two when they choose to exercise this practice, and maybe, just maybe, it could become a practice that didn’t feel so exploitative.

Anna Gunn and ‘Breaking Bad’s’ Skyler White: Just the Tip of A Very Big Iceberg on The Huffington Post – Maureen Ryan talks about the problem with Skyler White and the immense sexist backlash that character has faced on Breaking Bad. Ryan claims that the character was written stereotypically in the beginning, and was only fleshed out and made a complex, multi-faceted character in the show’s later seasons. She questions whether Hollywood is actually beginning to take steps towards consistent three-dimensional female characters, or if their lateness only fuels the hateful and repellent attitudes of the sexist minority that has dominated Hollywood for decades.

With television shows like Orange is the New Black and Mad Men that heavily feature female characters becoming more common, this article touches upon a very topical subject. Are the tides finally changing in Hollywood? It’s ridiculous that Anna Gunn has had to deal with so much vitriol, but progress is never an easy road to take. Overall, I think this article gives great insight into how Hollywood might slowly, but surely be changing for the better, which offers great balance to my constant critique of its old-world gender normative practices.

I will never be able to thank celechi enough for introducing me to so many great articles. Isn’t she just great?! I really hope you like her guys, because I think I’m in it for the long haul. 

It Gets Better...Unless You're An Actor

Remember the It Gets Better project? After the tragic suicides of LGBTQ youth across the nation, CEOs, celebrities, and just plain ol’ people came out in droves with short, inspirational videos encouraging these teens that life does get better, despite the hardships they face now. I believe that this project is beautiful and moving, and I am in no means making light of the situation or the efforts of powerful people.

That being said, I can’t help but ask the question, in the context of Hollywood entertainment, does it get better? If you take a closer look at LGBTQ actors, I think you’ll find that they face similar discrimination, though it may not be as outright as physical violence.

For instance, one of the most visible out-and-proud actors is Sean Hayes, who is most famous for his portrayal of the flamboyantly gay Jack McFarland on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace. He won an Emmy, and was nominated another five times for his work (in addition to countless other nominations for other awards). The character of Jack is up there with the George Constanzas and Fraisers of legendary sitcom characters, so in that regard, it’s no wonder that Jack will always be an evident part of Sean Hayes.

However, when Hayes played opposite Kristin Chenoweth in Promises, Promises on Broadway, many (quietly) questioned Hayes’ ability to play a straight character with the prominence of his sexuality. In a highly controversial Newsweek article, writer Ramin Setoodeh noted that critics ignored “the big pink elephant in the room:”

“Hayes is among Hollywood’s best verbal slapstickers, but his sexual orientation is part of who he is, and also part of his charm…But frankly, it’s weird seeing Hayes play straight. He comes off as wooden and insincere, as if he’s trying to hide something, which of course he is. Even the play’s most hilarious scene, when Chuck tries to pick up a drunk woman at a bar, devolves into unintentional camp. Is it funny because of all the 60’s era one-liners, or because the woman is so drunk (and clueless) that she agrees to go home with a guy we all know is gay?”

Setoodeh received extreme backlash for his suggestion that Hayes was unable to successfully portray a straight character because of his sexuality. But what Setoodeh touched on is a very real problem for LGBTQ actors, gay men in particular.

Perhaps the only actor to really break out against this is Neil Patrick Harris, who just ended a nine year run as the very straight Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother. In truth, Harris undoubtedly had the luxury of already being an established television star through Doogie Howser, M.D. and the beginning of HIMYM before he publically came out, though no one questioned his ability to play Barney after he went public.

Timing is an incredibly important aspect for actors when they come out. Harris waited until he was already on a hit television show. George Takei waited long after his successful stint on Star Trek to publically come out. Controversially, after a slew of romantic comedy box office gems, Rupert Everett came out and simultaneously argued that gay actors should stay in the closest because “the fact is…that you could not be, and still cannot be, a 25-year-old homosexual trying to make it in the film business.” Even with Harris’ success in HIMYM, one has to wonder, due to the sitcom’s broad comedy, if part of the humor of Barney’s emphatic bro-chismo is that we all know the truth about the person saying the lines.

The flip side of this, of course, is that our society has no issue with straight actors portraying LGTBQ characters. In fact, when they do, many of them are nominated for Oscars (see: Jared Leto, Sean Penn, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Heath Ledger & Jake Gyllenhall, Colin Firth, Christopher Plummer, Greg Kinnear, and Tom Hanks, to name a few). Portraying gay characters is often seen as a worthy challenge for any actor or actress.

How in the world is this any different than a gay actor portraying a straight character? How is it that we can ignore the private lives of straight actors, but not gay ones?

I hate to be pessimistic, but as NPH opens Hedwig and the Angry Inch on Broadway, I’m curious to see how many more Barney Stinson-like characters he can land afterwards. I want to believe that “it does get better,” but it can’t only be for people who don’t lead public lives.