![]() The podcast is far more uncomplicatedly successful at normalizing queerness and endowing the male “gay voice” with authority than the TV series is. But the podcast is far more uncomplicatedly successful at normalizing queerness and endowing the male “gay voice” with authority than the TV series is. 2 on the iTunes podcast charts- Getting Curious likely has a fraction of the audience that Queer Eye does. Despite a recent surge in popularity-last week it reached No. And yet what’s more “relatable” than a host who isn’t defined solely by a single identity and interest but rather contains multitudes? Gays: They can be interested in cults, strokes, the Armenian genocide, and the trade deficit with China. Often, his questions about, say, the recent rise in youth suicide, are inflected by concerns about the LGBTQ community. Van Ness regularly refers to how his sexuality has shaped his life, especially the severe bullying he survived as an openly gay kid in a conservative Midwestern town. Of the Fab Five, Van Ness speaks with the most stereotypically “ gay voice,” which turns out to be a revelation in the context of an every-topic-under-the-sun podcast. But the project of normalizing queerness by portraying gay men as support staff is a problematic one from the foundation up, no matter how well executed. (The newer iteration of the series does feature the gang staging lifestyle interventions for a woman, a cis gay man, and a trans man.) It’s commendable for the show to meet more politically moderate viewers where they are, rather than where liberals think they should be. ![]() Once I realized that his bubbliness was 100 percent authentic, I instantly warmed to him.) I retain a slight discomfort with the premise of the then-Bravo, now Netflix series, in which gay men largely devote themselves to improving a straight guy’s life, as if homosexuality exists to enable heterosexual happiness. (My mistake was in assuming that the grooming expert played up his exuberance for extra camera time. ![]() I also found him overbearingly hammy on the first season of Queer Eye, though Season 2 has made me realize the error of my ways. I never got into his Emmy-nominated Game of Thrones recap series, Gay of Thrones. I’ll confess I wasn’t a Van Ness fan at first sight. He’s open about pursuing subjects that fascinate him in particular, and his genuine enthusiasm and winsome tendency to treat each discussion like a dialogue, rather than a Q&A, makes Getting Curious a delightful series of introductions to an astonishing variety of subject matter. (Together, the interviewees make up a lovely and revealing mosaic portrait of Los Angeles.) Van Ness approaches his topics-which range from Middle Eastern politics and gravitational waves to psychedelics and plus-size modeling-with a journalist’s all-embracing inquisitiveness. Launched at the tail end of 2015, the half-hour weekly series is an inviting mix of conversational informality and hard-won know-how, with guests culled from academia, activism, entertainment, and the host’s hairdressing clientele. The general-interest podcast Getting Curious With Jonathan Van Ness feels like eavesdropping on the Queer Eye fan favorite do just that-interrogate an authority at a party about what she knows-without having to strain to hear them over the surrounding chatter.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |