Trivia From ‘Modern Family’

This may or may not be a spoiler. It depends on how you see it after you’ve read it. 🙂

Two weekends ago, I did a marathon watching of Modern Family Season 6. And as all other seasons, this one had me in stitches from all the laughter. There is no end to how this extended family’s craziness delights me. And then, I watched the episode where Jay Pritchett and his son’s husband, Cameron Tucker went for a gay bowling match.

Now, Jay is a recovering ‘anti-homosexualist’. He is okay with the gays in his family, but every now and then, he gets queasy. So you can imagine his outrage when Cameron told him that the bowling match was a gay one, and that he’d have to pretend he is gay. Here’s a extract from there dialogue that I enjoyed and thought to share.

Let’s Discuss…About The Stereotypes We Perpetuate (Part 3)

FOREWORD: KD Support is now active! Volunteers and people needing virtual support can email us at kds.system14@gmail.com. And now, on to the post of the day…

If you were a fan of the hit TV series, Desperate Housewives, and you were very familiar with the characters, then you’d probably remember the gay couple that occupied Wisteria Lane, opposite the street from Susan Mayer. One of the characters was named Bob Hunter, played by actor Tuc Watkins (pictured above left).

Last year, Watkins took a shot at the Modern Family gay couple (pictured above right), Mitchell Pritchett (played by Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cameron Tucker (played by Eric Stonestreet). He said he had “a hard time laughing at the gay guys on Modern Family,” arguing that the show’s portrayal of a same-sex couple “doesn’t feel ‘modern’ at all.”

“It feels a little bit like the gay equivalent of ‘blackface,’” he added, according to reports. “Sure, people come in all shapes, sizes etc. So why are we fed such ‘80s stereotypes every week.”

I googled ‘blackface,’ to find out that it was a form of theatrical makeup used by white performers in the 19th century to represent a black person, and it apparently contributed to the proliferation of certain stereotypes surrounding the issue of race. In other words, by drawing parallels between blackface and Modern Family, Tuc Watkins was trying to say that the TV show was nourishing the stereotype that gays are…well, a feminine, superficial lot.

SUITS AND TIES

My name is JBoy. The first thing you should know about me is that I can be bold, brazen, really sharp-tongued and borderline insolent. Growing up, I was all that with no restraint. But as an older person, I have learned to curb my wildness. Instead, I have cultivated that attitude into a fortitude that keeps me in control throughout the adversities I have faced so far in my life.

One of those adversities was getting a job after I finished my youth service. Thankfully, I didn’t labour too long in the job market, before I got employed in the finance industry. You know, that industry that glories in its pristine attires of starched shirts tucked into trousers, and topped off with suits and ties. The industry wasn’t new to me; its employment opportunities were what I’d prepared for in school. So I knew I was going to be in my element at work.

I hadn’t reckoned with my workplace, however.