Latest / gasp! the pod / reality (tv) check: where's the queer content?

Transcript

reality (tv) check: where's the queer content? · gasp! the pod

0:00
We are not going to talk about the fucking Travis Kelsey dating
0:03
show, I'll tell you that right now.
0:05
But that's fucking queer. Probably the best representation
0:08
we even have of career people on a reality dating show is
0:11
probably Travis Kelsey show. Hey Gaspers, welcome back to
0:25
GASP the Pod. Today we're talking about
0:28
reality TV. It's on everyone's minds and
0:32
everyone is talking about Love is Blind.
0:34
And I was thinking about Love is Blind reality TV, specifically
0:39
reality TV dating shows and the conversations we hear about
0:43
queer people and how they're not how we want them to go.
0:48
Not only the conversations, but just the lack of queer
0:51
contestants in general. And so I want to do like a whole
0:55
episode. This is what we're doing right
0:56
now, getting into reality TV, talking about a bunch of these
1:01
shows and how I think a lot of these shows are really dropping
1:04
the ball, not only in terms of just like representation, but
1:07
like queer people will add drama.
1:10
I think it's stupid for their marketing.
1:12
So we're going to get into all of that.
1:13
I also wanted to talk about like specifically the Sarah and Ben
1:17
conversation from Love is Blind. If you guys haven't watched it,
1:21
there will be some spoilers, so sorry.
1:23
Before we talk about the meat of our topic, I wanted to give you
1:27
guys some updates. I am in Virginia right now, I
1:32
moved back from New York City. I'm kind of bouncing between my
1:36
girlfriend's place, my parents place before me and Sophia move
1:40
in together in DC in like a little over a month.
1:44
We're looking for an apartment right now.
1:45
If you can see on YouTube or NVIDIA wherever you're watching,
1:49
we have a little temporary set going on.
1:51
I brought the pride flags back. I have a new on air sign that's
1:55
kind of about it. Also, happy Saint Patrick's Day.
2:00
I'm not filming the Sun Saint Patrick's Day, but like it's in
2:02
a few days. I am like I'm a majority Irish
2:06
so I'm very passionate about being Irish this week.
2:10
If you're Irish, remember that like you're fucking awesome.
2:14
And also, I'm trying to embrace my Irish curls.
2:16
My hair is always just so out of control and so WAVY and I never
2:21
know how to do it. And I think this week I'm going
2:24
to aim to not do it and just let my hair do its thing.
2:27
Some people may call it undone. I call it just my hair.
2:32
So that's my little update. What else?
2:34
Oh also, I'm so glad to be back. I took a little week off.
2:38
For those of you guys who follow my gasp TikTok, I was just
2:41
moving. It was my girlfriend's spring
2:43
break so I wanted to spend some time with her, A little chaotic
2:46
time to be recording an episode. So that's why I took a week off.
2:48
However, if you are a number one Gasper, which means you join my
2:53
Patreon subscription, which is in the link in the notes of this
2:57
episode or if you are in subscription Spotify, if you are
3:01
a subscription member, you will get bonus episodes.
3:04
So this past week, even though I didn't make a main episode, I
3:07
did make an episode for the subscription members.
3:10
If you want to check that out still because I will never
3:13
release that to the general platforms.
3:17
It's part of my series. On the rumor mill.
3:18
I pretty much just talk about rumors going on in the rumor
3:21
mill. I get my $0.02 on them and I
3:23
rate them on like zero to 100% on if I think that they're true
3:27
or false. This week I talked about Oscars
3:30
blind items, which was very interesting, and there's a lot
3:34
of like peculiar ones that I kind of thought were true.
3:37
So anyways, go check that episode out on my Patreon.
3:40
Also, Speaking of Patreon, I want to shout out a number one
3:43
Gasper because if you join my Patreon, you get shoutouts, but
3:48
only if you're #1 Gasper. So sorry everyone else, but I'm
3:50
going to shout out Cassidy this week.
3:52
Thank you so much for listening. You're a star and I love you.
3:55
Also, merch is on sale 20%. I want to get rid of the merch I
4:01
currently have and start working on a pride collection.
4:05
Go check out merch now because literally 20% off that link is
4:08
also in the show notes and in my bio and literally everywhere.
4:11
Boring boring boring. Haley, get on with the topic.
4:14
OK, we're talking about reality dating shows, the lack of queer
4:20
representation on these shows and culture war issues being
4:24
played out on TV, which I just think is very interesting in
4:27
this like political time. And then also like when these
4:31
queer stories, like are in very few circumstances being told,
4:35
they're being told kind of poorly in my opinion, and in
4:38
like less in an ideal way. We'll talk about that.
4:40
The shows I'm going to cover today.
4:41
I know there's a lot of reality TV dating shows.
