Boy Meets World (1993-2000) was a teencom about a boy named Corey (Ben Savage, left), his girlfriend and eventual wife Topanga (Danielle Fishel), and her jealousy over his his stylish, feminine, gay-coded boyfriend Shawn (Rider Strong).
The subtext was nearly text, same-sex romance always just beneath the surface. In "Learning to Fly," Topanga finds Corey and Shawn hugging and cries, "Stop it! You're both boys!" A flashback reveals another same-se hug in kindergarten, and Topanga again crying "Stop it! You're both boys!" Evidently she has spent her life policing Corey's actions to ensure that he "remain" heterosexual.
After they are married, Topanga continues to be jealous of Shawn, referring to him as Corey's "boyfriend" and insisting that Corey choose between them. At Topanga's instigation, Corey must constantly explain that he is in love with her and not Shawn. In "The Happiest Show on Earth," in the midst of a conversation, Corey suddenly feels the need to tell Shawn: "When I see Topanga, I want to hold her, hug her, kiss her. When I see you, I have no desire to do any of those things." This is a nonsequiter. Shawn has never intimated that he wants Corey to hug, hold, or kiss him (although they hug all the time). Shawn remains placid, waiting for the audience howls to die down before he goes on to his next line. Really, there is no way he could act without foregrounding the possibility that their relationship is indeed romantic.
Corey's older brother Eric (Will Friedle) is a gay-vague free spirit. When Corey asks Eric about his "first time," Eric says "Remember Mitchell Davis?" Stunned, Corey stops him: "Why don't you tell me about your second time." Instead Eric tells about how Mitchell Davis convinced him to take the training wheels off his bike before he was ready, a parable about waiting for sex. Yet he also evades the question of his first sexual experience. His knowing smile suggests that it may have well been with a boy, but he switched to the bicycle story upon determining that Corey would respond badly.
In the fifth season, the producers sought to replicate the Corey-Shawn homoromance by introducing Corey's older brother, Jack Hunter (Matthew Lawrence, left) to hook up with Eric. He also got some on-the-air time with Jason Marsden.
All of the male cast members have been the subject of gay rumors, but none except for Matthew Lawrence have been involved in particularly gay-friendly projects. Rider Strong (left) starred in
Cabin Fever (2005), with its infamous "shooting fags" line, but he also played a gay character, Davis, in
Crumbs (2006).
Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel are currently planning to reprise their characters as married with children, in the new sitcom
Girl Meets World.
Yeah, I was wondering when you'd do a show where even the title is heteronormative.
ReplyDeleteAll these reboots. I grew up in the 90s, and I think this 90s nostalgia can be a bit much at times.
The title is a play on "Boy meets girl," but the series actually isn't about a boy courting a girl. He does, but there are almost no tv shows without some kind of m-f courtship. It's actually about a trio of friends.
Delete*shawn's older (half? paternal-side?) brother, not cory's (j.h./matthew lawrence)
ReplyDeleteI don't remember any character named Mitchell Davis in the show. What's the gender of that character? I really want to know.
ReplyDeleteSorry, don't know. I only saw a few episodes, and this post is two years old, so I've forgotten the research.
DeleteHe was never shown, only mentioned in that one episode. Mitchell Davis was Eric's classmate from elementary school who convinced him to start riding a two-wheel bicycle instead of four-wheeler (take the training wheels off).
DeleteThe actor who played the father was handsome
ReplyDeleteI don't really remember him, but according to the IMDB, he was William Russ
DeleteBoomer...thank you for this Blog. I have been home sick with covid and have enjoyed spending the time reading it and relating to it.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you like it. I can't believe that I've been doing this for 10 years, with over 3,000 posts (the equivalent of 4 full-length books). Of course, I ran out of the tv shows and movies of my childhood long ago, and have been doing reviews of contemporary stuff.
DeleteI want to join the others in thanking you for this blog. It is a marvelous "rabbit hole" in which to lose oneself for a time. Even now, in these post-Roseanne days, there is still such a hetero-normative expectation, it makes me sad. I have watched the first season of Young Royals on Netflix and have wept at how those two characters are falling in love.
ReplyDelete