Aidan Ahearn Prompt #4

QUEER EYE: NOT JUST FOR THE “STRAIGHT GUY”

As a superfan of Netflix’s Queer Eye, I’ve watched every episode multiple times. Yet I’d never seen the original series, nor understood how the approach to queer culture has changed over time, and become more mainstream. That is, until now.

From the original Queer Eye, I watched three consecutive episodes from the first season in succession, followed by three episodes from Season 2 of Netflix’s Queer Eye, all of which focused on making over someone other than the “typical adult straight male”. In this case, one episode focused on helping a woman (Mama Tammye) with her church homecoming, the second a trans man (Skyler) after top surgery, and the third an 18 year old male (Sean) about to start college. Besides the outward shift of the show of focusing on a broader audience, I noticed something very distinct between the two show eras. The changes in politics and societal opinions over time have made a huge influence on how the modern Queer Eye is produced and received by the public today compared to the original back in the early 2000s.

The foundation of pop culture springs from being able to understand “culture which is widely favoured or well liked by many people.” (Storey, 2009, pp. 5). When I was watching the original series, I noticed a lot of references made by the Fab Five to their perspective audience fanbase. They noted how middle-age women would most likely constitute the greater majority of their viewership. Contrarily, I’ve seen how the reboot impacts the lives of millennials just through social media, even without having to watch an episode. Of course, social media was virtually nonexistent when the original series first premiered, but there’s much more than that. Storey (2009) notes how defining pop culture contends with the idea that it represents culture “which originates from ‘the people’” (pp. 9). Even with just watching a small sample of the original series, it was blatantly obvious to me how the newer series is much more informed and shaped by the general public. And there’s reason behind that. Attitudes toward the LGBTQ+ community have changed over time and become more positive, and queer representation has become more visible. Yes, LGBTQ+ discrimination still presents major issues. But I think it’s important to understand how representation influences cultural formation.

Michael Schudson (1987) contents that studying pop culture comes down to creating three distinct dimensions (pp. 495). Each are of vital importance to understanding why the Queer Eye reboot has achieved such monumental success. The first dimension, “the production of cultural objects,” (Schudson, 1987, pp. 495) goes back to the queer and gay community itself, how it’s represented and the stereotypes that are perpetuated. A lot of this has to do with the cast members themselves. Of course, we see the overly flamboyant gestures and parading represented. Through statements such as ones that include the words “girl”, “honey”, “yasss”, and “werk”, queer pop culture shines even if we consider nothing but its linguistics.

However, let us not forget the sentimental value of the production, and how it relates to “the content of the objects themselves” (Schudson, 1987, pp. 495). To understand the importance of this angle, we need to investigate some inside analysis previously conducted on the series. In Katherine Sender’s (2006) article about the original Queer Eye, she talks about the importance of the show’s theme song, “All Things Just Keep Getting Better.” She mentions how the song hints at how “consumption facilitates positive change.” (pp. 134). Metaphorically, it refers to the face value of the show, how it’s mainly about the physical transformations the particular guy on the episode will go through, and the end products the makeover will yield. However, I feel this is not how the theme song should be analyzed. It’s important to recognize its cultural meaning, and what it embodies as an anthem. Just as the It Gets Better project serves as a lifeline for helping people come out of the closet, the theme song conveys that same importance without relying on the heavy, dark emotions associated with the coming out process. I personally found the theme song more poignant for the reboot, which was of course carried over, because it’s no longer referring to the makeover itself. Sender’s article, of course, focuses only on the original series. But in my eyes, the theme song didn’t portray the struggles and liberation of the gay community back then as it did now. The reboot episodes I chose for this sample all place greater emphasis on a personal journey, not just a physical makeover. From Mama Tammye’s journey to embracing her gay son after struggles to accept him initially, to Skyler’s struggles with gender identity, to Sean’s need to gain his independence, the theme song for the reboot depicts how an upward trajectory is all but inevitable for these inspiring individuals.

Furthermore, the significance of the theme song also ties into Schudson’s (1987) take on the third dimension of studying pop culture, “the reception of the objects and the meanings attributed to them by the general population or subpopulations” (pp. 495-96). Of course, the most prominent example of this is how the clients helped on Queer Eye are impacted emotionally and spiritually. Yet I didn’t see too much of this on the original series. Rather, the reboot indicates that nowadays, it’s about more than the visual components and things such as cooking, fashion, and interior design. It’s about growing as people, and becoming better humans. The early 2000s weren’t a period where being openly gay and queer allowed for this sort of open dialogue to be simulated, without massive repercussions. In 2018 and 2019, this is now possible because there is more unity in being out and proud. I believe this is a dialect that needs to be upheld, and should continue well beyond whenever the rebooted series comes to a close. It resonates with me on so many levels; as an avid fan, an openly gay millennial, and a pop culture aficionado.

REFERENCES

Schudson, M. (1998). The new validation of popular culture: Sense and sentimentality in academia. In J. Storey (Ed.), Cultural theory and popular culture: A reader (2nd ed., pp. 495-503). Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press.

Sender, K. (2006). Queens for a day: Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and the neoliberal

project. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 23(2), 131-151.

Storey, J. (2009). What is popular culture? Cultural theory and popular culture: An introduction (3rd ed., pp. 1-16). Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.