"The Making of Me: John Barrowman"

[inbhirnis]

--Tonight on BBC America. This could be interesting: John Barrowman, of Doctor Who and Torchwood fame, goes in search of the scientific bases for his homosexuality.

Comments

[fba.livejournal.com]

Its quite interesting, but not much we (i.e. teh gheys) don't already know. You'll be agog at the way his accent changes when he's with his family though.

[inbhirnis.livejournal.com]

In the trailer, they showed a clip of him at LA Pride or some similar place, with big, buffed hotties wandering around (I think it was to do with a section on the role of testosterone). Who cares about the science... ;-)

Actually, it will be interesting to see what his scientific discovery reveals. I think we've all heard snippets of the 'nature vs. nurture' argument - it will be good to see it applied to one person's personal story.

[fba.livejournal.com]

Oh - he covers all the main bits of science and psuedo-science. No conclusions are really drawn but, unsurprisingly, the message is very much one of 'its OK to be gay'. IIRC he also meets ex-gays - which is all a bit depressing...

[inbhirnis.livejournal.com]

Such a perspective would never be aired on network TV here. Maybe PBS, maybe some cable channels - but you can't have the masses exposed to such a dangerous concept that a major star is out, and happy. Yeah, Ellen De Generes is on daytime TV, and she has been pretty good about integrating her sexuality with that role, but that's about it.

[fba.livejournal.com]

One of the things that I found so horribly depressing about 'Milk' was that, aside from a couple of Broadway stalwarts that were contemporaries of Harvey, none of the cast was gay and out. Neil Patrick Harris seems to be doing OK - so maybe there is hope for the US in the long run...

[danlmarmot.livejournal.com]

Next week he'll go in search of the scientific basis for his hate of kittens.

[inbhirnis.livejournal.com]

To quote one of my first (and fave) gay movies of the 80s: (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0091725/) your d*ck knows what it likes."

Maybe that's what it all boils down to at the end of the day.

[shirtlifterbear.livejournal.com]

You're wired the way you're wired, and that's that...

Simple enough, really.

PS God, Parting Glances is such a rough one for me... Painful and wonderful!

[inbhirnis.livejournal.com]

Yes - good movie. I ran out and got the Brahms Piano Quartet that is used in the film. As I'm sure you know, the director died not long after making the film. It was the debut for Steve Buscemi, and also 'Mimi' of the Drew Carrey Show fame...

[capthunter.livejournal.com]

This aired over here a while back. Sorry to say, I missed it. Hopefully I'll catch a rerun one of these days.

[dermfitz.livejournal.com]

But somehow, they just don't get to the bottom of why he's so fucking annoying.

[inbhirnis.livejournal.com]

Yeah - he does love himself a wee bit too much.

Please put your wee-wee away, John - I know half of London has seen it, but I don't need to.

[stockykub1973.livejournal.com]

Well I hear that he is rather a "big boy" down below and enjoys dropping his trousers at folk.

[scunnerred.livejournal.com]

I agree with Dermot. Is there a scientific basis for his pointlessness?

[inbhirnis.livejournal.com]

--We're getting a double dose of him today. I'm going to watch this show, but I won't be watching the reality show BBC America is airing after it where he and Graham Norton lust after young male singers wanting to be in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat...

[stockykub1973.livejournal.com]

I think this was all part of the tv documentaries and dramas that where commisioned to mark the Sexual Offences Act 1967.

The gheys do seem to get away with more over here than in the USA. Russell Tovey being a case in point. Though any actor who hopes to do good in hollywood probably keeps his mouth shut.

I wonder if one of the reasons we have a fair share out out gay comics is something to di with the grand tradition of Panto. As well as all those queens who acted in Carry On films. Gawd bless Frankie, Kenneth & Charlie.

[inbhirnis.livejournal.com]

I wonder what the Great British public of the 1960s thought when they watched "Carry On" comedies and saw these rather 'precious' men in them - did everyone know, and it was just unspoken, or were they just thought of as 'eccentric'?

[stockykub1973.livejournal.com]

Well I think from listening to things like "Julian & Sandy" on "Round The Horne" my guess is they knew fine well what was on and mostly didn't care. Of course this might have also been down to the de-sexualisation of the Sissy in folks mind. As Homer says in "The Simpson" "... I like my Homosexuals flaming!"

Sissy's have shown up in both American & British popular culture but to a certain extent they where always non sexual Neuters. Since after all real sex can only happen between a man and a woman. I suspect it is the same argument that some folk use in Prison & Boarding schools. One of the reasons I guess i never messed around with any of the other boys I was at school with was I was an out gay man by the time I was 15. Messing around with another "straight" boy would not have put their sexuality in question but doing it with Queer me just might have.

[inbhirnis.livejournal.com]

15?!! In central Scotland? That's quite brave.

[stockykub1973.livejournal.com]

Not really. I was getting called Queer. So I thought I might be honest about it since I was going to get bullied about it anyway. That was 20 years ago this May.

[inbhirnis.livejournal.com]

Did your twin get that too?

I was in the 'brainiac' set, so we were all thought of as poofs by the knuckle-draggers, so I had a bit of cover.

[stockykub1973.livejournal.com]

Mark was a little bit of a jock. So not really. Though he certainly never fooled any of the other Queers.

I was one of the smart kids too. PLus I was one of the Am Dram/Artsy sort.