Final Essay

From Sassy Sidekick to Full Story

Growing up, I rarely saw gay men in the media who reminded me of myself. Whenever characters that happen to be gay did show up, they were more than likely caught in the trope of being the “gay best friend” – a character to the side of the heterosexual main character, often there to provide comedic relief, give wanton fashion advice, while also lending an ear during trying times that their straight counterpart might have been going through that week. You would think that having exposure for these people might be just as well, but the problem is this: the gay best friend was never given a full story of their own. While providing visibility for gay characters, this trope literally showed the world that gay characters were only there to support other people, rather than have their own story to tell. While on lockdown during the pandemic, I came across a YouTube channel by a gay man named Matt Baume. He likes to explore how queer media representation has evolved over the years. Because I did a deep dive on his videos, I have a much better understanding about how the media from the past shaped perceptions of gay men, and how there is still work to be done in this area. In this paper, I will search for the origins of this limiting trope, find out how it shaped the attitudes of society about gay men and queerness in general, and if more contemporary shows like, Heartstopper or Schitt’s Creek are successful in their endeavor to move queer people beyond the tokenism that we have come to know. Concepts like tokenism, the ‘other’ identity and intersectionality will help me to present my analysis.

The trope of the ‘gay best friend’ developed during a time when representation of gay men or queerness in general, was not able to be out in the open. If there was any at all, it was very rare and oftentimes censored. The Celluloid Closet discusses how queer characters had to be hidden behind coded behaviors or general stereotypes in order to avoid backlash from mainstream audiences. The goal was to make the early portrayals of these queer people to be palatable and ‘safe’ – basically whittling them down to non-threatening side-characters that were often depicted in a very flamboyant way. YouTube creator Matt Baume talks in his essay about a character named Hollywood Montrose from a very brilliant movie called Mannequin. In this movie, the character Hollywood was portrayed as funny AND fabulous, but his story still came in second to the main love story between two heterosexual characters: “Hollywood Montrose wasn’t just comic relief; he was a symbol of queer resilience, surviving by being fabulous and fiercely himself in a world that barely tolerated him” (Baume, 2021). According to The Advocate ("A History of the 'Gay Best Friend' in Film and TV," 2020), the trope reassured straight audiences by placing queerness safely on the sidelines, reinforcing stereotypes instead of challenging them. Basically, whenever queer people were present, they were crammed into very limited boxes of how they were allowed to live and act.

By continuously reinforcing the concept of the ‘gay best friend’, there has been a significant impact culturally. Beloved characters like Jack McFarland from Will and Grace or Standford Blatch from Sex and the City hardly had any development in their characters outside their roles of comedy relief. According to The Storytelling School ("The Gay Best Friend TV Trope: Evolution in Storytelling"), the trope often portrayed LGBTQ+ characters as existing mainly to support straight leads, sidelining their own experiences and identities. Nico Lang (2015) critiques the trope by explaining, “The problem with the 'gay best friend' is that he's often not even treated like a real person. He's more like an accessory.” This highlights how queer individuals were often used to support straight characters’ stories rather than being allowed to tell their own. Baume vehemently argues that even though the visibility of these characters was very important, they were often curated meticulously to avoid turning off straight audiences. If these characters were fabulous, sassy and had great fashion sense – but rarely angry, complex or serious – they were okay to be featured.

In today’s entertainment landscape, queer representation has evolved. Sitcoms like Schitt’s Creek and Heartstopper have given us portrays of queer characters as fully realized individuals – individuals that are capable of love, heartbreak, mistakes and growth. David Rose from Schitt’s Creek is pansexual, and his identity is integrated into the storyline seamlessly, without the use of any type of tokenism or identity trauma. David gets to be funny, romantic, messy and insecure – also known as: human. Matt Baume similarly states, “It’s refreshing to see shows where queer characters aren’t reduced to their sexuality or treated like sidekicks. They get to be complicated, selfish, generous, broken, and human – just like everyone else.” Heartstopper depicts a queer teen romance as a joyfully awkward and very relatable situation that everyone has had to endure, just not in the exact same way. This is very different than the queer romances acted out in the media I grew up with; those came riddled with tragedy and a whole slew of exoticism/eroticism.

While the progress that has been made is pivotal for a more rounded portrayal of the queer individual, there are persisting challenges. GLAAD’s Where We Are on TV report (2022) says that even though the number of LGBTQ+ characters has gone up, there are still marginalized members of our community lacking in representation. Queer people of color and disabled queer people still have proportionately low screen time as compared to their counterparts. Even in today’s progressive media arena, tokenism still manages to show its ugly head: featuring a single queer character without giving them any story arc of their own. Baume often emphasizes our need to ask questions about this: “Whose stories are being told – and whose are still missing?” Representation cannot be just about the numbers; it must be about the quality and complexity of the stories being told. Until there is a wide array of queer stories being told – stories across gender identity, race, ability, and class – the media will still have room to grow.

The ‘gay best friend’ trope was able to open the door for visibility to queer people, especially in a time when this kind of representation was ridiculously scarce. However, it also boxed queer people into a very limited portrayal of how they could live, act, and just be. It dwindled them down to accessories, sidekicks to the heterosexual character’s story arc, solely there for comedic relief, fashion advice, and a flamboyant background character. Thanks to activists, storytellers, and cultural critics like Matt Baume, the need for queer characters to have full narratives is recognized. Shows like Heartstopper and Schitt’s Creek signify a shift toward a more authentic portrayal of queer representation. However, true representation will not be here until a broader range of stories makes its way to the media. Representation not only reflects reality, but it also has tremendous power to reshape it.

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