Barney speaks frankly for the camerasI suppose it would be easier to look the other way when trashy people on guilty-pleasure reality television shows say things they shouldn't. But when Tamra Barney announced to her husband (aka "dude"; way to start a trend, Ms. Palin) and friends that another guest (Slade) at a party they were at looked "like a homo" on the season finale of "The Real Housewives of Orange County," even my most cynical friends weren't quite sure they'd heard what they heard. (Lucky for them, Bravo went to the trouble of close-captioning it, so even our deaf gay brothers and sisters wouldn't miss it, either.) The show aired Tuesday but I only got around to looking at it last night. Figuring the outrage was already alive and burning in the blogosphere (remember what Bravo's viewers did to one of their own, when lesbian fitness guru Jackie Warner unknowingly made a joke about a woman who turned out to be a cancer survivor? They organized boycotts and got sponsors to pull out -- and that was an honest mistake!), I went looking only to find nothing about it on any of the most popular gay blogs.
I understand that there's such a thing as "looking to be offended" by something. But you don't have to look very hard here. Will the world come to an end because some uneducated 50-year-old who married a daddy with a big tract house said someone looked like a "homo" on national television? No. But it's just one more example of the desensitizing of America that allows people to think it's OK to use gay slurs to put people down, the very type of hate speech that leads to gay bashings and other crimes against the GLBT community. And it's especially disheartening to me that a network that caters to the GLBT population would air it so cavalierly. (No PSA at the end; no bleeping it out -- they ADDED subtitles!) Yes, Tamra has behaved reprehensibly throughout the season. (This is the same woman who tried to pimp her 22-year-old son out on another woman whose fiance is dying of leukemia by plying the poor thing with tequila shots in an attempt to make her look bad, all because this other gal is younger and prettier than she is.) But airing this specific scene didn't add anything special to the story line, and is surely nothing unique to Orange County. (While they're at it, why doesn't Bravo send a camera crew to my stepdad's cousin Kenny's house in Detroit and see how long it takes to capture him calling someone a nigger on tape? Oh, wait. THAT would be wrong. See THE BOUNTY HUNTER, DOG.)
I contacted Bravo's openly gay senior vice president of original programming and development, Andy Cohen, to ask him what he thought. He agreed that the remark reflected poorly on Tamra, so then I asked him how he felt it reflected on Bravo, reminding him of his network's largely gay audience, and pointing out that just because she said it, did he think it was appropriate to air it (with subtitles, no less) and to give her a platform for her language that includes using anti-gay slurs to demean someone else?
Andy sent me this e-mail message response:"I think we have a great track record for representing gays, and I think one woman's stupid comment reflects poorly on her, just as a cavalcade of other remarks have reflected poorly on her and others. As a gay man I have no problem with it."
Read the UPDATE here.
Tamra Barney, the self-proclaimed "hottest housewife in Orange County"
13 comments:
Perhaps the viewers should write in, asking that she be removed from the show. Since she's nothing but a pathetic, attention-seeking, desperate excuse for a person, that would hit her where it hurts.
And I agree with you...if she had used a derogatory term for some other group of people - based on skin tone or religious affiliation - would Bravo have been so cavalier in airing it and defending it?
You are very correct about the Dog the Bounty Hunter incident. And that one didn't even take place on the show, let alone AIR on national television.
Mr. Cohen is correct. The remark reflects more on this woman's ignorance , narrow-mindedness, and insensitivity, than it does on BRAVO.
Perhaps it would be better to lobby BRAVO to confront this woman with her homophobia in a future episode.
I have never seen the show, but from your description of it, I would expect such comments from a woman whose sole goal in life, it appears, is to marry well. Perhaps, it might have been better for the world to see just how crass and bigoted this woman is.
I think that airing the comment makes her look even more like an idiot & does not reflect on the network. Really.
KW- I love Kenneth in the 212 & I am a daily reader. I am impressed that you got such a quick response from Andy. You really are powerful!
This is another one of those tough-call situations for me. Based on the context of the show: "uneducated skanky housewife shows what a homophobic idiot she is", I think it was okay to include that scene. But at the same time, I agree with you that it does desensitize people when 'homo' is used as a humorous putdown. Hopefully viewers will see what kind of person uses slurs like that and make the connection. I hope that's the case.
I'm not looking to be offended, but I *hate* that so many people are *so* anti-PC that they REFUSE to be offended, even when offense is intended. This woman is a fucking pig and should be called out for this. Glad you did so. I think Bravo did the right thing in not only airing but close-captioning it. They're showing her for what and who she is. I think to have censored it would have actually done more harm because there would be no reason to dislike her. Other than, you know. her entire personality (but a lot of people probably find her to be "great" and "real" and "funny" and whatever.)
i'm afraid that there are plenty of people out there that actually see these women as role models... they disgust me and i refuse to watch. these shows seem out of character for bravo's identity.
Tamra is really the worst of the worst. Your description of her throughout the season is right-on. Bravo should have one of those intervention moments with her on air, like they used to do on MTV Real World where they say this is unacceptable and she is being asked to leave. This would hit home for the biggest gold digger in Housewife history because her husband only worked at a car dealer and he was fired before the airing of this season, thus they are making their sole living off of what they make from the show.
Tamara and Vicki have always disgusted me. Vicki needs to sue whichever plastic surgeon did that to her face and Tamara's only marketable talent is her ability to keep her ankles higher than her head while in the prone position.
Since the show is named The "Real" Housewives of the OC, this is one of those real, revelatory moments that gives viewers the unabashed truth about these women, and by extension, the whole OC mentality that is glorified by the show. Maybe it's not the producers' intention to be that "real", but there you have it.
Well we can't ALL live in hipster LaVerne, now, can we, David?
You guys... ALL of these women are trash. That's the point of the show. If they were intelligent, stylish, dignified and likable, they wouldn't be very interesting. And they'd be too smart to be on a show like this in the first place. And by the way, the guy did look like a homo. He was the best looking one there and she was getting moist over him.
Let's just call her a cunt and call it a day. Stop acting like precious little babies.
JEEZ! ya really hit the "nail on the head" .... with your assessment of that trailer-trash disgustingly vile Tamra. The consistent descent of she and crazy ass Vicki into subhuman slime species has become almost unbearable to watch. For one who is so overbearingly tacky, this obsessive jealous condescending fake hateful lowbrow hypocrite of an animal - Ms TAMRA, from such a low perch, it is inconceivable that she might "look down" her nose at anyone. I truly feel nasty, like I needed to go take a shower, after watching that broad trainwreck spew her bile onto the airwaves.
While I may have had my reservations about Gretchen, I have become more endeared to her by just the horrible nastiness she has had to take from Tamra. Righton with you my friend for dishin out a bit of the reading this Tamra "ho" deserves. .....However, don't know if you may have commented on it before, but the Real Housewives of New Jersey and their homophobic husbands have tossed about similar gay slurs which have made me uncomfortable. In fact, Danielle made a real point of calling the others on it in one of their episodes. It is this type of "veiled" slur which is to me almost the MOST haunting. The slurs which come defended by the typical "I'm not homophobic, I have a friend who's gay." defense. It is this kind of rationalizing by those of such ilk, which almost seems to evade their comprehension, yet so blatantly to us, confirms the horrible ugliness that those we would like to believe are truly all embracing and supportive do indeed yet hold us as second class citizens.
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