The show True Blood on HBO is a great example of a program that is filled with many characters that are often underrepresented and often stereotyped in the American media. When a friend of mine first turned me on to the show I was a bit apprehensive at first until I learned that the show was created by Alan Ball who also created the show Six Feet Under which I absolutely loved. From the moment I watched the show I was hooked, and was also glad to not have the only gay characters on the show be evil blood sucking vampires. While the show does have a gay vampire character, he is portrayed as sweet and even non-threatening, which came as a big surprise for me. One of the main characters on the show is a black, gay chef named Lafeyette who is wonderfully played by Nelsan Ellis with such pazzaz and bitchy humor. The character of Lafayette is immensely fabulous, usually wearing makeup, and works as a prostitute. You might think oh great, another show where the gay character is some big queen, wears makeup, sells drugs, and has sex with vampires, but it is much more complicated than that. The reason I feel that Lafayette is not such a typical stereotype is because there is so much depth behind his character. His character is given a lot of rich dialogue and he doesn't take shit from anyone and actually gets some bigoted men kicked out of the establishment where he works when they were being a bit too rowdy. The show is filled with a variety of characters and it's nice to see a show where the gay character is not just about being gay. Lafeyette being gay is not really central to the storyline. Although it is apart of who he is, it's not the ONLY part of who he is. The show may be supernatural and filled with vampires, telepaths, and a freaky 2000 year old maenad who likes to have big sex orgies, but the characters on the show are all interesting, unique, and vastly entertaining. Kudos to HBO and Alan Ball for adding another show to their lineup that is filled with such a diverse cast that play such multi-faceted characters.
As I wrote about the same character, I absolutely agree with you Robert. It's great that the people behind True Blood were able to portray a gay character in a new and empowering way. I hope others find Lafayette to be as refreshing as I do.
ReplyDeleteIt's also interesting to think about characters who happen to have characteristics that match common stereotypes (i.e. gay="big queen"), and how adding depth to those characters can deflate the potency of stereotype (ie that they wouldn't determine who we are anyway). Interesting...
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