4:44
We are not going to talk about the fucking Travis Kelsey dating
4:48
show. I'll tell you that right now,
4:49
but that's fucking queer. Probably the best representation
4:52
we even have of career people on a reality dating show is
4:55
probably Travis Kelce's show. But let me know if you guys
4:59
would be down, because I think it'd be kind of fun if I like
5:01
live streamed it and we all watched it together.
5:03
So these are the shows we're going to talk about.
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Love is blind, BB, CS, I kissed a girl for all my British fans.
5:10
The Bachelor franchise, Are you the one?
5:12
The Ultimatum, Love Island. And sorry I meant listeners.
5:16
I don't pretend to think that I have fans, I meant listeners.
5:19
Let's first talk about a lack of queer representation on these
5:22
shows. So as we know, there's very very
5:25
few LGBTQ contestants on these shows and I don't even have
5:27
stats unfortunately. I tried to find, and maybe I
5:30
just didn't dig deep enough, but I couldn't find any stats on the
5:34
percentage of queer contestants on reality TV shows.
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Let me know if anyone has a number for that but I'm assuming
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it's like way below 5% just because we barely see them and a
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lot of these shows are like straight shows.
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And I think that like a lot of these networks forget that like
5:50
by people exist and can be on these shows.
5:53
We obviously want gay seasons of all these shows but like they're
5:56
not even showing the storylines of by contestants on these
6:00
straight shows. That's also what's so fucking
6:03
annoying. These networks are forgetting
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pan trans by people that also date the opposite gender, you
6:10
know? So it's like, where are these
6:11
stories too? I saw this whole Reddit thread
6:14
and this is obviously very boomer maybe conservative Gen.
6:17
Z kind of thing where it's like certain groups are now actually
6:21
being over represented which is just not true.
6:24
But this idea that like OK, the queer population is this many
6:28
people but there's too many queer people on TV, not true.
6:31
OK. According to the HRC of 2020
6:34
four, 30% of Gen. Z is LGBTQ and 16% of
6:39
millennials are LGBTQ. Why is that relevant?
6:42
Because if you're a network and you're putting on reality TV
6:46
shows and you're making a reality TV show, or if you're
6:48
like Netflix or whatever or streaming service, even if your
6:52
mind is only on the money, it would actually make sense to put
6:56
more queer people on these shows because a majority of reality TV
7:01
viewers are Gen. Z and millennial according to
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Statista 2024. So even if you're just focused
7:08
on the money, it still makes sense to appeal to the majority
7:13
of your listeners who are millennial Gen.
7:15
Z. And then also we have 30% of
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Gen. Z being LGBTQ and the percent of
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queer contestants we see on these shows is way below 30%.
7:23
Probably if you did the math, someone do it below 5% or at
7:28
least around that number. So like, we're obviously
7:32
underrepresented and everyone who's listening to this knows
7:36
that queer people love drama. Now, I'm not saying that as a
7:41
negative stereotype. I'm saying that is like a great
7:43
characteristic of us. We are funny.
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We know how to communicate and we love the fucking drama.
7:49
Do you guys remember like a few summers ago, there was like the
7:53
lesbian like Internet disaster where like people are making
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T-shirts saying I survived the lesbian apocalypse.
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And that's just like what happened online.
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We need more of that. And like, there's only going to
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be good content that comes out of letting queer people on TV.
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That's even just if you want to think about it money wise.
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That's my argument. And also it just doesn't make
8:14
sense to appeal to conservative viewers if over 60% of viewers
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are younger than 50. So I think that there's this
8:21
idea that like, OK, these TV shows are not supposed to be
8:25
biased and like, 1 political party, even though human rights
8:29
is not like a political party. It's just like a fact of being a
8:33
good person. Even if you were thinking about
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like, OK, who are our viewers and how we appeal to them?
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Over 60% are younger than 50, and people younger than 50 are
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more likely to lean left. So it just doesn't even make any
8:46
sense to like give the same amount of attention to these
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like hateful views that are not just saying, oh, I'm
8:52
conservative, but are saying like, oh, I just don't really.
8:55
That's not really my thing. Gay people and putting on TV
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these conversations of making it almost seem like these are two
9:03
valid opinions when it's one valid opinion being like human
9:07
rights are important and the other person should be viewed as
9:10
bigoted, not just being like, oh, I just have a different
9:12
opinion. That's my biggest issue is how
9:14
these conversations are had. And also when it comes time to
9:18
have a reunion, for example, they're not like held
9:21
accountable to the level that I want.
9:22
I know a lot of people saw the Love is Blind reunion and they
9:25
were like, OK, slay these women holding these men accountable.
