Oh Betty and Karen, I wish I knew you better.
Since I don’t own a television, the joy of travelling for work takes on a pleasurable turn because that means… “Say Yes to the Dress!” and “House Hunters” and “House Hunters International”!!!! Oh, the thought of lolling around on perfectly washed sheets in a complimentary waffle-weave kimino bathrobe while screaming, “House #1! Choose House #1!!!!” is enough to put a skip in my step when going thru airport security.
And today, while showering and prancing around naked around the company-paid 1 bedroom suite, I watched a little ‘Betty’ and ‘Karen’ on “House Hunters International-Episode HHINT-3704H”. They’re a San Francisco based couple planning to move to Merida, Mexico.
And the show focuses on Betty’s desire to open a restaurant and Karen’s desire for a big pool and their desire for a colonial styled house blah blah blah.
But what made me pause is after 20 minutes, I noticed that they weren’t ‘acting like a couple’. There was no PDA, no pet names, nothing. Even the wording of the disembodied voices kept referring to them only as ‘Betty’ with the mad cooking skills and ‘Karen’ who is some kind of loyal supporter of ‘Betty’s restaurant dream.
Now I’m not saying that everyone should act a couple, hell I don’t even know if Betty and Karen ARE a couple, but it made me realize how STRAIGHT privileged I was. Because in almost every other House Hunters episode I watch (and I watch a lot), couples tend to hold hands as they walk down the street while strolling next to the realtor or they seal agreements with a quick kiss, or they poke or tickle each other.
Holding hands?! Privileged!
I suppose House Hunters is opening the world to a more conservative audience. Perhaps this is the first light that some people (who live in a hole) can see of normalcy within homosexual couples. (They buy homes just like the rest of us!) But it made me sad, to see that maybe MAYBE (because I wasn’t there, I don’t know them at all, and I don’t know how much of it was staged or directed or whatever goes on in reality television world) MAYBE, they were asked to tone down the love displays for the ‘audience’s sake’.
I know that our culture is changing and that stigmas are slowly devolving, but love is so incredibly beautiful, why would we WANT to ever tone it down?
Maybe we just have to accept that loving colonial style is more tolerable right now, and that’s more gush worthy to the producers and the audience.
It’s a product. Do you want to watch Rosie O’Donnell and her partner house hunt, or two pretty actresses (real-life lesbians or not) house-hunting? If you’re flipping through the channels and see two women in their panties painting a wall (or scrubbing toilets!), male or female audience, you will stop to see what’s the hubbub about. Then they got you on the hook already.
Interesting take, Beverly. I occasionally watch House Hunters and always commend them for having gay couples and not making a big thing out of it. But yes, I never thought about seeing them French kiss or whatever – and they should – that should be the next step. Maybe they’ll find an opportunity to do that in Pompeii or something — and use that as a leverage to do it more often.