Kristin Chenoweth Wins GLAAD Vanguard Award for Newsweek Response Piece
We were thrilled to learn that Kristin Chenoweth is the 2011 recipient of the Vanguard Award, presented annually at the Los Angeles GLAAD Media Awards to honor a member of the entertainment community who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for LGBT people. You probably remember back in May when the Newsweek/Ramin Setoodeh soap opera first began that it was K.Cheno who publicly stood up for gay actors -namely her Promises, Promises co-star Sean Hayes– when Setoodeh claimed that they can’t play straight.
But here’s where it gets interesting! Kristin actually consulted with our hero/Editor-in-Chief Riese when composing her response to Newsweek and it was Autostraddle who first broke the article to the media, so we consider this a big win in a lot of ways! After our post went live, it was picked up by nearly every media outlet on the web including the New York Times, The Huffington Post and E-Online. It became a topic of debate on The View, The Today Show and The Joy Behar Show and inspired an all-out Newsweek boycott from Glee creator, Ryan Murphy.
Prior to Kristin’s response, Setoodeh’s “Straight Jacket” article mostly just pissed off a bunch of gay bloggers but when Kristin spoke out it became something of a media phenomenon and most importantly put the spotlight on this very real Hollywood fear that is preventing tons of gay actors/actresses from coming out.
Kristin is a longtime supporter/lover of the gays and actually marched with Autostraddle in the National Equality March back in October 2009. I interviewed Kristin last summer, after the media storm quieted down to chat about her return to Glee, her brand new ensemble TV project, her strong Christian faith and her feelings about the overwhelming coverage of her Newsweek response article.
Kathy Griffin’s ‘Life on the D-List’ is Over and Also, Mila Kunis is Perfect
KATHY GRIFFIN:
First the bad news: Kathy G. officially confirmed that My Life on the D-List is dunzo.
“Reality is great, but I really didn’t set out to be a reality star. So now it’s time to spread my wings and show that I’m a little different than Kate Gosselin. I’m not saying better but maybe separate myself from the pack a little bit.”
Now the good news: Bravo has booked her for an unprecedented four stand up specials for 2011, the first of which will tape this Feb.
Much like Lady Gaga, Kathy is one of our greatest allies, using My Life on the D-List as an amazing platform to advocate for the gay community. She has dedicated entire episodes to Prop 8 and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and featured an incredible number of gay & gay-adjacent guest stars on the regular including Johnny Weir, Rosie O’Donnell, Margaret Cho, Melissa Etheridge, Tammy Lynn Michaels, Kristin Chenoweth, and Suze Orman.
What was your fave D-List episode? RIP. (@people)
.
MILA KUNIS:
Are you all as obsessed with Black Swan as we are? Well, our brand new wife Mila Kunis completed a delightful interview with The Advocate to celebrate our union. Obvs she knew every homogay’s head would explode upon seeing her in Black Swan…
“Well, we didn’t have Cher in our movie, but we figured gay people would still be into it. I grew up in West Hollywood, in the heart of the gay community, so I’ve always been attuned with the gays. My first gay friend came out in junior high, but I always gravitated toward gay people. I never thought it was weird to see two guys holding hands and making out. It wasn’t until I was about 19 when I realized that the whole world didn’t share the same views as I did.”
And just to confirm her character’s non-lesbianism:
“Not at all. I just saw her as a free spirit living her 20s in New York City.”
(@advocate)
RAMIN SETOODEH / JOY BEHAR:
Ramin Setoodeh took his lazy slipshod arguments on the road and brought along Howard Bargman, the Hollywood publicist responsible for the coming out-a-palooza of Chely Wright, Meredith Baxter and Chaz Bono (among many others). In the second segment (which isn’t online yet – stay tuned) Bragman comments that while there aren’t any out movie stars, Amber Heard may be the great gay hope with two big movies (co-starring Johnny Depp and Nicolas Cage) out this year. Neither one really has much of a point but Joy Behar sure seems entertained by their theories.
.
PRETTY LITTLE LIARS:
Shay Mitchell chats about Emily coming out on Pretty Little Liars. (@thetvchick)
LILO & SAMRON:
Our hopes and dreams for Lindsay and Samantha are about to collide because it looks like LiLo is moving right next door to Sam, who is none too pleased. Dawson Cryface. That’s an exes worst nightmare right there. Would you ever move to the same block as your ex? Or, is this Lindsay’s elaborate plan to win Sam back? I’ll stop analyzing. (@radaronline)
JACKIE WARNER:
I couldn’t turn away from Jackie Warner judging celebrity body parts. (@usmag)
AMBER HEARD:
Now that you know who the hell she is, you might appreciate the trailer for her new movie, The Ward.
Gay Ex-Newsweek Writer Finds a Third Way to Make a Bad Point About Gay Actors
Ramin Setoodeh, the journalist responsible for “Straight Jacket,” the abysmal May 2010 Newsweek article about how gay actors such as Sean Hayes & Jonathan Groff cannot convincingly play straight because they are gay and Ramin just can’t think about anything else besides their homo homogayhood while watching them on MUSICAL TV SHOWS & PLAYS, has written another article.
The insidiously obnoxious “Straight Jacket,” with its easily deconstructed/dismissible thesis, inspired passionate responses from Kristen Chenoweth and essentially the entire internet and, much like the rest of Setoodeh’s work, made many queers think “with friends like these, who needs enemies?” because Ramin is also gay. After the hullabaloo, Ramin was given a chance to make it up to us and instead he wrote another piece of shit article.
Once again, this week Setoodeh was given a voicebox and a keyboard of some kind and asked to type words into it for international publication on the topic of homosexuals in the theatrical arts. Or maybe he volunteered to write it. It’s a mystery but it happened.
The first time, Ramin used Sean Hayes’ Tony-Award nominated performance in Promises, Promises and his own personal feelings about the show to “make his case.”
This time — after shrugging off the opinion of the entire internet, Kristen Chenoweth (as aforementioned), Alan Cummings, Ryan Murphy, GLAAD, et al — Seetodeh has decided to revise his thesis. This time, he says gay actors can’t play gay either. Again, Seetodeh’s main body of evidence is Setoodeh’s own personal reaction to the show.