9:28
But like these hosts, I mean, obviously fucking Nick Lachey
9:31
and Vanessa Lachey are not going to be the people to like hold
9:35
people accountable. But like, it's like, OK, what do
9:38
you think and what do you think? And it's like no one person is
9:43
homophobic and don't even get me started on fucking bet on black
9:46
lives matter being like I just didn't even think about it.
9:48
So I don't like how these are posed AS2 valid opinions.
9:52
But we will also get into how culture wars are like reflected
9:55
on TV. And also it would be helpful for
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these shows because you're getting increased exposure to a
10:01
community that's lacking. There's obviously a gap here of
10:05
content for young queer people. Like you are pretty much just
10:09
like automatically being exposed to a new audience.
10:11
Like, wouldn't they want that? And then obviously beyond the
10:14
money and the viewership and everything like that, it's the
10:17
right fucking thing to do. So step it up.
10:21
But yeah, like I was saying, buy pan trans people, queer people
10:25
exist and can be on these quote, straight dating shows.
10:28
So as much as I also want gay seasons for people that don't
10:33
date the opposite gender, I do think that like we give way much
10:37
more of a platform to these queer people on these shows.
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And also we'll go into this in a second.
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A lot of these contestants that are by are saying that they're
10:48
are queer, are saying that they're parts of talking about
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it are being cut in the post production, which is just like,
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oh, that's interesting. That seems like they're actually
10:58
are these queer characters, but maybe we won't even ever know
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who is because they're being fucking cut.
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It's almost like they only allow like one person every other
11:07
season to like talk about their sexuality or else like they just
11:11
don't want too much of it or else it's going to become too
11:13
gay for their viewership, which again, doesn't make sense if you
11:16
look at the stats. So these shows have never had a
11:18
gay season. And after fucking decades of
11:23
people asking for these shows to have gay seasons, they still
11:27
haven't. And I know there's been some of
11:29
these like kind of smaller reality TV shows that are gay,
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but eventually they get cut just because the smaller shows get
11:38
cut, by the way, because of like fucking homophobia and all this
11:42
kind of stuff and not getting enough support by the network
11:44
and all that. Bachelor like the Bachelor
11:47
wouldn't just get fucking cut for being gay like they have a
11:51
big enough franchise and same with Love is blind.
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So like I don't understand what they think that they're going to
11:56
lose and if they do fucking grow up Oh my God I feel like what
12:01
they lose they will gain in a new audience.
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Because I do feel like Love is Blind is kind of like the new
12:07
Bachelor for younger people and The Bachelor needs to shift
12:11
something up because in the last like 7 years they have been not
12:16
doing as well. So what do they need to do?
12:19
They need to target younger people.
12:20
Because I feel like it's my parents that are watching the
12:23
Bachelor like my dad watches the Bachelor.
12:25
I watch Love is Blind and I used to be a huge Bachelor fan.
12:28
I really wanted to go on the Bachelor guys.
12:30
This is like my dream growing up as I wanted to be on the
12:33
Bachelor and be like, this is so gay of me and be like the mean
12:37
girl but like wasn't actually mean but like did it for the
12:39
cameras and then was like so mean to the guy and like broke
12:41
up with the guy and like never actually got that close with
12:44
him. So that was my plan.
12:46
But I don't even watch the Bachelor anymore.
12:47
That's how much that they've been.
12:49
I think losing their viewers and what would help them like a gay
12:52
season. The only show that I've actually
12:56
seen do a gay season or do a queer story well has been Are
13:01
You The One? What I really liked about this
13:03
season is that I think it was all queer people are all pan
13:07
people or by people that would date kind of like any gender.
13:11
I think that was the idea. Of course, it was so messy and
13:14
amazing and fun to watch and it really showed like the diversity
13:19
of the community and it had trans people and I had queer
13:22
people people on it and how not every queer person looks the
13:25
same. And I just feel like it was
13:26
really well done. But also really small thing that
13:29
I liked about it is the fact that they didn't have a separate
13:33
show made for it. It was just another season of
13:36
Are you the one? And we'll get into this later.
13:38
Let's talk about some of the queer contestants of some of
13:42
these shows and how they were cut out of the show.
13:45
Like so even when these shows accidentally get queer people on
13:50
them, they're like, oh fuck, we don't want it to be too gay.
13:53
And then they cut their fucking storylines about their
13:55
sexuality. So when love is blind this
13:57
latest season, Minneapolis season 8 guys, Brittany and
14:01
Devin on Love is blind season 8, they talked about sexuality and
14:05
we'll talk about that in a second.
14:07
But she was not the only by question mark queer question
14:12
mark contestant on the show. So Madison also said recently in
14:17
an interview that she's bi and when she talked about on the
14:21
show it was completely cut out. That's insane.
14:24
Was love is blind, like that's too many bi characters to have
14:27
on the show and would it confuse the storyline?
