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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