I could barely get through Gay Actors: Ramin Setoodeh on How Hollywood Shuts Them Out. It’s just absurd — is this guy angling to become the gays’ Ann Coulter or something? Here’s a taste:
Was I really a traitor to my own community? Before Promises, Promises closed on Broadway on Sunday, I bought a ticket and secretly went to see the show again. Once inside, I slumped down in my seat, afraid somebody would call the GLAAD police if I were spotted. The lights dimmed, and Sean Hayes opened the show alongside a troop of male dancers. When he sang about his passion for basketball, the men performed aerial splits. Then he started to pine after the office lunch lady (Kristin Chenoweth), and I realized that I had been all wrong.
It’s not just that audiences don’t often see openly gay actors in straight roles. What’s even more unsettling is that Hollywood doesn’t even allow gay actors to play gay. With the film industry swept up in the congratulatory swirl of awards season, not a single openly gay actor is up for an Oscar nomination. Of course, that’s probably because no openly gay actors even starred in any big films of 2010. The lovable lesbian wives in The Kids Are All Right were played by the heterosexual actresses Annette Bening and Julianne Moore. The quirky couple in I Love You Phillip Morris were portrayed by straight men Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor.
Here, Gawker said it before I got home from an all-day road trip to write about this crazy thing:
“Aside from the narrow types he’s annoyingly assuming as given, Setoodeh is bemoaning that gay actors aren’t allowed to play the gay parts. But then he says that gay actors probably can’t ever play straight (if acting genius Sean Hayes is to signify anything), ignoring the fact that most acting parts are straight ones. Way to encourage gay actors to ever act?
[….]it’s not like Promises, Promises is some searing touchstone of masculinity. There’s a song called “Turkey Lurkey Time” in it, Ramin. It’s going to be pretty gay no matter what.
It’s not really worth further dissecting Setoodeh’s lazy, slipshod arguments, but it is curious why he decided to jump back into the gay inferno armed with nothing more than a new Promises, Promises ticket stub. I mean, it’s just made everyone angry again!
Oh, wait. That’s the whole stupid point, isn’t it? Ugh.”
Seetodeh accuses an actor’s homosexuality of irrevocably soiling his ability to ever play a straight character. In Seetodeh’s world, an actor’s homosexuality permeates the surface of everything said actor ever does. Similarly, Seetodeh’s self-loathing homophobia permeates every word he writes. But you never know — he must be doing a thing or two right because he’s got himself a job and a platform to stand on and people looking and reading it.
Maybe the simple fact of Seetodeh’s employment says more about the role of gays in the media than any point he could ever make about the theater.
Let Us Now Praise Effeminate Men
LET US NOW PRAISE EFFEMINATE MEN:
Throughout the “can gay people play straight?” hoo-ha rah-rah hullabaloo conversation (which we’re 95% sure that you are 100% done talking about even though we aren’t!) started by Newsweek‘s homophobic poorly-edited piece-of-shit article Straight Jacket, we’ve all been taking special attention to praise Neil Patrick Harris‘ ability to play a convincing “womanizer” and Sean Hayes’ ability to transcend the “flamboyant” character he’s best known for (Jack McFarland in Will & Grace) and successfully portray a love-torn heterosexual man in Promises Promises (and rightfully so, of course, they’re both fantastic actors).
But an equally pressing Cultural Issue — AND DARE WE SAY IT A FEMINIST ISSUE* — has been simmering beneath the debate but not quite yet cracked the surface — perhaps ’cause it’s the most complicated/dangerous bit of all. I’m not even sure that I know how to talk about “it.” But “it” is Ramin Setoodeh‘s writing’s most consistent theme, and it’s addressed head-on by Alan Cumming in his latest blog post, in which Alan summarizes the week’s events succinctly and then takes it a step further and OMFG HANDS DOWN Cumming FTW!
Ladies, gents, and all permutations thereof — here is the question:
What is wrong with being effeminate?
-Alan Cumming in his FTW blog post
To Setoodeh, it’s the Wrongest thing a man could ever be. Actually, Setoodeh isn’t so much afraid of gays as he is afraid of People Who Don’t Play Gender Right — he blames our Maine Same-Sex Marriage vote loss on “fey” television characters and blames a 15-year-old teenage boy for his own murder because he “flaunted his sexuality,” “licked up his curly hair in a Prince-like bouffant,” and often would “paint his fingernails hot pink and dab glitter or white foundation on his cheeks.”
Prior to Alan Cumming’s post (which we’ll get to in a minute), the importance of the Gender issue in this debate has really only been directly addressed by Dustin Lance Black. From Black’s statement to the Hollywood Reporter:
It’s when the author peddles tired stereotypes like “queeny” that the piece leans away from reality and tilts toward openly gay Setoodeh’s own issues with sexuality and femininity.
And in Black’s interview with Newsweek:
I don’t know this writer, but it felt like this writer had a lot of issues with femininity and heterosexuality, and the connections between masculinity, femininity, and sexuality. It started getting blurred to me… to me it felt like it became more about this writer’s issues with sexuality and masculinity than it did the success of these performances.
So perhaps it’s important to say this, too, dear readers, to end this weekly conversation: it’s damaging to use words like “queeny” as negative descriptors of a gay man’s performance not only because it’s suggesting an actor’s sexuality overwhelms his talent or that homosexual = feminine but because WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH BEING A QUEEN? QUEENS ARE AWESOME. And it’s really gross that we live in a world where “queeny” has become a word we use to subjugate men.
I’m not saying it’s bad to assume that “queeny” is always a derogatory adjective, because it is, it was conjugated specifically to serve that purpose. I’m saying that “queeny” isn’t even a fucking word at all, and if it ever was a word, it would mean “queen-like” and therefore would only be properly employed to describe people like Queen Elizabeth and Queen Latifah. “Queeny,” according to the Oxford Dick, means “ladies in power/in charge of shit,” not men stripped of power simply because they seem act a bit too much like ladies.
I think Ramin is scared right now, because fully-formed three-dimensional characters like Kurt in Glee (out & proud & effeminate, but not just a well-dressed repository for sassy gay asides and girlfriends behavior) are progress, y’all, not a model for retrograde (as Ramin suggests).
