Popular Culture Review Vol. 13, No. 1, January 2002 | Page 30
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Popular Culture Review
which these struggles were incorporated into his art. The creators of The Simpsons
offer what I think is a perfect parallel for the relationship between Smithers and
Bums by combining Williams’ two most notable male characters and their defining
characteristics: the suppressed homosexual desire o f Brick and desperate
dependence of Stanley. I also believe that this scene is significant in that it provides
viewers an allusion to past experience, not fantasy. We are meant to read this scene
literally, as one of Smithers’ memories; it is, in effect, a moment from Smithers’
‘Teal” life.
I think it important to keep in mind that these overt references to Smithers’
sexuality did not appear on the show until rather recently. We must remember that
The Simpsons first appeared when Ronald Reagan was still in the White House,
and it became the phenomenon it is now during the Bush administration. Thus, the
show premiered on the heels of a highly conservative decade, one in which much
of the ground made by various political movements in the 1960s and 1970s was
lost. This is particularly relevant when we consider the current gay representation
on television. Today, despite the demise of Ellen, there seems to be a widespread
faith in the media’s liberalism, and gay characters have lately appeared on television
with great frequency. Fred Fejes argues that such visibility is due to the
advancements made over the past twenty years by gay activists, whose political
organization led to demands for increased and more accurate representation (400).
However, in the same essay, which was published in 1993, Fejes also avers that
homosexuality remains as a subtext on television, that gay characters exist on the
periphery, and that “A regular network program with a gay or lesbian main character
is far in the future” (402).
Queer TV
Have things changed so dramatically in a scant few years? In October of
1996, Entertainment Weekly published yet another cover story on “Gay TV,” this
time in direct response to the “controversy” surrounding Ellen and the sexuality of
the main character, played by comedian Ellen DeGeneres. As is well known, there
had been much talk at the time about her character coming out as a lesbian in the
season finale, talk that stemmed in part from speculation about DeGeneres herself
in the tabloids. By the second week of the season, DeGeneres made herself visible
on various daytime and nighttime talk shows discussing the issue. Notably, she
appeared on The Rosie O'Donnell Show, where the two women joked at length
about Ellen’s character being “Lebanese.” O f course, there had been similar
speculation in the media about the sexual orientation of O ’Donnell herself, thus
adding an interesting double layer to the joke. The significant point, however, is
that they made light of the issue, wanting to admit it without admitting it. This
approach is funny, but it is also safe. The question thus remained: was America