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Cogito Homo: The Bigger Picture
1:00 am Jun 15 - by Jessica Easter – buzz Writer
I didn’t watch the Tony Awards last night, but I did hear of the kiss between Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth. It was fairly obvious that it was in response to the Newsweek article that was released at the end of April. For those of you who don’t know, the article basically slammed Hayes’ acting in his most recent Broadway show Promises, because he is too gay to act straight in a play. I’m usually one of the first people to give others the benefit of the doubt. I know that people, including myself, can be ignorant, but there could also be other things going on. If the author of the article, Ramin Setoodeh, didn’t like the show because he didn’t find an actor’s portrayal as believable then that’s just fine. It happens. But the amount of times that Setoodeh brings up how “obviously” gay Sean Hayes is leads me to believe something more is going on. In an effort to avoid repeating that which I’m sure everyone else has said (*cough* this article is bullshit *cough*), I’ll try to put in my two cents as to why Setoodeh is both right and wrong.
Right: Sean Hayes has what some in the gay community call “Gay Face.” That is, an individual who possesses a face that just… feels gay. I know that this sounds just as bad as Setoodeh’s article, but we in the community have developed ways of identifying one another. An individual need not be gay to possess this “Gay Face” since it is essentially a feeling of recognition between a Queer individual and the person who possesses the face. This is harder to explain to straight people (even if they are allies) because they are still accepted into the heterosexist society. If you are straight and come from a hetero-centered society, then you may assume that everyone is straight. One need not develop such “feelings” as mentioned above because you can “safely” assume that everyone is Vanilla. This assumption is not challenged until one meets people who deviate from it (i.e. men wearing dresses, same sex couples kisses, etc). I went on that little rant to somewhat support Setoodeh’s opinion that it would be harder for Queer people to believe that Sean Hayes is madly in love with Kristin Chenoweth.
Wrong: However, Setoodeh doesn’t stop there. He implies that most Queer people in Hollywood who come out will have an audience who will find it harder to believe that they can play straight. I think the real issue we are all talking about here is gender. Sexuality is important, but not as much because I will NEVER have a chance to sleep with a celebrity. But I think that gender performance is what people will get angry over. If George Clooney came out as gay, there would be uproar because he’s sexy and lots of people want his raw, masculine energy. But if he continues to be masculine George Clooney, then I think he’d still get offered the same roles. That’s why I think Neil Patrick Harris has been successful as a gay man portraying straight (usually misogynist) characters. He can pass in real life.
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