Before Alan Cumming speaks, let him introduce himself:
Alan Cumming, May 13th 2010:
Here’s what I, Alan Cumming – out queer person, actor, purveyor of characters both straight, gay and those whose sexuality is not defined, currenly typing this with acrylic nails and sore toes from being shoved into high heels from playing a TRANSVESTITE has to say about it all……
There are millions of gay people all over the world who convincingly portray straight people every single day. Some of them are even actors. There are loads of gay people in the world who are effeminate. There are loads of straight people in the world who are effeminate. What is wrong with being effeminate? Does Ramin Seetodeh, and indeed society in general, have a problem with people who are too masculine? (Actually, probably yes, if they happen to be female). Calling someone out for being effeminate is a way of being negative about them for being gay without actually having to fess up to actual full-blown homophobia because our society has a tacit understanding that effeminacy is just a euphemism for faggot. Again, what is wrong with effeminacy?
This week on Glee, Kurt got jealous that his father was spending so much time with Finn (Kurt’s Dad is dating Finn’s Mom), bonding over their mutual love of Sports and other Guy Stuff. Kurt tried to “butch it up” with a new look and got a girlfriend, but all it did was confuse his Dad. The storyline’s wrap-up was actually pretty touching — when Kurt realizes that yeah, he and his Dad aren’t gonna share the same interests, and that’s not always easy, but his Dad loves him for who he is just the same. Even the cynical Vulture declared, “No hyperbole here: This was one of the best numbers yet on Glee.”
Witness the glory:
It works because Kurt does have to learn to love himself, and thank G-d he gets all the self-loathing over with in about 35 minutes and ends with a showstopper, because carrying that shit into adulthood ain’t pretty.
And now again Alan Cumming, willing to speak the truth:
It is my contention that Ramin Setoodeh is not happy with himself. He has particular shame about being gay. He sees gayness, particularly open and unabashed gayness, or effeminacy, as a reminder of what he does not like about himself. And so he attacks it. His own shame translates into his paralysis when thinking of others who might have his own curse and yet be able to function fully and happily within the rest of the world: a child chasing his friends around a playground in high heels; an actor who he knows is publicly gay but feels he needs to re-out to make himself feel better about his own self-loathing and lack of acceptance of his most basic needs and happiness. As someone who is a only a decade or so immigrant to these shores, I have noticed that shame is one of America’s biggest exports, imbibed more domestically than overseas, and Mr Seetodeh could easily manage its Gay division.
Fuck that shame. Fuck hiding who you are. Fuck even worrying that if you are an effeminate gay or straight man that you can’t play fucking Rambo one day and Angel Dumott Schunard the next.
We’re often asked here at Autostraddle.com why exactly we are so fucking wet for Adam Lambert. Because Adam Lambert is a genderfucker! Because like we always say girls can do (if you want to, of course), he doesn’t pick one prescribed gender performance or the other, he just wears costumes and Is Himself. We dig girls who fuck with gender in their style as well — it can even be quite brave, and brave is very sexy.
Adam refuses to be shamed. And glam rock is perfect like that: leather/glitter & aggressive/beautiful all at once. Check him out being sexy back before we even knew him:
When we were getting our feminist roundtable together we wanted to include our lovechild JC Gonzalez, a blogger over at Bright Pink Tears and a proud feminist and gay man (he’s like 18 or soemthing, but totally wise beyond his years for sure). This is some of what he had to say to us about why he identifies as a feminist first:
Can we discuss, for a minute, our world’s fear of the feminine? It appears that the entire world is on a crusade to obliterate all things girly, and make sure it remains subservient to masculine energy.
Many criticize and question me heavily as to why I so adamantly define myself as a feminist. “Shouldn’t you focus on gay rights instead?”
I see homosexual rights and gender equality to be one in the same since both stem from discomfort over gender roles, behavior, performance, and binaries. If the gay community seeks equal treatment, they must start at the roots and revolutionize this ancient sexist mentality.
Be fearless and drop the need to be “one of the boys.” Let’s not ask for mere tolerance, but demand more. The feminine should not be tolerated, but accepted, redefined, and cherished.
Historically, gays only showed up in Hollywood as effeminate sidekick sexless fungays, fey hairstylist/makeover-enablers, or other campy (and sloppy) stereotypes, facing many of the same challenges faced by black male characters in TV, film and theater — their characters existed to make jokes, not to have opinions or – GASP! – sex!
Therefore even within our own community, we cringed to see yet another Campy Gay “representing” the whole. But we’re getting to a better place with those characters now. Because there’s really nothing wrong with being that kind of man, it’s only problematic when the character is cardboard, rather than fully human. And yeah — Keith on Six Feet Under and Will on Will & Grace have done quite a bit to challenge preconceived notions about gay men. But that doesn’t mean gay society really ever made peace with Jack McFarland. I mean CLEARLY NOT RIGHT?
I think this change is beginning in the writers room with writers who know what they’re doing. Writers can take what the community perceives as a negative stereotype and flesh it out into a full human being; and then it’s not a stereotype anymore. It’s a person!
When you’re writing a Jack or a Kurt or Emmett, it has to be so honest, and those characters have been. Peter Paige, speaking of his role as Emmet Honeycutt on Queer as Folk:
This six-part Larry King interview with the entire cast of Queer as Folk from 2002 is fascinating btw, especially in light of this recent controversy. Larry King is absolutely OBSESSED with what it’s like for heterosexuals to play homosexuals to a degree where he just makes assumptions left and right, including that Robert Gant is straight (he’s gay). Here’s a relevant quote, re: Emmet’s character –
“You can see someone who is so out there and in a lot of ways, is so much of what people assume is negative about being gay or what people make fun of in homosexuality or the way they view potentially homosexual behavior. And you see someone who loves himself and is loved by everyone around them. And, you know, the audience loves him. You know? It’s great.”
–Randy Harrison (Justin, Queer as Folk) on the character of Emmett Honeycutt
We just want to watch this video of David Bowie now:
Cumming signs off his blog post by asking Mr. Setoodeh to “deal with this picture.” Which is amazing, obviously.
We’d like to ask you to deal with this!