14:30
It's just weird. OK, then Molly at the reunion, I
14:35
don't know if anyone caught this, but Molly was like asked
14:39
by Vanessa Lachey and said, oh, are you dating any girls?
14:43
And Molly was like no, but like I'm open to it.
14:45
That felt like after the fact Molly asking the producers to
14:50
ask her about that because she wanted to talk about her being
14:52
queer or being bi. But like that is not enough.
14:57
Love is blind. You can't ask that little
14:59
question and be like, okay, great, we're good, we have
15:02
enough representation, let's get into that.
15:05
And then don't fucking cut Madison's part about being
15:07
queer. It's just confusing and they're
15:09
not doing it right or well or enough.
15:13
And then on the Bachelor franchise, Caitlin Bristowe is
15:17
actually bi and she was The Bachelorette.
15:21
She was like, oh, I'm bi. And she talked about it and they
15:23
were completely like just didn't include it and didn't like allow
15:27
that to be a storyline. What the fuck?
15:30
Like they're trying to target these conservative audiences and
15:33
then they're losing their younger audiences.
15:35
And also they're being fucking homophobic.
15:37
So when we do have these queer characters, they're being cut
15:41
out and we don't get to see that part of them.
15:44
And it's like literally doing so much harm.
15:47
Like, imagine all the benefits of people seeing a Bachelorette
15:50
being bi. Oh my God, it would have been so
15:52
helpful for me. Like fuck that Bachelor.
15:56
Also, something that I've really seen and we're kind of getting
15:58
into like culture war issues is specifically Love is Blind
16:04
because they haven't met each other and they're only learning
16:07
information. We get to see these social
16:09
issues talked about on TV and we get insight into the brains of
16:16
these people from different cities, and we're really able to
16:20
also tell the difference between men and women on these issues.
16:24
It's really fascinating. And that's kind of the cool,
16:26
cool part about Love is Blind. It's like we're literally seeing
16:30
a look into the like quote non voter or quote non political
16:35
average citizen, which is usually a man on the show.
16:39
And the question is, are they actually non voters or non
16:42
political or are they actually conservative?
16:45
But like, hearing them explain why they think that they're
16:49
right about something is literally fascinating.
16:52
And we obviously get to see this play out when they're talking
16:56
with women who are more likely than not, well, at least that
17:00
we've seen on this show, To disagree with them and stand
17:03
with these human rights issues, even though it's also really
17:05
interesting. It's kind of a little dystopian
17:09
to see these conversations play out as if, again, like 1 is
17:13
right and the other one is also right, and that they're just
17:16
like, opinions. And it's one thing to talk
17:19
about, like financial disagreements.
17:22
And we are not at the point where you can just be a
17:25
Republican and it not have anything to do with social
17:28
issues because that's just not where we are in this timeline.
17:31
But yeah, it's just really weird to see it like play out.
17:35
And what's so wild is I was watching Fox News the other day
17:39
because I used to be a political spy.
17:42
Anyways, so I'm very used to like watching conservative
17:46
media. It doesn't really stress me out.
17:48
I really like to, like, get an insight into it and like, see
17:52
what they're thinking and feeling and like what bullshit
17:55
they're spewing 'cause it helps you, like, counter that
17:57
argument. But anyways, I was watching Fox
18:00
News and they were talking about Love is Blind.
18:03
And they were like, it's so bullshit that Sarah said that,
18:07
you know, Ben couldn't have a difference of opinion, but Ben
18:11
was totally fine with Sarah. And it's like, Oh my God, that's
18:15
why it's a whole different thing.
18:17
It's because Republicans view it as a difference of opinion and
18:21
liberals and Democrats view it as a difference in morals and
18:27
viewing human rights differently.
18:30
So that's why it's kind of dystopian to see it kind of
18:33
played out as like just like a difference of opinion.
18:36
However, it's still very interesting to like, get this
18:39
insight, especially when these shows are filmed in like
18:42
Minneapolis, right, which is like fucking very different from
18:47
like New York or California, obviously, or like an East
18:49
Coast, like ADC Love is blind. So it's really interesting to
18:53
see like kind of an average white man voter's brain because
18:59
everyone knows I don't really talk to those anymore unless
19:03
you're my family. I'm not really talking to like
19:06
white men very often. So, and that's by choice.
19:10
But when I do, they're not these type of white men.
19:13
So it's like kind of like a sociological study pretty much.
19:18
And I think Love is Blind kind of knows that by having these
19:21
conversations, but also specifically not other ones.
19:23
So it's like, if you're going to include these that include
19:26
fucking Madison being bi, like I just don't get it.
19:28
But anyways, you can also see the impact on like race,
19:31
especially in Love is Blind, when people kind of start to
19:35
figure out that the person that they're talking to is not white
19:38
and you can see them fucking panic.
19:40
It's just really wild to watch, really.
