Painful Irony
Yesterday my girlfriend and I were watching Beverly Hills Cop on cable, and something struck me as painfully ironic.
There is a scene in the movie where the main character, Axel Foley, played by Eddie Murphy, asks a waiter, played by Damon Wayans, for some bananas. The waiter minces and has a delicate, effeminate demeanor; Wayans is clearly portraying a caricature of a gay man.
Later in the movie, Axel pretends to be gay as part of a ruse to get into another restaurant. Again, we see another caricature of homosexuality, as Foley also lisps and minces.
Then I remembered that years later Wayans and David Alan Grier portrayed two flamingly gay movie critics in the “Men on Film” sketch on the Fox T.V. show In Living Color. Their characters were also pure, unadulterated stereotypes.
Thus, I began to wonder: how would Murphy, Wayans or Grier have reacted had someone produced a feature film or a T.V. show in 1984 (the year Beverly Hills Cop hit the theaters) featuring a white man in black-face and an afro wig portraying a caricature of an African-American male? Would they have been amused to see him commit petty crimes, collect a welfare check only to blow it on booze and drugs, and carelessly get African-American women pregnant without any intention of sticking around to raise his children?
I’m guessing they wouldn’t take it very well. And with good reason. There was a time when traveling minstrel shows were popular and acceptable in the U.S. They featured white performers in black-face make-up portraying grotesque caricatures of African-Americans. The negative stereotypes that were central to those shows were tasteless, cruel, and destructive, and for that reason, such “entertainment” is no longer acceptable in the mainstream.
Yet somehow it’s still OK to show Murphy, Wayans, and Grier in performances that portray equally tasteless, cruel, and destructive caricatures of homosexuals.
Don’t misunderstand: I am aware that this kind of hypocrisy is not limited to African-Americans. It’s a myopia we all share: that it’s funny when it’s directed at someone else, but it’s prejudice and bigotry when it’s directed at you.
And I’m sayin’ that’s painfully ironic.
June 26th, 2006 at 9:11 pm
True enough, and Murphy DID catch some hell for his comedy routines in his stand up act as they pertained to gays…but there is one aspect of all this that somewhat mitigates the offensiveness. If you ever watch any PRO-gay stuff, sometimes even movies that are made BY gays, you see some of the very same characterizations. Will &b Gace was mostly embraced by Gay groups even though the Jack character made Liberace seem like a macho man.
And I’ve known a few–a few–gay men who fit the stereotype, though none of my own gay friends are what you would call flamboyant. You CAN be a raging queen and still be accepted by the gay community, while anyone with a Steppinfetchet persona would not find similar favor with Blacks.
Tricky stuff. It’s hard to write gay characters in fiction because you are bound to offend SOME goddamedbody no matter what you do. (of course, you can just make the charcater like everyone else and not harp on the fact that they are gay–most heterosexuals I hang out with don’t bring up their sexuality at every opportunity, while your typical Hollywood gay has to make it obvious withing 3 seconds of their introduction )The gay best friend of the female lead has become such an overused cliche.
But I guess it’s better than before, when movie gays were all child molesters and objects of pity.
July 26th, 2006 at 4:04 am
The one difference for Men of Film was that In Living Color mocked everybody via stereotype. They had the Homeboy Shopping Network which was two black guys hocking stolen goods. So I am not sure the Wayans family (who have made a career out of black stereotypes) would be all that offended by the lampooning. Murphy is a different issue, but the Wayans, in general work in the realm of parody and satire-where stereotypes are used for a different effect than in other formats where they are cheap shorthand.
July 26th, 2006 at 9:32 pm
Thom, you make a good point. Although I think there’s a difference between black performers lampooning black stereotypes and heterosexuals mocking homosexuals. I think most black people would be outraged if two white guys in blackface had done the Homeboy Shopping Network sketch.
July 26th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
I take your point about the popularity of the character of Jack on Will and Grace. I wonder, though, if it’s possible that homosexuals have simply internalized a negative stereotype?
Being a heterosexual, though, I suppose you could argue that I’m being overly paternalistic towards homosexuals by asking that question.
Odd, I’m generally very much against anything that smacks of political correctness. And yet here I am expressing a very PC point-of-view.
July 27th, 2006 at 4:08 am
That is a fair point. If at least one of the guys involved had been gay, it would put another spin on it.
BTW, I just wanted to note, I get a chuckle that the blog is primarily discussion with yourself and Bill Mulligan-as you guys are two of my favorite posters on Peter David’s blog.
July 27th, 2006 at 4:33 pm
Bill Mulligan is on thin ice. Every time he posts here he is in violation of the restraining order.
Actually, Mulligan is a good friend and a smart guy, and it’s great to have him participating in my blog. But yeah, it’s been getting lonely here. I think the main reason my blog hasn’t seen a lot of participation is that until now I haven’t given people much reason to participate. I was letting weeks or even months go by between posts. Going forward, I intend to add a new post every other day, in hopes that that will generate more comments from people like you.
And because you paid me and Mulligan such a nice compliment, you are now my favorite poster here. I hope you’ll make yourself a regular.
Oh, and if you haven’t already (he said self-servingly), check out my Web site at http://www.billmyerscreations.com. I’m writing and drawing a comic-book called The Victory Streak and you can watch as I build it from the ground up. And when I become rich and famous, you can tell everyone, “I knew him back when…”
Just don’t hold your breath for me to become rich or famous. You’ll pass out and could hurt yourself as you fall to the ground.
July 28th, 2006 at 4:17 am
Well, hey…we can race to the not rich or famous finish line.
I’ll be sticking around.
July 29th, 2006 at 3:24 am
Yeah? Well, I’ll not only beat you both in the not rich or famous race but, since I’m probably older than both of you, I’ll be dead first too! Ha ha ha! Booyah! In your faces!