** Autostraddle.com is a proud supporter of the Radical Lesbian Feminist Agenda. We are also proud supporters of the Womanist Agenda. We are also proud supporters of everybody’s feelings. xoxo
GLAAD Asks Newsweek for Apology (Though This Isn’t Its First Anti-Gay Offense)
GLAAD AND NEWSWEEK:
God, it’s just so satisfying when Mom agrees with you, isn’t it? This statement from GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios, agreeing with sentiments raised by Kirsten Chenoweth (first reported on Autostraddle.com), Ryan Murphy and many others:
“Whether he intended it to or not, Ramin Setoodeh’s article in Newsweek sends a false and damaging message about gay actors by endorsing the idea that there are limits to the roles they are able to play.
If Setoodeh wanted to start a discussion about the work of gay performers, he undermined his own premise by affirming stereotype after stereotype, such as gay actors being ‘insincere’ or unbelievable when playing romantic leads, and dismissing or disregarding the work of actors like Neil Patrick Harris, Cheyenne Jackson, Cherry Jones, Wanda Sykes, Jonathan Groff and Alan Cumming, among others.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender actors can play a wide variety of diverse roles and Setoodeh’s perspective on this issue reflects his own discomfort that he attempts to project onto the audience by indicting Sean Hayes instead of examining his own inability to embrace gay actors in straight roles.
Since the article’s publication, Setoodeh has attempted to reframe his opinion piece as an analysis of the lack of gay men in leading roles, however, he continues to posit that gay male actors are not believable. In his May 11th interview with Joy Behar, Setoodeh claims about Neil Patrick Harris’ television role: ‘He’s not really a romantic lead where women are actually supposed to believe him as a heterosexual character.’
Whatever Setoodeh’s intentions or beliefs, Newsweek is ultimately responsible for having published this deeply problematic essay and consciously or not, promoting and encouraging Setoodeh’s discomfort.
GLAAD has been in dialogue with Newsweek to provide space for views on the subject that expand their readers’ understanding of this issue past the harmful attitudes of writers like Setoodeh, whose perspective is used to pressure gay actors to stay closeted.
GLAAD also joins Glee creator Ryan Murphy in urging Newsweek to issue an apology.”
This is probs quite a shock to Setoodeh, who went largely unopposed by Joy Behar last night, has seemingly rarely been fact-checked or asked by his editors to provide examples, and has been writing offensively for a while, as we covered the first time we called him out.
Honestly, it’s gotten to the point where normally we’d start to feel mean. But there’s something special about Setoodeh, and insidious about his reach, that makes this continue to matter. 
Setoodeh’s work for Newsweek is so covertly anti-gay that it’s exactly the kind of thing you could imagine reading if you were say, your Mom, or even yourself ten years ago, and you can imagine thinking (though you’d smack your enlightened head over it now), “oh yeah, good point.” Because it’s not THAT over-the-top. It’s packaged neatly inside of Setoodeh’s own homosexuality and his belief, inherent in his prose, that he’s raising “important issues” rather than exhuming ancient, pervasive, damaging stereotypes we ought to be actively “sweeping under the rug.”
Because if it was the kind of issue that didn’t much matter to you, you just might agree with him sometimes. Which is why watchdog agencies like GLAAD exist. Because for most of America, our issues are something they feel they can afford forming benign opinions on.
A look back at his body of work:
July 2008 Newsweek Cover Story: Young, Gay, and Murdered – Ramin blames the victim in the case of 15-year-old murder victim Lawrence King, saying that “the reason Larry died isn’t as clear-cut as people [who are labeling it a gay-bias crime] think.” who are labeling it a “gay-bias crime.” The story is framed with such alleged tenderness, but the implicit message is a stunner:
“A 15-year-old boy told family and friends he was gay. He dressed flamboyantly; he hit on a classmate. His murder made clear that issues of sexuality, at such a young age, can have heartbreaking consequences.”
Read a breakdown of exactly why this is so freaking offensive at the Box Turtle Bulletin.
March 2009: In March, Setoodeh wanted to make a point about AIDS on television post-Pedro, and so he made some shit up, as addressed by Jack Mackenroth in his blog, titled Inaccurate Newsweek Article by Ramin Setoodeh: “[Setoodeh’s] article implies that it was some deep dark secret which could not be further from the truth. This sends a horrible message to the HIV+ community. I think it was very irresponsible of him to not fact check his article before he published it.”
Nov 2009: Kings of Queens: Does Television’s Gay Influx Promote Stereotypes? – Ramin postulates that we lost the same-sex marriage vote in Maine and California (and have lost every time same-sex marriage has been put to a popular vote) because of effeminate gay men on television, contrasting the alleged progress made in the era of Jack of Dawson’s Creek and Will of Will & Grace compared to the anti-gay legislation passed in the era of Glee, Ugly Betty, Project Runway, Modern Family and Adam Lambert.
DON’T ASK DON’T TELL:
I think that the good men in Afghanistan are trying to save the US some cash on that “in-depth investigation” by submitting their own research reports via YouTube. They’re okay with gay soldiers, y’all.
HAPPINESS:
Dates From The Server’s View – “The Tip: High to excessive, Jim’s tip says, ‘I’m leaving you an extra twenty because the world is beautiful. And I’m about to get laid.'”(@nerve)
RELATIONSHIPS:
Have you checked out the frisky’s bi-weekly column Girl-On-Girl? Musings include “If only my parents had talked to me about sexuality when I was little” and “Have I become an angry lesbian?” (@thefrisky)
UNIVERSITY:
Marquette University listens to students after rescinding their offer to a lesbian professor. (@wisn)
Glee Creator Calls for Newsweek Boycott & Newsweek’s Response to Gay Backlash Fails All Over Again
We were ready to publish our takedown of Ramin Setoodeh‘s lame response to the backlash against his homophobic article when this piece of news crossed our desk: ‘Glee’ creator Ryan Murphy pushes for ‘Newsweek’ boycott.
