Is Adam Sandler's New Comedy Homophobic?

Posted by Guest Blogger at 5:38 AM on July 23, 2007.

This post, written by Bernie Heidkamp. originally appeared on PopPolitics

As "I Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" premiered this past weekend, critics panned it -- arguing almost universally that it cynically exploited homophobia while superficially emphasizing a message of tolerance. Despite its dream-team pairing of comedic powerhouses Adam Sandler and Kevin James, that mixed message apparently wasn't very funny at all.

So, amidst this critical deluge, who was there to defend the film? Well, gay activists, of course. "Chuck and Larry" received a seal of approval from GLAAD -- the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation -- and it got a positive review for its ideology, if not its comedy, by Alonso Duralde at After Elton.

Huh?

Just call it another strange chapter in Hollywood's hypocritical history of representing gay life.

Stephen Garrett of Time Out Chicago provides a concise synopsis of what bothers most critics -- and admittedly, many other gay activists -- about the film:

An odd mash-up of play-school slurs and enlightened barbs, Chuck and Larry tosses around its gay references with gleeful abandon while keeping its protagonists stridently hetero: Widower James bellyaches about his dead wife and pussyhound Sandler beds a half-dozen lingerie-clad women at a time. The jokes are smart-stupid to the point of hilarity; Sandler fans will not be disappointed. But the whole exercise is schizophrenic, offering stereotypes while chastising prejudice.

Male bonding is the only boy-on-boy action this movie truly celebrates, with a syrupy climax in which the two men wax rhapsodic about their unfettered platonic love. Swishy supporting characters are allowed, but only as punch lines. In a movie where machismo is king, Chuck and Larry didn't even have the balls for one serious homosexual romance. How gay is that?

GLAAD Entertainment Media Director Damon Romine had a different, if somewhat qualified, take:

This is an over-the-top comedy that conveys a strong message of equality. Because it's an exploration of homophobia, some stereotypes and anti-gay slurs are employed. Although we would prefer these types of negative images be erased from media entirely, the overall message of the film is still one which stresses the importance of family and acceptance.

GLAAD has embraced the film because Universal Pictures took the unprecedented step of inviting GLAAD in for an early screening -- asking for its thoughts on the representations in the film. At least some of GLAAD's recommendations were incorporated into the final version of the film, although they admit "problematic content" remains.

What is more fascinating is Alonso Duralde's take on the film for After Elton. His review uses similar language to GLAAD:

Red-staters of every stripe who wouldn't watch a Logo documentary on a BET might very well rush out to see this movie, based on the comic appeal of Sandler and co-star Kevin James alone...If these two guys' guys are able to see gay folks as just folks who deserve the same rights as everyone else, then just maybe the hordes of twenty-something straight boys who flock to Sandler's movies might be able to do the same.

Maybe more significantly, though, in an earlier article Duralde places "Chuck and Larry" on a continuum with such ground-breaking films as "Philadephia" and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" as well as other consciousness-raising comedies like "Tootsie," where Dustin Hoffman plays a man impersonating a woman, and "Soul Man," where C. Thomas Howell plays someone white passing for black.

The idea behind those last two films is that having a while male protagonists "makes it easier for viewers who are not gay (or female or black or Jewish) to have a first-hand feeling of what it's like to have that sort of crap flung at you -- particularly if those viewers have ever done the flinging."

Duralde admits this strategy is full of contradictions:

This approach can be tricky, of course - feminists didn't complain about Hoffman playing a woman, but many people were up in arms over the idea of Howell donning "blackface," even if it was with the best of intentions. Gay audiences have been similarly leery of Chuck and Larry for its straight-guys-passing-as-queer plot, to say nothing of the fantasyland scenario in which having a same-sex partner becomes more legally beneficial rather than less.

Well, feminists have complained rather loudly and persuasively about the representations in "Tootsie" -- most famously Elaine Showalter and Andrew Ross.

And like their arguments that saw "Tootsie" as insidiously taking feminism out of women's hands, GLAAD and Duralde need to understand that heterosexual men, however much they "learn" in a film, can't ever carry the burden of representing what it means to be gay.it's not

Tagged as: sandler, james, film, homophobia, glaad

Bernie Heidkamp is a Contributing Editor for PopPolitics.