Tyler Coates

The sad fact about the way LGBT characters are portrayed in the media is this: each one must fit into a convenient packaging, and each one must represent what the straight world believes to be true about those who fall under the LGBT umbrellas. While we’ve made massive strides in representation in the last decade, there’s still a very narrow gaze pointed at LGBT characters, particularly those on television shows created, produced, and marketed to the straight mainstream. It’s impossible not to politicize any gay character on television, and Modern Family’s Cameron and Mitchell, like the gay characters who paved the way for them, are safe, subdued, “normal” gay men whose typical lives spark little debate on the show (and therefore provide fodder for much discourse among critics). That marriage is their chief concern is telling about the straight world’s idea of gay men; that Cameron and Mitchell might not want to get married didn’t cross the minds of the people who launched the ACLU campaign.

Here’s a thing I’m angry about: the ACLU is trying to convince Modern Family’s producers to include a gay wedding next season. 

bbook:

Personal Faves: Having A Sex Dream About Nicholas Brody

Instead of ending the year with a slew of Best Of lists, BlackBook asked our contributors to share their thoughts on the most important moments in art, music, film, television, and fashion that took place in 2012. Here, Drew Grant discusses why she loved the year’s most popular cable TV drama, Homeland. [Warning: spoilers ahead!]

“He had a weak chin and a wet little mouth that squinched up like a butthole whenever he was supposed to express emotion.” Oh, Drew, I love you.

(via bbook)

I interviewed this hottie. Read it here.

bbook:

As the titular b—— in the hit ABC comedy Don’t Trust the B—— in Apt. 23, Krysten Ritter holds her own against sleazeball James Van Der Beek in millions of homes across America. But who is the woman behind the B?

Krysten Ritter Is TV’s Baddest Bitch (But In Real Life She’s Pretty Nice)

This happened on the weekend I found out we had bed bugs and I spent all morning washing all of my clothes and throwing things away and nearly crying. And then, you know, I had to go meet Krysten Ritter for lunch in Williamsburg. This summer was weird.

bbook:

In its multi-decade, 500+-episode run, The Simpsons has sported all sorts of popular culture references, from the Immortal Bard (a Hamlet parody still shown in high schools all across America by English teachers who want to get hip with the young people) to Spider-Pig (does whatever a spider-pig does).

Last night, The Simpsons aired a surprising homage to David Foster Wallace, titled “A Totally Fun Thing That Bart Will Never Do Again,” which borrows its title — and plot — from DFW’s A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again. The episode, in which Bart assumes the role of Wallace on his disdain-inducing luxury cruise, also includes musical snippets from Hot Chip (“Boy From School”) and Animal Collective (“Winter’s Love”).

With a television run as long as the one Matt Groening’s iconic series has had, there have been a whole lot of other surprising, notable and overall funny salutes to important literary tomes, from Hemingway to Stephen King to the Bible. Here’s a look back at just a few of the other key Simpsons moments that went by the book.

A Supposedly Brief Chronology of “The Simpsons” Literary References

This is great!