Here’s Ryan’s letter, from EW Popwatch:
I would like to join my good friend Kristin Chenoweth on her condemnation of a recent Newsweek article written by Mr. Ramin Setoodeh, in which Setoodeh basically says that out gay actors should go back into the closet and never attempt to play straight characters. This article is as misguided as it is shocking and hurtful. It shocks me because Mr. Setoodeh is himself gay. But what is the most shocking of all is that Newsweek went ahead and published such a blatantly homophobic article in the first place…and has remained silent in the face of ongoing (and justified) criticism. Would the magazine have published an article where the author makes a thesis statement that minority actors should only be allowed and encouraged to play domestics? I think not.
Today, I have asked GLAAD president Jarrett Barrios to stand with me and others and ask for an immediate boycott of Newsweek magazine until an apology is issued to Sean Hayes and other brave out actors who were cruelly singled out in this damaging, needlessly cruel, and mind-blowingly bigoted piece. An apology should also be issued to all gay readers of the magazine…steelworkers, parents, accountants, doctors, etc…proud hardworking Americans who, if this article is to be believed, should only identify themselves as “queeny” people (a word used by Setoodeh in the article) who stand at the back of the bus and embrace an outdated decades old stereotype.
You can read his complete response on Entertainment Weekly.
Also you can watch this cute behind-the-scenes clip of how Jonathan Groff and Lea Michelle went from Spring Awakening to Glee:
+
And now, onto Seetodeh’s failed response.
EPIC FAIL:
Ramin Setoodeh has responded to the backlash incited by his Newsweek article “Straight Jacket,” which stated that gay actors just aren’t believable playing straight. In “Out Of Focus,” Setoodeh pleads, “The Internet is attacking me for my essay on ‘Promises, Promises.’ But can we steer the debate back to where it belongs?”
Before we get to his response, let’s address the “Internet Attack” in case you missed it. When the story first went up, we responded, as did many other gay media sites, like AfterElton and Queerty. The comments on Newsweek ranged from furious to outraged.
But then last week, Kristin Chenoweth’s response to the piece, first reported exclusively on autostraddle.com and tweeted by Kristin Chenoweth to Autostraddle (have we mentioned that we love her yet? ‘Cause we do), really caught mainstream attention. It made a lot of great points, like this one:
… as someone who’s been proudly advocating for equal rights and supporting GLBT causes for as long as I can remember, I know how much it means to young people struggling with their sexuality to see out & proud actors like Sean Hayes, Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris and Cynthia Nixon succeeding in their work without having to keep their sexuality a secret. No one needs to see a bigoted, factually inaccurate article that tells people who deviate from heterosexual norms that they can’t be open about who they are and still achieve their dreams.
Kristin’s response “went viral,” catching top stories on CNN, FoxNews, The Huffington Post and The New York Times. As AfterElton reported, out actor Cheyenne Jackson, who plays straight on Broadway all the time, said it was “very veiled self-loathing. Really upsetting.” Michael Urie of Ugly Betty fame called Setoodeh’s piece “unconscionable.”
Understandably, this meant Setoodeh had a very bad weekend. From “Out of Focus”:
Setoodeh: Over the weekend, I became the subject of a lot of vicious attacks. I received e-mails that said I will be fired, anonymous phone calls on my cell phone and a creepy letter at my home. Several blogs posted my picture, along with a link to my Twitter feed. People commented about my haircut, and that was only the beginning. I was compared to Ann Coulter and called an Uncle Tom. Someone described me as a “self-hating Arab” that should be writing about terrorism (I’m an American, born in Texas, of Iranian descent).
OK, clearly the “self-hating Arab” thing is absurd and disgusting and whomever said that should be punched & kicked off the internet and should also keep their racism out of an otherwise productive conversation . That’s a troll, don’t feed the trolls — and don’t give them credit for their hateful words.
Although there are some notable aspects of Setoodeh’s response — he actually uses first person a few times instead of speaking on behalf of society (though there’s plenty of that again, too), and rightly calls out some inappropriate backlash (really guys, who made fun of his hair? Can we steer the debate back to where it belongs?) — 95% of the response misses the mark and only serves to underscore the same problems plaguing his original piece, I mean when Glenda the Good Witch aka Kristin Chenoweth takes the time to express her unhappiness, you know you’re in trouble.
Let’s break down the problems with his response.
Problem #1: Gays Can Be Homophobic.
Setoodeh: “It went viral. Chenoweth wrote a letter to NEWSWEEK calling the article “horrendously homophobic,”, even though she went on to acknowledge that I am openly gay.”
This is confusing, but possibly also really revelatory: if Setoodeh thinks that being a homosexual means he can’t possibly be homophobic, no wonder he feels so free to call gay actors “queeny” and “too fabulous” — terms which we’d never let Sarah Palin get away with. I bet Setoodeh has a lot of gay friends too!
+
Problem #2: Projecting his opinion onto others, and selectively quoting one review of many as well as selectively quoting the review itself.
Seetodeh: When Sean Hayes, from Will & Grace, made his Broadway debut in Promises, Promises playing a heterosexual man, the New York Times theater review included these lines: “his emotions often seem pale to the point of colorlessness … his relationship with [his costar Kristin] Chenoweth feels more like that of a younger brother than a would-be lover and protector.” This, to me, is code: it’s a way to say that Hayes’s sexual orientation is getting in the way of his acting without saying the word gay.
Although the “to me” is, as aforementioned, encouraging, he immediately follows it up by speaking on behalf of “society” again. And he can’t base an entire “news” article on a personal opinion — or infer that the NY Times writer was speaking in a secret code only Setoodeh could understand.
In a follow-up interview on MSNBC this morning:
MSNBC: Some people are saying this just isn’t fair.
Ramin Setoodeh: It was an honest impression… it was something I noticed, I went to see the play, I wanted to enjoy the play. But it was something that I noticed. I was looking around at other people in the audience. When women are watching a play about love and a man says he’s in love with a woman, they usually light up. And in this play I didn’t feel like there was that connection with the audience.
MSNBC: Did people tell you that or were you making an observation by looking at the audience?
Ramin Seetodeh: It was an observation I made… but if you read the New York Times review…
Furthermore, although Setoodeh is unhappy that the Internet takes his words “out of context” (they actually make him look better out of context, IMHO — it’s the whole piece, not individual sentences, that is so damning), he does just that with The New York Times review, one of the only reviews we could find which contained any negativity about the show — ignoring Hayes’ Tony or Drama Desk nominations and the overwhelmingly positive fan response.
