The Real World Denver
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This weekend I was reintroduced to cable television at my parent's house and decided to watch the new Real World Denver. This season seems very similiar to the last seasons in that the cast contains at least one homosexual character. Davis is this season's homosexual male castmate from Georgia. Initially, the other cast members assumed that Davis was a typical straight, blonde, frat boy. Until Davis was put on the spot and asked about his sexuality, he kept it quite. Now that he was directly asked in front of everyone, though, he proudly admitted himself gay. Not without explaining the hardship he had gone through the year before in his southern baptist religion and with a mother who undeniably told him he was going straight to hell. In typical Real World form, the castmate sitting directly next to Davis during his outing to his roomates happened to be a very religious guy named Stephen that was completely against everything and everyone homosexual. He felt that there was no room for homosexuality inside the church, and similiar to Davis' mother, thought Davis would go to hell. The ever-apparent tension between the two castmates heightened to a very direct arguement. According to Tara Kachgal's article found on the website, "The program's articulation of sexual freedom to democractic self expression and empowerment is continually troubling and conflicting...reality television potentially puts into question rigid orthodoxies supporting 'proper' gender and sexual identities." Stephen feels that heterosexuality is the only option. Because Davis is homosexual, Stephen feels like he can not fully accept him as a friend. Yet, oddly enough, before Stephen found out that Davis was, infact, homosexual, he had only nice and positive things to say about his southern-baptist, first-found-friend in Denver...Davis.
There's a particularly heated scene that really captured the intense argument between Stephen and Davis. In it, Stephen blatantly tells Davis that he doesn't think it's right that he's gay. He goes on to say that Davis can not and should not be accepted by the church because of his homosexuality. Davis retailiates commenting on Stephen's race. Stephen, however, claims that that is different because he didn't choose his race like Davis CHOSE his sexuality. This brings on a whole other argument about sexual orientation being chosen or inherent.
All in all, while I was watching just this one episode of Real World, there were two huge issues concerning race and homosexuality. It almost made me feel bad for the castmates because they are ultimately chosen and put into a situation based on how much drama and arguments they could potentially get into. Not suprisingly there are stereotypically: one gay roomate, two African-American roomates, and the "hott" guy, those are the men; and then three gorgeous, outgoing, single females. Each roomate sets their life out there, and the Real World producers seem to find that one other roomate that will completely clash with the first. Obviously this makes the best tv and that's understandable, but when I really sat and analyzed what was happening, I thought it was really kindof sad that Davis, for instance, was put on the show as a homosexual man and purposely paired with a roomate completely against his lifestyle.