Gay kiss on Corrie

As someone with the lights turned on in the closet, I'm slowly applying oil to the door hinges as soon enough,I'll open it up

Good luck to anyone who gets there before me.

Anyhow this thread is really here to spark a discussion on Gay themes on the TV.

Recently we have had Lesbian and Gay Kisses on the Bill and there have been Gay characters on Eastenders.

But On October 5th ,there will be aGay kiss on Coronation street between Todd Grimshaw and Nick Tilsley, both of whom are very cute

It's good to see to be honest, as role models are hard to come by.

[mike65]

Corrie late again! Eastenders broke that taboo in 1985 I think then Brookie, as you mentioned the Bill has been hog-wild for gay kissing scenes for a while so it seems strange that anyone is getting excited by the Todd-Nick kiss.

Mike.

[claire h]

Heh. Even 'Fair City' had a gay kiss, which is saying something.

Do you think shows are more likely to show two guys kissing as opposed to two girls? I know it's theoretically equally 'controversial', but having two girls kissing plays into the whole 'lesbian chic' idea, especially when you have a straight-male-target-audience. Which do you think gets people a little more hot under the collar?

[mike65]

I think the main Corrie demographic is female in the 20-50s bracket.

Mike.

[SweetBirdOfTruth]

is unusual that it's guy-on-guy, girl-on-girl is more normal, partic since tatu (have i said that i hate what tatu represent? http://www.loopdiloop.com/fsharp/tATu.asp

how far did eastenders take it? i remember one gay character, years and years and years ago, but don't remember how full on it was (did they get to kiss? i thought it was brookie broke that taboo?).

and fair ****s to fair city for following on, years after (they've even had incest recently, no?) but the fact that one of the gay characters pays teh wages of sin (death) really does rile (didn't the eastenders gay guy die, and then try a life in politics?)

the new film, goldfish memories, should upset an apple cart or two. i might even take to listening to marianne f and the duffy phone in when it's released just to hear what apoplexy sounds like

[ixoy]

Girl-on-girl seems to be much easier to show stuff happening. Mostly 'coz the straight male audience won't object whereas they might with a guy-guy kiss (ewwww - men kissing - ewwwww).

I mean the US is a joke. It's not like ya see much snoggin in somethin' like "Will & Grace". Even here, in more liberal TV, it's generally still "Ohhh wow - look a gay kiss! GASP! GASP!" There were a number of complaints over the kiss in the Bill for example. I really think guy-with-guy raise the ire more here.

I don't think there's yet to be any decent gay characters on TV with the exception of the Wonderful World of HBO. "Six Feet Under" is a rightly celebrated example because the characters don't fit into any cliched mould and they're excellently written, and not issue-of-the-week as soaps can be. Another one they produced however was in "The Wire". Now generally gay guys in US TV are kinda wimpish but this guy was tough as fuc*ing nails: a drug dealer who went around killing off the rival gangs who shoot his lover :ninja:

[Lukin Black]

He makes a pass at Nick and leans forward to kiss him but it's not reciprocated.

So it's going to be an almost-kiss, rather than an actual one..

[solice]

im looking forward to the fall out, and mark my words people, this will not be a good thing for the gay community, just look how the story is going.

todd and sarah lou have shacked up in some rat infested flat. sarah lou has had a major falling out with her mother and she is turning to todd for support. but what does todd do, gets a crush on her brother.
they will prob break up and sarah lou will be left to pick up the pieces as a single mother.

its good to see that corrie is finally advancing to the stage of recognising homosexuality exists but ffs, do they have to do this story line, does it have to be todd.

lets wait for the backlash

[mike65]

Good point solice when I heard about this "shock" story I was baffled as to why Todd was chosen after all its kind of established he likes wimmin and him becoming bi-curious or even gay just strikes me as lazy writing.

Maybe they should have introduced a fresh character or maybe started a story line with someone like Sarahs' younger brother realising his feeling in a year to two.

Also this means Todd will have to die tragically

Mike.

Point taken regarding the "issues" surrounding the story line.
But the way i look at anything on TV like this , is that someone watching who is gay/bi /curious see's their feelings getting an airing and that is good.

[claire h]

Originally posted by corrie fan
Point taken regarding the "issues" surrounding the story line.
But the way i look at anything on TV like this , is that someone watching who is gay/bi /curious see's their feelings getting an airing and that is good.

But it *does* make a difference how it's handled. There aren't enough gay people on TV, and if you have a storyline like this - if the poor teenage mother is left alone because her boyfriend turns out to be gay - it does send out a bad message. It's saying, "look, kids, this is what gay people do! They explore their feelings for the same sex and hurt the people who care about them! It's bad and wrong!" And, yeah, it'd be unrealistic to have *perfect* gay characters on TV, but because there are so few, the ones that are used in storylines like this become the majority, which kinda sucks. Representation of GLBs on TV is a good thing. Selective representation is not.

[Lukin Black]

Like the saga that was and is Zoe Tate on Emmerdale..

Mind you, coulda been worse - it could've been Nick decided he's gay and tried to steal Todd. Why are there so many boyfriend-stealing gay people in tv/film. Actually, when I come to think of it, it's more girls stealing bloke's girlfriends. Either way, it's not a great picture.

[yellum]

In fairness are *any* of the characters in soaps perfect ? Not at all.

Todd is actually a very sweet, caring, intelligent and cute guy. Unless he turns out to be a complete whore I won't have any problems.

[solice]

i do have a problem with this, introducing a new character who is gay would be better but the one thing that corrie could do is (as stated above) have someone younger, sarahs younger brother dealing with and coming to terms with his sexuality, this would help more people and there would be no comments made of the "evilness" of homosexuality.

they said on the web site that todd has been dealing with his sexuality now for a long time. **** me, am i blind and stupid, i didnt notice any difference. the todd i see when i watch corrie today is the same todd that came into it years ago.
the only reason i wont be surprised when i see it is because i know its going to happen from here and other web forums but my parents are going to be shocked.

if todd starts dealing with his sexuality tonight then that gives him a month before the kiss. for reality purposes that is ridiculous

i believe that granada are making a mistake here that will have repurcussions.

[ixoy]

Originally posted by solice
if todd starts dealing with his sexuality tonight then that gives him a month before the kiss. for reality purposes that is ridiculous

i believe that granada are making a mistake here that will have repurcussions.

Ah but they can claim he was dealing with it internally. I mean he mightn't have wanted to talk about it with anyone so the kiss is the first outward sign we see. It's all been in his head until then. Least that's what the writers can say. Dunno about everyone else here but I didn't discuss it all that much before I also made a rash silly move back in '95. 1995? Crap I feel old now!