Let’s look at another paragraph from that same New York Times review:
Chuck pines, sucks up, drinks up, suffers pangs of conscience and, in the second act, develops a spine, all the while confiding to the audience in ingratiating asides. Mr. Hayes, best known for the sitcom “Will & Grace,” locates a winning physical clownishness within this sad-sack character (originated, believe it or not, by Jerry Orbach).
Taken out of context, one could argue that The Times prefers Hayes’ performance, and the “clownishness” he brought to it, over Orbach’s, although Setoodeh’s initial argument says that Orbach’s was significantly more appropriate because of Orbach’s manly heterosexuality.
+
Problem #3: The idea that “gay actors can’t play straight” isn’t a new one — and it’s certainly not the right way to start a conversation that claims to want to CHANGE that misconception.
Seetodeh: Instead of hiding behind double entendre and leaving the obvious unstated, I wrote an essay in the May 10 issue of NEWSWEEK called “Straight Jacket” examining why, as a society, it’s often hard for us to accept an openly gay actor playing a straight character. You can disagree with me if you like, but when was the last time you saw a movie starring a gay actor? The point of my essay was not to disparage my own community, but to examine an issue that is being swept under the rug.
Swept under the rug? From where we sit, it feels like wall-to-wall carpeting — but of course, that’s our opinion. Which is why it’s qualified as such. His, unfortunately, is not.
+
Problem #4: He fails to address the inaccuracies and sloppy examples utilized in his first piece.
The response doesn’t respond to valid criticisms raised in the media response: Why is Jonathan Groff “unbelievable” as straight in Glee, but not in Spring Awakening, which both featured singing & dancing and Lea Michele as his female love interest? Why is Cynthia Nixon‘s success completely ignored in favor of the claim that her career peaked when she was in the closet when she’s starring in one of the biggest movies of the summer? Why are Portia De Rossi and Neil Patrick Harris‘s successful straight performances written off as “broad caricatures” and therefore not valid examples of straight people playing gay when the examples he does consider valid are MUSICALS? Talk about “broad caricatures”! In the MSNBC interview he’s questioned about the NPH/PDR issue and he again defends it, using his original words from the original article.
+
Problem #5: He’s mixing up “out gay actors” with “gay actors” — and that’s a dangerous mixup to make.
On MSNBC and in his response, Ramin says that his claim is true because,”When was the last time you saw a movie starring a gay actor?”
That should read “OUT” gay actor. Because the last time we saw a movie starring a gay actor was probs last week, when you consider the closeted leading men successfully working in Hollywood. Also, can’t wait to catch Cynthia Nixon in Sex and the City 2 next week!
+
Problem #6: His newly stated intention was not reflected in his initial article’s thesis — is this backpedaling, ignorance, or just bad writing?
Setoodeh: But what all this scrutiny seemed to miss was my essay’s point: if an actor of the stature of George Clooney came out of the closet today, would we still accept him as a heterosexual leading man? It’s hard to say, because no actor like that exists. I meant to open a debate—why is that? And what does it say about our notions about sexuality? For all the talk about progress in the gay community in Hollywood, has enough really changed? The answer seems obvious to me: no, it has not.
Well, so far the only proven example of a person who found Sean Hayes and Jonathan Groff unconvincing is Setoodeh himself (and his scientific study of the facial expressions of other women in the theater and his projection onto one reviewer’s mixed review of Promises, Promises).
He’s right, though: there are no mainstream films starring out gay actors. And that’s a problem, and a noble topic to bring up. In fact, Setoodeh said so himself in his MSNBC interview, claiming that what he wants is for more gay actors to come out, which is just totally the opposite of what he said and really, just fuck me with a spoon on that one, I’m lost. FAIL.
And here’s how we fix that problem you suddenly care about, my fellow gay (also sidenote, you’re super cute/sexy, which makes me even more annoyed):
1. You speak out against it. You don’t reinforce it. You don’t enable hate, and if your personal feelings are so counter-productive to the cause, maybe you should make sure it’s not JUST YOU before publishing it as fact in NEWSWEEK.
2. If you’re going to insist on half-assed irresponsible journalism with cherry-picked examples, why don’t you focus on the good examples, and not the bad ones? We do it all the time!
3. If anything, the fact that gay actors are getting straight leads in TV and on Broadway is an encouraging sign that times are changing, and perhaps before long we’ll see more out actors in movies. I mean mainstream film has never been a bastion of progressive politics, but change begins on Broadway, then on TV, and then the movies. Also he should go see Billy’s Hollywoood Screen Kiss!
4. Mr. Setoodeh, with all due respect, you have a rare opportunity as an out gay man of color at a mainstream newsweekly to really stand up for people who aren’t spoken for enough. You’re one of a handful with this opportunity. Use it wisely, or don’t be surprised when you’re called out for fucking it up.
You are in the master’s house, you have access to his tools, and when someone offers you a more reasonable method with which to employ them, you should listen and, daresay, perhaps even apologize.
And, especially when it comes to newly-out Sean Hayes and Jonathan Groff, perhaps Setoodeh could take some of Jack McFarland’s advice: “We have to help the new gays. Nurture them, make them beautiful. We have to Gay It Forward. “
[P.S. You know that John Updike story A&P you had to read in your Norton Anthology of Short Fiction in high school? They made it into a short film many years back, which perhaps you also saw in English class. If you can’t make it to NYC to see Promises Promises, look no further for proof of Hayes’ absolute ability to “play straight” — on film, no less.]
Kristin Chenoweth Stands Up for Gay Actors, Calls Out Homophobic Newsweek Article
KRISTIN CHENOWETH:
So as you may remember, Ramin Setoodeh at Newsweek wrote this really awful article last week about how gay actors just ‘aren’t believable playing straight‘ (it’s not like it’s their job to pretend to be other people or anything!) We had a pretty Special Comment for Ramin, as did many Newsweek commenters on the website itself, who shared opinions like, “this is the most ridiculous, nonsensical, baseless, bigoted thing I’ve ever read! Anywhere!”