19:43
Of course, these issues are really important when it comes
19:46
to a relationship. It's probably one of the most
19:49
important things. Let's get into Sarah right now,
19:52
actually, and how I feel like this story was told very poorly
19:57
and not even necessarily on her end, but just like by the show,
20:02
they edit out so much. They are creating a story by
20:06
editing certain things and removing certain things.
20:08
Like we need to remember how much content.
20:10
They probably had filmed and how much actually made it on screen.
20:14
So this is from Love is Blind season 8.
20:16
We're going to talk about Sarah and Ben, who I've kind of
20:18
already talked about just now. Sarah has a gay sister.
20:23
Sarah talks about how that's very important to her and she's
20:26
a huge ally. And by the way, guys, Sarah, I'm
20:30
waiting for your time to come out of the closet.
20:32
I think that she's bi, if not a lesbian, because the way she was
20:35
acting with Ben, even though she said she was in love, I feel
20:38
like her head wanted to be with him.
20:42
And she just like, I feel like her bodily response was just
20:45
kind of like, no. But again, I don't know her, but
20:49
she's giving gay to me. And I think she knows deep down
20:54
in her heart that being an ally was such a big deal to her
20:58
because there's something more to it.
21:00
That's exactly how I felt. But being an ally was so fucking
21:03
important to me. And then I was like, I'm gay.
21:06
So Sarah has a gay sister. Ben is a religious manipulator,
21:10
horrible person, is a very specific type of character and a
21:14
man that I think we've all met before where he's kind of this
21:18
like good guy, youth group leader, like loves sports, but
21:23
like kind of hides his like toxicity with being this like
21:28
positive, like almost like orientation leader vibe.
21:32
And I can say that because I was an orientation leader and I know
21:34
sometimes the type. So he thought he could just
21:37
smile his way through this entire season and somehow end up
21:40
famous. Bitch, we're going to figure you
21:43
out. And I think that Love is Blind
21:44
should be realizing based on all the fans that were fucking so
21:48
pissed about the Ben and Sarah situation, that they should
21:52
realize now that like, we're going to hate if you put a
21:56
fucking homophobe on TV. Now when Sarah would talk about
22:01
how it's very important for her that she dates someone with the
22:04
same values and her sister is gay and that's really important
22:07
to her and she doesn't really view herself as Catholic anymore
22:10
real because of how they view and shun queer people and all
22:16
this stuff. He was just like, Oh yeah, I
22:18
have a gay friend. And then by the way, episodes
22:20
later was like, no one in my life has actually been affected.
22:23
So I didn't think it mattered to me.
22:24
And I'm like, do you have a gay friend or not?
22:25
What is going on? And also by the way, he's
22:27
probably gay. I think he's a fucking gay
22:30
manipulator. I don't know what's going on
22:32
with this relationship, but it was just so wild to watch.
22:36
But anyways, he kept on saying, oh, I just haven't really
22:39
thought about those issues since he didn't pertain to me, which
22:41
is just so fucking wild. And you have to realize the
22:43
privilege of that. And then when she asked him
22:46
about Black Lives Matter, he was like, I just never really
22:48
thought about it, which is so fucking wild because
22:50
Minneapolis. So how do you not have an
22:53
opinion on it? And I think that also shows us
22:56
if you don't have an opinion on it, we kind of know what your
22:58
opinion is. OK?
23:00
Because if you're silent, you are with the fucking oppressor.
23:04
That was their situation. And then as the show went on, we
23:08
see this time where Ben meets Sarah's sister and her partner.
23:14
Now, we have no idea what Sarah has told them, what Sarah knows
23:20
about Ben at this point. But from the clips that we saw,
23:23
it looked like Sarah's sister's partner was hammering Ben pretty
23:27
hard and Sarah pretty hard being like, you don't know him,
23:29
whatever, whatever. Which seems like a people, A lot
23:32
of people on the Internet were like, that's pretty harsh.
23:34
From that clip, I can see that interpretation.
23:36
We have no idea how much they knew about him.
23:39
Minneapolis is apparently a very small town.
23:42
But like, if you're hearing that this guy has no opinion on queer
23:45
people and attends this church that said that trans people have
23:48
no idea what they're talking about, that's kind of Fair.
23:52
Not kind of very fair to have an extreme hesitancy towards this
23:56
person. Ben kept on saying like he was
23:58
open to going to like another church but then Sarah would like
24:02
bring it up and like pretty much it was kind of on her to be OK
24:06
with his shit. And she should have known way
24:10
way way earlier that he was hiding his like real feelings
24:17
and also like the church he attends feelings.
24:21
But when this all came to a reunion, she fucking called him
24:24
out and all this stuff which is so amazing.
24:27
But then like when it was talked about the reunion.
