Popular Culture Review Vol. 15, No. 2 | Page 40

36 Popular Culture Review marriages remained (and still remain) controversial as “one of the ever fewer topics that can inspire true moral indignation from average Americans” (Capsuto, 2000, p. 352). Bravo’s Gay Weddings as Media Artifact Bravo, which claims viewership in more than 66 million homes nationwide (Bravo Fact Sheet), was looking for a reality series targeted at adult audiences and had a gay theme, after having had success with previous gaythemed reality programs (Shister, 2002). The producers of Gay Weddings began recruiting couples in 2001. Because of budget considerations, production was limited to southern California (Shister, 2002); all four couples were from Los Angeles. Casting began in May 2001, and all weddings had to take place by May 2002 (“Gay Weddings Go Prime Time,” 2002). Couples were recruited through ads in the local gay press, e-mails, ads in coffee shops in gay areas, and personal contacts (“Gay Weddings Go Prime Time,” 2002). Of the 25 couples that resp onded, four couples (two gay and two lesbian) appear in the final production (Shister, 2002). Show co-creator Kirk Marcolina cites that couples were chosen for their ease in front the camera, and for the different kinds of wedding ceremonies they were planning (“Gay Weddings Go Prime Time,” 2002). Some 2,000 hours were videotaped (Lin-Eftekhar, 2002), resulting in eight episodes that follow the four selected couples simultaneously in chronological order as they plan their ceremonies. Three of the couples are Caucasian; one of the lesbian couples consists of Sonja, who is African-American, and Lupe, who is Hispanic. Narration comes from the couples, their families, and friends. Occasionally, participants speak directly to the camera during “video diary” segments. Samesex couples are invited to apply to be considered for future episodes at commercial breaks. Gay Weddings as Counterhegemony (?) Clearly, Gay Weddings offers a counterhegemony to the dominant portrayal of weddings upholding the hegemony of heterosexual marriage. However, the wedding, or any commitment ceremony, by nature finds its basis in tradition that in turn originates in some socially historical endorsement of accepted practice and values. According to Lewin (1998), “Even as conventions are overturned in these ceremonial occasions, they are reinscribed and reinvented; by arguing that they don’t need the trappings of legal marriage, couples simultaneously demand access to analogous symbolic resources.” Thus, Lewin asserts, “Lesbian and gay commitment ceremonies offer symbolic resistance to heterosexist domination, but they often do so by exalting the very values they might claim to challenge” (p. 234). The focus of the current inquiry centers on how the television series Gay Weddings offers viewers a glimpse into how Lewin’s (1998) observations