So! … speaking of special comments and special commenters… we were f*cking thrilled when a tipster alerted us that Kristin Chenoweth her very self, who stars with Sean Hayes on Broadway’s Promises, Promises and just did another guest spot on Glee, and is a longtime supporter of the gays, has added her (lovely) voice to the conversation at Newsweek.
Sometimes we can feel like we’re screaming into a void in our gay media bubble, so we’ve really got our fingers crossed Kristin Chenoweth’s starpower (and um, just overall total adorableness, gay-ally loveliness, talent, and ability to defy gravity) will inspire Newsweek to reconsider their publishing standards or at least issue an apology (Setoodeh is an out gay man and this is not the first time he’s written a shockingly homophobic article for Newsweek.)
Okay we’re stepping off our soapboxes now…
here’s Kristin! WE LOVE THIS WOMAN:
As a longtime fan of Newsweek and as the actress currently starring opposite the incredibly talented (and sexy!) Sean Hayes in the Broadway revival of “Promises, Promises,” I was shocked on many levels to see Newsweek publishing Ramin Setoodeh’s horrendously homophobic “Straight Jacket,” which argues that gay actors are simply unfit to play straight. From where I stand, on stage, with Hayes, every night — I’ve observed nothing “wooden” or “weird” in his performance, nor have I noticed the seemingly unwieldy presence of a “pink elephant” in the Broadway Theater. (The Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Tony members must have also missed that large animal when nominating Hayes’ performance for its highest honors this year.)
I’d normally keep silent on such matters and write such small-minded viewpoints off as perhaps a blip in common sense. But the offense I take to this article, and your decision to publish it, is not really even related to my profession or my work with Hayes or Jonathan Groff (also singled out in the article as too “queeny” to play “straight.”)
This article offends me because I am a human being, a woman and a Christian. For example, there was a time when Jewish actors had to change their names because anti-Semites thought no Jew could convincingly play Gentile. Setoodeh even goes so far as to justify his knee-jerk homophobic reaction to gay actors by accepting and endorsing that “as viewers, we are molded by a society obsessed with dissecting sexuality, starting with the locker room torture in junior high school.” Really? We want to maintain and proliferate the same kind of bullying that makes children cry and in some recent cases have even taken their own lives? That’s so sad, Newsweek! The examples he provides (what scientists call “selection bias”) to prove his “gays can’t play straight” hypothesis are sloppy in my opinion. Come on now!
Openly gay Groff is too “queeny” to play Lea Michelle’s boyfriend in GLEE, but is a “heartthrob” when he does it in Spring Awakening? Cynthia Nixon only “got away with it” ’cause she peaked before coming out? I don’t know if you’ve missed the giant Sex and the City movie posters, but it seems most of America is “buying it.” I could go on, but I assume these will be taken care of in your “Corrections” this week.
Similarly, thousands of people have traveled from all over the world to enjoy Hayes’ performance and don’t seem to have one single issue with his sexuality! They have no problem buying him as a love-torn heterosexual man. Audiences aren’t giving a darn about who a person is sleeping with or his personal life. Give me a break! We’re actors first, whether we’re playing prostitutes, baseball players, or the Lion King. Audiences come to theater to go on a journey. It’s a character and it’s called acting, and I’d put Hayes and his brilliance up there with some of the greatest actors period.
Lastly, as someone who’s been proudly advocating for equal rights and supporting GLBT causes for as long as I can remember, I know how much it means to young people struggling with their sexuality to see out & proud actors like Sean Hayes, Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris and Cynthia Nixon succeeding in their work without having to keep their sexuality a secret. No one needs to see a bigoted, factually inaccurate article that tells people who deviate from heterosexual norms that they can’t be open about who they are and still achieve their dreams. I am told on good authority that Mr. Setoodeh is a gay man himself and I would hope, as the author of this article, he would at least understand that. I encourage Newsweek to embrace stories which promote acceptance, love, unity and singing and dancing for all!
–Kristin Chenoweth
Go check it out at the source and voice your support for love, singing & dancing!
Gay Newsweek Writer Says Gay Men Can’t Play Straight, Other Offensive Things
GAY & STRAIGHT ACTORS:
Newsweek writer Ramin Setoodeh “examines” why straight actors can play gay but “audiences” (or, more accurately, Ramin Setoodeh) have difficulty buying gay actors playing straight, citing Sean Hayes on Broadway in Promises, Promises (which just started this week, and we’ve heard it was AMAZING! GO see it! Seriously, great great great great things!) and Glee‘s Jonathan Groff (during his five minutes of screen time):
While it’s OK for straight actors to play gay (as Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger did in Brokeback Mountain), it’s rare for someone to pull off the trick in reverse. De Rossi and Harris do that on TV, but they also inhabit broad caricatures, not realistic characters… As viewers, we are molded by a society obsessed with dissecting sexuality, starting with the locker-room torture in junior high school. Which is why it’s a little hard to know what to make of the latest fabulous player to join Glee: Jonathan Groff, the openly gay Broadway star. In Spring Awakening, he showed us that he was a knockout singer and a heartthrob. But on TV, as the shifty glee captain from another school who steals Rachel’s heart, there’s something about his performance that feels off. In half his scenes, he scowls—is that a substitute for being straight?
BTW in Spring Awakening, Groff played the heterosexual lover to Lea Michelle‘s character… and they even had sex on stage! So, Ramin, how exactly did that coupling work out so hearthrobby… but in GLEE, it’s no longer believable (to you)? And I’m sorry, but did you even see Promises Promises? Have you seen ANYTHING on Broadway, Ramin? ‘Cause there’s a lot of gay men playing straight, just saying. They’re also playing lions, phantoms, and cartoon characters. Crazy! Acting is sooooo funny that way, huh?
The article also selects Cynthia Nixon, Kelly McGillis and Anne Heche as examples of actresses who were with men during the height of their popularity and therefore the audience “accepted” them in their hetero screen roles. This is factually inaccurate, but does that even matter?
If an actor of the stature of George Clooney came out of the closet tomorrow, would we still accept him as a heterosexual leading man? It’s hard to say. Or maybe not. Doesn’t it mean something that no openly gay actor like that exists?
