"The Mitchells vs. the Machines": Don't Say the Word, but Katie is....

 

Just a few years ago, there were no openly identified gay characters in any children's or family movie or tv series, ever.  Then, gradually they began appearing, in quick, blink-and-you miss it scenes: two dads drop off their son for a sleepover, a boy has a rainbow flag on his wall. More often than not, they still refuse to Say the Word, leaving the "lies, secrets, and silence" intact.     

I heard that the 2021 movie The Mitchells vs. the Machines was different: it doesn't try to hide the fact that protagonist Katie is gay. 

Creator/director Mike Rianda noticed that he was basing Katie's character on queer people.  He knew that the studio bigwigs wouldn't allow non-heterosexual people to exist, so he made Katie gay without telling them.  Then animator Lizzie Nichols wrote them a "heartfelt" letter: "We do not want to silence ourselves for fear of a bigoted few. We have to be on the side of what is right and just."  There was some pushback and some "very nervous people," but in the end they agreed.  

So let's see how they reveal Katie's queerness to the viewers.

Prologue: Some real family photos, with the taglines "blessed" and "family first," and a voiceover: "We all want to be the perfect family." Ruh-roh, "family is everything" rhetoric usually means "only heterosexuals need apply."

Scene 1: We start in the midst of an apocalypse, with robot monsters searching for "the last humans," and the family driving in a panic. 

Flashback to a few days before.  Katie Mitchell tells us that she has always felt like an outsider -- she never "fit in" -- (queer code 1),  so naturally she became a filmmaker (queer code 2: a rainbow button.  But you have to be looking for it to notice).  

Since Dad is played by Danny McBride, I have moved this review to Righteous Gemstones Beefcake and Boyfriends.

"Adam Devine's House Party" Episode 1.3: A bisexual foam orgy is promised

Adam Devine's House Party (2013-2016) appeared simultaneously with Workaholics -- apparently  Comedy Central though that their viewers would watch anything with Adam Devine.  And maybe they were right.

Adam plays "himself" (with his usual goofball persona) hosting a party in a gigantic mansion.  He strikes out with girls a lot. Some of the guests play themselves, and others play fictional characters.  Comedians drop by and riff.  There are scripted plots.   You'll be reminded of the sitcom-standup mesh of The Larry Sanders Show a little bit, but it's really for fans of Adam's unique brand of self-referential comedy.   

I reviewed Episode 1.3, "Foam Party," because Adam is trying to get a foam-based orgy started, so maybe they'll be some nudity and gay subtexts. 

Scene 1: Adam charging admission.  His parties are usually free, but today he's got a foam machine, so there's going to be a redunk orgy, no one with crabs allowed. He invites the ladies to take off their panties (and dudes, if they're wearing panties).  

The full review is on Righteous Gemstones Beefcake and Boyfriends

Barry Williams/Greg Brady

Of the three boys in the iconic 1970s blended-family sitcom The Brady Bunch (1969-74), Christopher Knight (Peter, middle) grew into a bodybuilder with a spectacular physique, and Mike Lookinland (Bobby, right) grew into a hunk who could fill out a pair of tight jeans.


But Barry Williams (Greg, left) was hot right then, every Friday night during the 1972-73 school year, when you were working on your algebra homework and reading Donald Duck comic books.

He had a face -- dreamy, cool, goofy, handsome all at the same time.  And a killer body. He didn't display it often, but those few episodes where Greg drops his shirt or tries surfing in Hawaii are forever etched into the brains of heterosexual girls and gay boys of the Boomer generation.

 He didn't get as many gay subtexts as his brother Peter -- in fact, every other episode seemed to be about Greg liking some girl -- but sometimes beefcake is more than enough.

Born in 1954, Barry Williams burst onto the television scene in 1968, with appearances on The FBI, Lancer, That Girl, Gomer Pyle, Mod Squad -- you name it.

For the next two decades, he would be busy with The Brady Bunch and its various sequels and spin-offs: a Saturday morning cartoon (1972-73), The Brady Bunch Variety Hour (1976-77), The Brady Girls Get Married (1981), A Very Brady Christmas (1988), The Bradys (1990).  But he still had time for guest shots, on Three's Company, Murder She Wrote, Highway to Heaven, and even General Hospital.  

And live theater, in Pippin (1975).

