September 10, 2007
Maybe They Can Give Him a New, Bionic Brain
With the return of habitual verbal-gay-basher Isaiah Washington to the small-screen remake of gay-cult-hit “The Bionic Woman,” WaPo asks the burning question:
What’s a thoroughly postmodern gay to do when one of the iconic heroines of ’70s television is relaunched on a network that eagerly embraces an actor who gets dumped from his hit show on another network after proving himself all too comfortable with a certain homophobic slur?
Okay, fine, maybe you don’t get the Bionic Woman idolization. Maybe you’ve never been on the receiving end of the “f” slur. (What are you, one of those nine out of 10 people who “scientific research” suggests isn’t gay?) But unless you’d rather be contemplating lesser, tawdrier issues — say, the public-restroom dating habits of a certain Republican senator — stick with us here.
. . .
Emotional connections to characters like the Bionic Woman can run deep for countless gay viewers who see isolation and repression reflected in heroes who must harbor secret identities and who can’t show off their fabulousness in their everyday lives.
Take, for example, a misfit child in 1970s Anytown, U.S.A., who doesn’t even have a name for his difference — homosexuality — but is deluged with cultural cues that whatever his true nature is, it’s wrong. The Bionic Woman, Jaime Sommers, was a bright spot in dark times: She could protect you; she knew what it was like to not fit in; she could pull off a velour tracksuit. …
See also:
After Gay Slur, Isaiah Washington Gets a New ‘Bionic’ Lease on Life
Filed under: Hate Speech, Television
