Why straight media writers drive me nuts

Here's a media trope that never dies: Gay people have sex, straight people have relationships. It's the type of thing that generally gets tossed out in situations like the "coming out" of a television character. Over at Entertainment Weekly, Marc Bernardin writes about the new Battlestar Galactica web episode that reveals (SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER) that Felix Gaeta is gay:

Gaeta is gay? Huh. I'm not entirely sure it was necessary to drop that bit of information. Aside from Apollo, Starbuck, and Baltar, everyone on that show feels kind of asexual—each character is defined, by and large, by the crisis on the horizon and how they deal with it—and revealing Felix's homosexuality doesn't seem to add anything to the story at hand.

Maybe Bernardin though he was watching the '70s original instead of the one where the romantic tension between Adama and Roslin has played a key role, or aggressive sexuality of Six, or the relationship between Sharon and Helo, or any other number of ways in which characters are shown having sexual attractions and relationships. But, of course, all those are hetero so they count.

Gaeta comes out and suddenly it's "Why are you wasting my time with men kissing? Get to Cylons with the glowing red eyes already!"

Plus, Gaeta's orientation has been fairly certain for a long time. This particular web episode was a nice way of adding another layer to a secondary character -- you know, like a tv show is supposed to do.

Comments

[Mattyew]

A long way away from the Back Room Sean....and in Virginia nonetheless.....

[jimbo]

"everyone on that show feels kind of asexual..."

What!? Did he completely miss out on Six trampin' around the galaxy as she does so well, or the 3way between Six, D'anna and Baltaar? There's plenty of sexuality on that show. I wonder if the author even actually watches the show, or just sat down to watch a minute of the webisode and made his judgements.