24:31
I miss when reality show host used to like be side with the
24:35
right person instead of just being like like this is not a
24:38
therapy session you guys. There's a right and a wrong
24:40
sometimes, and I wish Vanessa and Nick had had been.
24:43
And like, how do you feel about gay people?
24:46
Like, let's ask the hard questions.
24:48
And then like, why did you think that you could be an ally if
24:50
you're attending a church that's homophobic and all this stuff?
24:53
So the way that this was shown was that it was like two
24:57
different opinions. And if anything, Sarah and her
24:59
sister and her sister's partner were being so harsh towards him
25:03
and he didn't deserve all the judgement and all this stuff,
25:06
when in reality, he's a fucking homophobe manipulator.
25:09
And it's just like, why are we letting him manipulate the
25:12
producers and the hosts and where he's getting like, not a
25:15
bad edit. Like obviously we now the
25:18
Internet now knows the truth, but when you're watching the
25:20
show, he's getting not a bad edit.
25:23
Like, what the fuck? So that was not told.
25:26
Well, how it was clipped and how it was shown made it seem like
25:30
it was Sarah's issue and she was the one being like, overly
25:34
sensitive about this kind of stuff.
25:36
OK, let's talk about Brittany and Devin in Virginia.
25:38
Oh my Lord. So first of all, Brittany, who
25:41
hurt you, babe? I'm so sorry that you have so
25:44
much internalized homophobia towards yourself.
25:46
Because she was talking about like, and this is in the pods.
25:49
She's dating Devin and Devin is dating Virginia at the same
25:52
time. And Brittany is saying like, oh,
25:55
it dated a girl once, but she wanted to be with me.
25:57
But like, I I didn't want to be with her long term.
26:00
Like I want to be with a man. I want to be with a man that's
26:03
giving extreme internalized homophobia and so sad.
26:08
But in reaction to that, Devin says, oh, I don't know if I feel
26:14
comfortable with that. Like, I'm going to have to think
26:17
about it. She's like, you don't make me
26:19
feel supportive, girl. Screw the supportiveness.
26:21
He is a homophobe. And we never heard about this
26:24
again. I wish at the reunion they had
26:26
been like, why are you so uncomfortable with the fact that
26:29
she had dated a girl before? And he was like, well, you're
26:32
not going to cheat on me, right? Like another bisexual
26:35
stereotype, so fucking horrible. And the way that was told was
26:39
fucking horrible. And then comes down the line,
26:42
like the fact that Devin then chose Virginia, probably because
26:46
he was like, I need to pick this sweet girl who's not by who was
26:52
kind of soft spoken. And then at the reunion, we saw
26:54
her kind of come out of her shell more.
26:56
But there's this conversation where Virginia is talking about
26:59
reproductive rights and the fact that she thinks LGBTQ people
27:03
deserve rights. And Devin is like, kind of just
27:05
like, I got no opinion on that. Whatever, whatever.
27:09
My family is Republican and conservative and all this stuff.
27:13
And then Virginia later said that Devin didn't want to talk
27:18
about these issues on air. And it's like, Oh my God.
27:21
Because he didn't just have a non opinion, he was actually a
27:24
homophobe at the reunion. Why is no one being like Devin,
27:30
you are a fucking homophobe. Like what is going on?
27:33
I'm just like, I'm sick of like Virginia pulling out all these
27:36
receipts, Devin being like, OK, wish you well.
27:38
And that's just like the end of it.
27:40
They should have pushed him on that.
27:42
He just like got to wipe his hands clean and just not talk
27:46
about it. So at this point, I love is
27:48
blind. We're getting poor queer story
27:51
is being told, and any time actually someone is queer or
27:54
someone's talking about queer issues, there's a Republican
27:57
talking about, oh, I just don't care about that.
27:59
So when there is queer representation being shown, it's
28:02
actually being shown. And then someone else is
28:05
shutting it down and it's giving this idea to the public that,
28:10
like, there's a valid opinion against gay people and that's
28:15
ridiculous. And you can just, you can decide
28:18
to opt out too. That is not the queer
28:20
representation we want from a reality show.
28:24
OK I don't know if people remember this from season 1 of
28:27
Love is Blind, but Carlton and Diamond were together.
28:31
Carlton ended up coming out to her as by during the like
28:35
vacation after they were engaged.
28:38
She fucking took off her ring and was so fucking pissed and
28:41
was like I don't even know if you like I want to be with you
28:43
and all this stuff. And the way that it was pitched
28:46
was like, that is a very valid opinion.
28:49
Oh my God that is so biphobic. I'm so sorry.
28:52
It just is. You obviously don't have to date
28:56
anyone but like you're reacting so poorly with no fucking
29:00
empathy with the fact that he just told you something that
29:03
like he was nervous to share and also said that he should have
29:06
said it earlier. They were in the pods, they
29:09
hadn't even met. So that's the other like main
29:12
queer story we heard from Love is Blind with someone reacting
29:15
very poorly and then also kind of getting praise at the reunion
29:18
that that was a very valid and OK reaction.