He's also done his share of stunt casting:

In 2002, he boxed with former Partridge Family kid Danny Bonaduce (Danny won).

On an episode of That 70s Show (2006), Barry and his tv brother Christopher Knight played a gay couple who move in next to the 1970s Formans.  They got a big audience reaction from their on-camera kiss.

In Bigfoot (2012) Barry and Danny played a folk singer and music promoter, respectively, who go on the offensive after Bigfoot invades a rock festival.

See also: Christopher Knight/Peter Brady; and The Brady Bunch Dad

"Sons of Anarchy": A trans icon, a motorcycle club, BDSM, and naked men

 

I've been checking out tv series featuring Gemstone alums for homophobic bias, and Walton Goggins (Baby Billy) playing a trans prostitute got a scathing review: "an offensive stereotype"; "a grossly overblown caricature"; "a throwback to the blackmail him because he's gay and it's disgusting" storylines; "Throw us under the bus for cheap laughs."  Also, "Walter Groggin" isn't even a good-looking man."  Well, that's a matter of opinion

So I fast forwarded through Episode 5.5, "Orca Shrugged," past innumerable bloody shootings, men having anal sex with naked ladies, and a single shirtless guy (I don't know who he is) to Venus Van Dam's first appearance.

The Premise: The Sons of Anarchy motorcycle club is involved in a number of illegal activities, but new boss Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnan), son of the original leaders, gets a new business scheme: blackmail.  One of his henchmen drugs the obese insurance guy Allen (Brad Grunberg) -- the Orca of the title.

 Scene 1: The guys have Allen unconscious, tied up, in a BDSM outfit.  Venus Van Dam arrives, hired to have sex with him, showing both her boobs and her cock, so they can film it and blackmail him later.  

She flirts with all of guys, but when Jax offers to help her put on her dominatrix costume, she refuses. 

 The full review, with several male butt and pixilated penis pics, is on Righteous Gemstones Beefcake and Boyfriends.

"Workaholics": Would you have sex with a lady for $100,000?

 

The opening sequence of Workaholics Episode 1.10 is  widely condemned as homophobic, so I'm doing a deep reading.  

The setup: While driving to work, dudebros Adam (Adam Devine), Blake (Blake Andersoon), and Ders (Anders Holm) are having a random conversation.

Ders: "For $100,000, would you [have sex with a man]?  That's a legitimate question.  A lot of hustlers (male prostitutes) are actually straight, but have sex with men as part of the job.  Their rates vary from $50 to $200. I'm not telling you how I know that.

Adam: A man's penis?  I don't know...  Why does he emphasize "man"?  Maybe he'd be fine with a trans woman who hadn't had bottom surgery? 

Blake: You get to pick the dude.

Adam: Final dick approval?   Choose any dick I want to?

Ders: Whoever's dick, except for me and Blake.  Darn, those would have been his first choice.  $100,000?

As you can see, it gets a lot more explicit, so I'll finish up at the NSFW website, Righteous Gemstones Beefcake and Boyfriends

Joe Jonas, the World's Most Famous Christian: gay subtext plus underwear and bulge pics

 

Joe Jonas, the son of an Assemblies of God minister, rose to fame as the lead singer of the Jonas Brothers band.  Their series of top charting albums in the 2000s led him to roles in several teencoms, like  Hannah Montana, Camp Rock, and Sonny with a Chance,  as well as many reality shows featuring his brothers: Jonas, Married to Jonas, Cup of Joe

I particularly like the Brothers' music video version of "I Wanna Be Like You," from The Jungle Book.  When it's a man talking about a man, how can it not be homoerotic:

What I desire is man's red fire

To make my dream come true

Give me the secret, mancub

Clue me what to do

Give me the power of man's red flower

So I can be like you

I wouldn't mind getting a little of that power of man's red flower myself. 

In the 2020s, he continues to perform and release new albums, alone or with his brothers.

Some Evangelicals are homophobic, but Joe is a gay ally.  He performs at Pride festivals and gay clubs, and bares (almost all) for his fans.  He doesn't even mind when fans send him penis pics, thinking that he's gay and available

The NSFW post has some underwear and bulge pics, plus a brief gay-subtext moment for Joe and Keefe during Season 2 of The Righteous Gemstones.  See: Righteous Gemstones Beefcake and Boyfriends.