Riese’s Special Comment: This Newsweek writer, Ramin Setoodeh, is a mysoginistic self-loathing asshat who also coincidentally loves ass-sex. I know! Weird, right, that an out gay man would be such a ‘phobe? Setoodeh has a serious job at a respected newsmagazine and he is talking the conservative crazy. And you know who reads Newsweek? Everyone. Because they always have it at the gym, the dentist, and in the waiting rooms of America. Children, teach your parents well – Ramin’s agenda is not our agenda.
Let’s look at some of Ramin’s prior work for Newsweek!
– In this piece Ramin enlightens us about the real reason we lost the same-sex marriage vote in Maine last year: Adam Lambert‘s mascara & lip gloss, Kurt’s soprano solo of “Defying Gravity” on Glee and the “flaming fashion assistant” Marc from Ugly Betty. The article is so kindly titled Kings of Queens, and I hate it:
“… if you want to be invited to someone else’s party, sometimes you have to dress the part. Is that a form of appeasement? Maybe. It’s not that gay men and women should pretend to be straight, or file down all their fabulously spiky edges. But even Rachel Maddow wears lipstick on TV. The key is balance. There’s so much more to the gay community than the people on TV (or at a gay-pride parade). We just want a chance to live and love like everybody else. Unfortunately, at the rate we’re going, we won’t get there until the post-post-gay generation.”
– All that stuff you heard about there not being enough ladies in Hollywood? What’s that you heard? Only 7% of the top 250 grossing films were directed by women? Only 8% written by women? Only 17% included female executive prouducers? WELL Ramin is singing a different tune in this pre-Oscars article: “Hollywood might be a boy’s club, but the Oscars are all about the girls.” Who knew? I love trend pieces based on one or two examples, projection and opinions stated as facts.
– In which he likens the critics who disliked Sex and the City: The Movie’s overly commercialized product-placement-heavy boy-crazy regressive overpriced love story to the critics who disliked Hillary Clinton and her campaign: Sexism in the City: What’s up with this vicious bashing of the “Sex and the City” movie?. Ramin loved SATC: The Movie, he found it to be a great uplifting film for women that made women queens of the box office.
– In Taking the Wonder out of Wonderland, Ramin explains why he hated Alice in Wonderland. See, Alice’s character has “unfortunately” changed with the times; he preferred 1903’s “children should be seen and not heard” Alice or “perky Shirley Temple” Alice from the 30s. His primary concern with Tim Burton‘s film (which we loved! See Alice in Lesboland: A Wonderland for Feminists, Revolutionaries & Your Mom!) echoed in the review’s intro and conclusion, is as follows, and really doesn’t make much sense (and utilizes the strange condescending misogynistic tone he can’t seem to get enough of):
INTRO: “One of the best running gags in [the original] is that our little ingénue is constantly eating. When Alice falls through the rabbit hole, the first thing she does is drink a cherry-tart liquid and devour an entire cake labeled EAT ME. When she meets the hookah-smoking caterpillar, he offers her a mushroom and she nibbles on it for quite some time. No wonder she gets the munchies. But food is really just a setup….”
CONCLUSION: … Alice [in Tim Burton’s movie] is beginning to look malnourished, just like all the teen starlets you see on magazine covers. In Burton’s film, she doesn’t eat very much at all. She bites into what looks like an Atkins-size cupcake and drinks a few potions, but she’s apparently lost her sweet tooth on the way down the rabbit hole. Alice is starving, despite the fact that the movie is a feast for your eyes.”
I don’t even know. It’s like he thinks he’s being sensitive to women for mentioning “the teen starlets on magazine covers” who wound our egos while simultaneously judging our female lead entirely based on her body size and food consumption, ignoring virtually every other aspect of the movie?
Basically Ramin takes his opinion, changes the “I thinks” to declarative statements of facts, and turns them in as articles, and then your parents read these articles at the dentist.
After going through several archives of consistently offensive work to compile my special comment, I googled Ramin’s name, seeking hexes or curses perhaps placed in his honor, and I found something just as good: AfterElton has been hating on this dude forever and they didn’t like the article this week either. (@newsweek)
KIT PORTER/PAM GRIER/FOXY BROWN:
Baby Girrrrrrrrrrrl, did you know that Kit Porter has written her memoirs? She talked about it with Dani Campbell in her Autostraddle Interview! Apparently, there is some pretty crazy shit in there, including the revelation that she and Richard Pryor broke up in part because his cocaine use had led to a dangerous buildup of the drug in her vagina. Really, Papi. (@jezebel)
MELISSA ETHERIDGE:
Melissa Etheridge finally opens up a bit about her breakup from Tammy Lynn Michaels: “It’s been a long time coming. It’s hard, as any of these things are. It’s hard to do it in public because there’s no easy sound bite to say, this is what happened and so this is what’s going on. And even if I did, the perspectives would always be different so there’s a lot of sadness. And yet, she’ll always be in my life because we have two children.” (@okmagazine)
JOHNNY WEIR:
Johnny Weir appeared on The Wendy Williams Show and responded to Evan Lysacek’s claims that Stars on Ice didn’t invite Weir to participate in the tour because he’s not good enough. “Even if they asked me today, I wouldn’t do it,” Weir said. And Evan… he’s a slore.” Get it? A combination of “slut” and “whore.” That’s so fetch! (@advocate)
GLEE:
Chris Colfer (Kurt) talks to The New York Post about the future which he loves!
PW: One of the big plans for season two is introducing a boyfriend for Kurt, any idea if you’ll have a say in casting?
Chris: I have no idea…. hopefully I have no input, because I’m very vain and the only input I really want to give is that I need to be the better looking half of the couple. I don’t want to be the weak link or have people think, “What’s he doing with Kurt?”
PW: Are you excited to portray the next step in an emerging gay’s journey?
Chris: I really am and I get more and more excited every day. I know it’s going to bring up so much more great stuff with Kurt & Burt – I live for the father/son scenes. It’s so special. And I think there’s going to be a lot of good comedy stuff that’s going to come out of it as well, which is good because I feel like so much of what I’ve done has been dramatic. I want to stretch my comedy legs as well.
ELLEN & PORTIA:
Last week, Ellen talked about a mystery animal that Portia saw outside their home, and she’s determined to figure out what it was. Today she brought Portia on the show to talk to a sketch artist and a mammalogist.