29:21
As if it's an OK thing to just reject and like hurt queer
29:26
people and say that's just like, not my thing.
29:28
That is not a valid take an opinion.
29:31
OK. Other times I think reality
29:33
shows handled a queer story very poorly.
29:36
Hear me out on this BBC's I Kissed a Girl.
29:39
I actually love this show. If you haven't watched it, you
29:42
have to like have a VPN and like go on like BBC's website.
29:45
But I was desperate for a queer content so I did watch it.
29:49
It is a British, yeah, British reality dating show for just
29:54
sapphics and like queer women. It is so good and very
29:59
entertaining. My biggest issue with this show,
30:04
and I think this is the same thing with every other gay
30:07
reality TV show that's dating, which is like very few of them
30:11
has had a street host. The host of BB CS, a kid to girl
30:15
is Danni Minogue. Listen, it's still these
30:19
networks thinking that they have to stratify it in some way and
30:23
they can't make it too queer, bro.
30:25
Oh my God, this is reality. So you're not like picking a
30:30
character and being like, oh, it's too queer.
30:32
This is a reality show, so let's just show people as they are and
30:37
not think about the amount on percent of whatever.
30:39
It's so bullshit. But also, if you're trying to
30:41
target a queer audience and then you have a straight woman host,
30:45
that pisses me off. Like, listen, no shade to these,
30:49
these straight hosts. Like, I don't think that they're
30:51
actually homophobic, but that's just not your place.
30:53
You don't understand the lingo. You're asking questions.
30:56
You're like, oh, is this the norm?
30:57
What is this? It's just makes these queer
30:59
people kind of feel like they have to perform for you.
31:01
You're almost still trying to target a straight audience in
31:06
some weird way. Like, I don't know if the
31:08
network was like, we can't be too gay.
31:11
It's just so strange and I don't get it.
31:13
And it's just weird. Like, have a lesbian host, you
31:16
can do it. There's enough.
31:18
Then with the Bachelor franchise, the one time they
31:22
actually did have a queer story I think was done so fucking
31:26
poorly. Another one, Demi Burnett, So
31:30
she came out as bi on Bachelor in Paradise.
31:33
It is so obvious watching it all back and knowing everything now
31:37
that she had a girlfriend before Bachelor in Paradise.
31:39
They wanted to like have her as like the one by character bring
31:44
her on. But then also she was dating a
31:47
guy when she already had a girlfriend pretty much that she
31:50
said that she never really broke up with.
31:52
And then she came back on the show and is like we're actually
31:55
just going to stay here in Bachelor in Paradise.
31:57
Here's my issue with with this entire thing is it makes her out
32:01
to be this like cheater when I'm sure that everyone was like
32:06
aware of this arrangement and situation that she was going to
32:10
bring her girlfriend or maybe the other people didn't.
32:12
But that's one of the biggest stereotypes of bisexuals and
32:16
that's just like fucked that they were like you have a
32:19
girlfriend but you didn't fully break up with her so now you're
32:21
going to be on the show. And like it was just done so
32:24
poorly. Then the fact that they just had
32:27
her stay with the girl made people mad and then it made
32:30
backlash and then people were pissed at her online and it's
32:33
just creating the worst storm for her to get homophobic hate.
32:37
When in reality she should have just been like they buy a
32:41
Bachelorette or something like that or like been like hey I'm
32:44
going to leave and go with my girlfriend.
32:47
Treat these stories like they are normal stories and not that
32:50
they get any different or specific or like empathetic
32:54
special treatment like aw she's bringing her girlfriend.
32:58
No that's not even how the show works.
33:00
Just make it so it makes sense, but like they just did it in
33:04
such a strange way. And then since then we've never
33:06
had a situation like that again. So what's the point of bringing
33:10
on like a Bye girl and Bachelor in Paradise and then never
33:14
highlighting like a huge story like that again?
33:16
I think that there's been by contestants since, or maybe not
33:20
like I haven't really heard of anything.
33:23
So the other argument that I hear a lot from like people
33:26
being like, it's impossible to like make these shows gay
33:29
because then you're living with the girls that you could
33:33
potentially be interested in. Perfect.
