From the Closet to the Loft: Liminal License and Socio-Sexual Separation in Queer Eyefor the Straight Guy

Abstract

Bravo's surprise hit series, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, has attracted a large and loyal viewing audience and garnered a great deal of critical acclaim. Though there is much to celebrate about the show, the authors of this study point out that Queer Eye also represents a new way of containing queers and queer sexuality. This essay argues that this containment is accomplished through a mediated ritual formula that inverts the traditional sequence characteristic of rites of passage and allows queers only temporary and controlled access to the cultural mainstream while ensuring that, in the end, they do not pose any serious threat of socio-sexual contamination by their continued presence there. Further, the authors argue that Queer Eye’s ritual formula illustrates the construction by mainstream media of a new kind of Closet, which they call “the Loft” because of the term's connection to one of the series’ conventions and because this new Closet simultaneously serves to elevate and contain queers and queer sexuality.

Keywords:

• Liminal
• Mediated rituals
• Rites of passage
• Queer Theory
• Socio-sexual separation

Notes

1. According to Levin (2003), “Queer Eye's premiere set new records for the low-rated cable network [Bravo]” (p. 3D).

2. These reruns also drew high ratings. Wallenstein (2003b) suggests that “[t]he series undoubtedly gained new viewers from its trial run on NBC in primetime July 24” (p. 3, section 2). Friedman and Linnett (2003) report:

Audience numbers for the July 29 “Queer Eye” [sic] in its fourth airing on Bravo, shot up 62% from the prior week, according to Nielsen Media Research, earning the cable network its highest-ever rating. “This is the break-out show of the summer on any network, cable or network,” crowed Jeff Zucker, president-NBC entertainment. (p. 4)

O'Steen (2004) notes that the “show started out on Bravo in February 2003 with 1.6 rating and doubled its audience in its initial 11-week run. It has become so popular that slightly re-edited installments have been used to bolster ratings on the parent network, NBC” (p. 22). According to Littleton (2003), during the week ending August 24, 2003 a special NBC airing of Queer Eye “wound up beating CBS’ 10 p.m. ‘Without a Trace’ rerun despite ‘Trace's’ advantage from the ‘CSI’ lead-in” (p. 6, section 2).

3. Queer Eye is not the only such program aired by the network. Boy Meets Boy and Gay Weddings are two other examples. These shows, however, are not nearly as popular with mainstream audiences as Queer Eye. Indeed, as noted by the Hollywood Reporter the series finale of Boy Meets Boy attracted only 1.6 million viewers, while the episode of Queer Eye that immediately followed it drew an audience of 3.3 million (“‘Queer Eye’ ratings,” 2003). We note, though, that Queer Eye has attracted a smaller audience in its second and third seasons. This pattern is typical of the life-cycle of formulaic reality-based television shows that do not employ significant casting changes to generate continued interest (as opposed to, for example, The Apprentice, Survivor, and The Real World).

4. Targeting this demographic (females aged 18–49) makes commercial sense. As Vivi Zigler, senior vice president of marketing and advertising services at the NBC Agency, explains, “Gay men are not measured by Nielsen (Media Research) … Women 18–49 is a more salable demo” (quoted in Wallenstein, 2003a, p. 1, section 2).

5. Regarding the growing visibility of gays on television, see Battles and Hilton-Morrow (2002) and Hart (2003).

6. We acknowledge that using the term “positive” with respect to representation of queers and queer sexuality is troublesome. In this context, we simply mean that the Fab Five are not depicted as being sexual prey or predators, as sick or as criminal; and while funny, they are not mere comedic relief.

7. As defined by Herman (2003), “Heteronormativity encompasses, at a basic level, the view that heterosexuality is natural and normal for individuals and society … heteronormativity does not just construct a norm, it also provides the perspective through which we know and understand gender and sexuality in popular culture” (p. 144; see also Westerfelhaus & Brookey, 2004; Cooper, 2002; Epstein & Steinberg, 1997).

8. We capitalize “Loft” when using the word in reference to the construct of socio-sexual containment that is the focus of our analysis. We do not do so when referring to the physical loft in which the Fab Five end each episode.

9. We use the noun queer in preference to other terms because we see the term as inclusive of anyone whose sexuality lies, as Erni (1998) puts it, “outside of foundationalist gender and sexual norms” (p. 161).

10. This inverted rite of passage takes place within the context of, and is a ritual response to, a broader social drama that is still unfolding. A social drama, as defined by Turner (1957, 1980), is a ritual means of addressing those conflicts that threaten the social order. According to Turner, such dramas assume a processural form that unfolds in four parts: breach, crisis, redress, and an integration that restores or changes the status quo. The Stonewall riots of 1969 gave rise to a Gay Rights Movement that has significantly changed the socio-sexual landscape. These changes represent a serious—though partial—breach of the social conventions (customs, laws, rules, etc.) that had once governed mainstream society's attitudes toward and treatment of queers, and which thus served to perpetuate their marginalization. Not surprisingly, this breach has brought about a growing sense of crisis. One symptom of this crisis was the failed attempt in 2004 to amend the Constitution so as to prohibit the legalization of gay marriage. Turner argues that crises of this kind require some form of ritualized redressive response if social stability is to be maintained. Unlike the Ndembu cultural context in which Turner began his study of ritual, ours is a media saturated-society in which many people often turn to films and television to satisfy their ritual needs (Aden, 1999; Couldry, 2003; Vande Berg, 1995; Westerfelhaus & Brookey, 2004). Queer Eye is illustrative of the ritual response of much of the mainstream media to the crisis posed by the increased visibility of queers and their demands to be accorded the same rights that others take for granted. It is for this reason that we have chosen to examine this series. Before moving on to that examination, we note that at this time it is unclear whether this social drama will end with an integrative return to or a rupture of the socio-sexual status quo. Much of what happens will depend on how Queer Eye and other similar and opposing mediated rituals play out in the public sphere.

11. Queer Eye has aired occasional holiday specials in which a group of selected straight “clients” and their families come together to celebrate Christmas or Thanksgiving with the Fab Five. These shows represent brief and temporary departures from the standard ritual formula toward which the series quickly reverts.