33:36
It just makes the show even better and I understand that it
33:41
might be harder with love is blind because you're like dating
33:45
the girls blind but people have come up with ways to make it
33:49
work and on like Reddit threads of like different ideas but the
33:53
larger point is like that actually just leads to more
33:56
drama. It would be better and more fun
33:58
for everyone. I just don't get why they don't
34:00
do it. OK, let's talk about the
34:02
ultimatum Queer love season. This show very entertaining, a
34:07
lot of mixed reviews. I thought it was very
34:09
entertaining. They chose a lot of couples that
34:12
were mask for femme which and maybe this just so happens to be
34:18
the couples that they chose. But like listen, not every
34:21
relationship is like that. But what also pissed me off
34:24
about this show, the host was straight, Joanna Garcia Swisher
34:28
was straight. And in the beginning of the
34:30
show, 1 of the contestants was like yelled out like, are you
34:33
queer? And she was like, Nope, I'm
34:35
straight. And she said later, oh, it
34:37
caused no issues. But I just don't get why there's
34:41
so many queer people. You're hosting a queer show.
34:44
You have no knowledge of this community.
34:48
And now again, you're learning terms, you're trying to
34:50
understand the dynamics and just have a queer host.
34:53
It just feels like such a slap in the face because it's like
34:57
the show can't be too gay. I literally think that's that's
35:01
what they're thinking. And I think the only way to know
35:04
if a show is going to be successful, if it's like only
35:06
queer, is to test it out. And I do think that there's
35:09
straight people that will watch a queer host with a queer dating
35:13
show, right? The other huge issue I had with
35:18
the show was that it was technically a separate show than
35:24
The Ultimatum. When I went to click on The
35:26
Ultimatum the other day on Netflix, you cannot find the
35:31
queer love season in The Ultimatum.
35:34
It's not even a season of the Ultimatum, it's an entire
35:37
different show. Almost as if they're trying to
35:40
segment out queer people from the rest of the franchise.
35:45
Bro just make it another season. Like they didn't want to scare
35:48
off their maybe like conservative straight viewers.
35:51
I just don't get it. And that actually is really
35:53
fucking annoying. Like, OK, you guys can have your
35:55
little queer show as long as it's like a separate little
35:59
queer show. Separate but equal.
36:00
Fuck that shit. Then finally, we have Love
36:03
Island. I'm not a huge Love Island
36:06
viewer. It almost kind of overwhelms me
36:09
because there's like, so much content that it like, stresses
36:12
me out, if that makes sense. And I feel like I'm so behind
36:16
that I can't, like, catch up. Now there have been multiple
36:19
bisexual contestants that say that they received homophobic
36:23
backlash after airing on the show.
36:25
And again, these shows need to do a better job of protecting
36:29
their queer contestants and making it safe and not making
36:33
these queer contestants have to argue and like be the one
36:38
sticking up for themselves and these reunions.
36:41
It's so fucked up. Actually, specifically Sharon
36:44
Gaffe came out on the show and the entire conversation, she
36:49
said was actually cut from production.
36:53
She said she had this entire conversation where she was like,
36:55
I am bisexual, blah, blah, blah, blah blah and talks about it and
36:58
it was never shown. Sounds extremely familiar to
37:03
what we've talked about before. So when we do have queer
37:06
representation, it is shown very poorly and shown as just like a
37:10
matter of opinion and not like human rights.
37:14
Or when we are given queer representation, it's like
37:17
separated or it has a straight host or it's it's some straight
37:21
elements. So straight people can still
37:24
consume it, which is not what we want.
37:26
And in most cases, we don't have queer representation and we
37:30
don't have queer seasons. And even when they randomly,
37:34
accidentally at these contestants that are like I'm
37:37
queer, they cut their storylines out.
37:41
So that's the state of reality dating TV and how so fucking
37:46
overly straight it is and how it actually doesn't even make any
37:50
sense why it's so straight and conservative when viewers are
37:56
younger, Gen. Z, queer and liberal.
38:00
So what's going on? Reality TV needs a reality check
38:03
and queer people want more queer stories.
38:05
We will listen, we will watch, we will literally pay money to
38:10
watch this and they still won't make it for us.
38:13
And I fear as kind of this political shift continues where
38:17
like Gen. Z is slowly getting more
38:20
conservative, it makes me worried for the future.
38:23
It's not like this is actually getting better.
38:25
I kind of fear that it's getting worse.
38:28
And even though 30% of Gen. Z is LGBTQ, there's a huge
38:34
divide here. And there's also a lot of Gen.
38:37
Z people that are turning more conservative and young straight
38:41
people that are marrying really young and being like, I just
38:44
want a soft feminine life that are like going to become
38:47
homemakers and aren't signing prenups and are getting scared
38:50
of prenups in this like a new traditional like wave is scaring
38:55
me. And I really hope we can get
38:57
some more queer reality TV and I think it'll like help our
39:00
society. I really think it would so
39:03
reality TV do better. Thank you.
39:05
All right, y'all, that's our episode.
39:07
Like I said before, if you want to check out that bonus episode,
39:10
go to my Patreon or my Spotify and it's called on the rumor
39:15
mill episode 2 and again, 20% off March.
39:18
OK, love you guys. Have a great week.