Originally appeared as two columns in The Weekly News (Miami).
GAY AMERICANS OF THE BEARISH PERSUASION have a new heartthrob - Richard, of the number 1 prime-time ratings leader Survivor. The show, airing from 8-9 pm Wednesdays on CBS, concerns a gaggle of disparate Americans transported to a South Seas island - male, female, black, white, urban, rural - and one gay guy, Richard. You know the shtick: they fend for themselves, but also have to engage in orchestrated contests of skill and/or endurance. At the end of each show, someones voted off in a hokey tribal council. As summer ends, the sole survivor will win a million bucks.
Writing about Survivor is tricky, because at least one other show will have aired by the time anyone reads this, and who knows what will be revealed. Still, it's worth noting that Survivor is as big a breakthrough as Ellen or Will and Grace - maybe bigger. And the reason is Richard Hatch (although the media refers to all the ersatz castaways on a first name basis). He's big, hairy, and usually shirtless. Which is to say, he's a bear-lovers' dreamboat. A 39-year-old corporate trainer, on the island he's the chief spear fisherman, which puts him several levels above some of the more obvious slackers. He's also a prime mover behind what has been a successful alliance with Rudy, Susan, and Kelly, who have been deciding in secret to pool their votes each week on one targeted victim, helping to ensure that they'll still be safe, for at least one more week.
This strategy has earned Richard some enemies back here in the real world. Writing in Entertainment Weekly, openly gay critic Mark Harris ripped him to shreds in a column titled "American Schemer." Harris, whose own photo is totally unbearish, called our man Rich a "conniving, manipulative, smarmy, fork-tongued...evil lizard-face, portly gay corporate trainer Machiavellian superstar," and that was just for starters. Comparing him to J.R. Ewing, Harris finally admits that Rich is "utterly mesmerizing."
So Rich flirted with Greg (the straight Ivy Leaguer, who also seemed to be flirting with him) and then voted Greg off while singing under his breath, "Good night, sweetheart, it's time to go...." The fact is, it's a game, fella, and strategy rules. Self-reliant, super-competent Gretchen, voted off a few weeks back, may very well have had the best physical survival skills, but she disdained the idea of sullying herself in an alliance, which she dismissed as nothing but "back stabbing" by "devious rivals." Corporate trainer Rich knows better. This show is all about manipulative relationships and making them work to your advantage.
It's not Gilligan's Island, and it's not summer camp. And while some lefty critics look at Rich's corporate background and paint him as a deceitful exemplar of free-market capitalism (again, the J.R. factor), they miss the point. This is not a "community," it's a contest. After all, no one's planning on sharing the million-dollar booty. Paranoia is the name of the game, and if you can't stand the heat, this island's not for you. As of this writing, several of the others have figured this out and are belatedly trying to put together alliances of their own, including one group of women (who may be trying to lure Kelly to their cause). Stay tuned.
EW's Harris says Rich has "single-handedly eradicated every antigay stereotype of the 20th century (he's not limp-wristed, incompetent...cowardly or effeminate)," but then complains he's "replaced them with every antigay stereotype of the 19th century: Duplicitous, secretive, allying himself with neither gender ... obsessed with bending others to his will...." On the magazine's website, one posting laments, "I wish Richard's being gay wasn't so much on the forefront." Someone else labels him Richard "Vader." Give me a break. Rich knows it's a big game show, and he knows how to play it. I doubt he'll win, but it's great watching him try.
Now, back to something more serious. Sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees. And in all the yammering about whether Richard is a brilliant schemer or a "fat yutz" (as the New York Post put it), the fact that the show is a gargantuan mega hit, and that Rich is, in fact, this season's J.R. Ewing, is downright revolutionary. This is the show that everyone talks about around the water fountain. I'd wager that high school kids are hip to it as well. And it's star player (at least as of this writing) is the gay guy.
There's a cultural paradox here. The U.S. Army has been advertising on Survivor, although openly gay people like Rich are barred from the armed forces. Yet if popular culture is a bellwether, then we know that the entrenched forces of intransigence, be they the U.S. military or Boy Scouts, can't hold out against the tide.
Not that many years ago, after all, there were no gays and lesbians on TV. None. Zero. Nada. Then the ice began to break. But a gay relationship was enough to cause sponsors to flee ABCs "Thirtysomething" a decade or so back. It all seems so quaint. From Melrose Place to Dawson's Creek gays became part of the contemporary video landscape. The producers are even promising that next season you can expect Will to actually start dating men in earnest, without Grace tagging along. Now that's progress.
The following column ran after the show's conclusion.
That the openly "gay guy" was the star and ultimate victor of CBS's mega-popular Survivor - which everyone is calling the '00s equivalent of Dallas - is a real breakthrough that isn't being given enough attention beyond the entertainment pages. The fact is, it just would not have been allowed to happen, network TV-wise, even just a few years ago. Before MTV's Real World made gays on reality TV shows OK for hip cable channels, before Ellen stormed the broadcast networks' closet door, and before Will & Grace was a ratings hit, Richard Hatch, millionaire extraordinaire and self-described "fat naked fag" would never have been considered for a high-profile network TV contest. And if he nevertheless had found his way in, would a jury of former co-contestants - including a hard-edged female trucker and a retired Navy Seal - have voted to give him the loot?
So the times they are a'changin, once more. And having won - and already appeared as the first openly gay person to do one of those "Got Milk" liquid mustache ads - Rich is continuing to break barriers. Just over a decade ago, when Greg Louganis won Olympic gold, he was one of the few top medalists not to be asked to grace a Wheaties box. Even Martina managed only a few, tennis-specific product endorsement spots. Everyone knew why. But having done the milk ad (I mean, how wholesome can you get?) and reportedly in negotiations with leading mega-brands across the spectrum, it seems such Madison Avenue discrimination may be consigned to history's dustbin, where it always belonged.
Next up, now that he's actually won the Survivor $1 million jackpot and become a celebrity gay, we're going to have to decide what to do with Richard. To some he's a hot bear whose proved his mettle, and to others an "evil queen" (as he was mercilessly characterized in a Washington Post sneer-fest). In any case, he's now someone to reckon with, given the massive coverage of his victory by the mainstream media. "Way to Go!: Many Gay Men Inspired by Rich's Win," proclaimed the Philadelphia Daily News. "Gays Hail Guy Who Shattered the Myth," declared the New York Post. These and other stories point to the pride that gays - and gay men, in particular - felt about one of their own coming out on top.
Richard (with whom America is now on a first-name basis, like Cher) gets kudos for being out and proud. He was forthright about being gay on the island, as he forged the now notorious "alliance" with homophobic ex-Navy Seal Rudy and self-described "redneck" trucker Sue, along with conflicted river guide Kelly.
And he doesn't shy from topic Q. Rich is at ease giving interviews about how, growing up gay and overweight, "you could either go inside and never admit who you are or you come out and be comfortable with yourself." He says that while he's not dating anyone, "my goal is to be in a committed relationship in the future with the right man." He appears genuinely pleased by the support he's gotten from the gay community.
One guy-on-the-street interviewee told the Philadelphia Daily News, "People don't usually see depictions of gay people as intelligent and powerful people, but we are like that. We've had to overcome a lot of adversity in our lives. Rich winning Survivor is a very positive thing for our community."
On the other hand, the Wall Street Journal has compared Richard Hatch to Shakespeare's loathsome Richard III; the Style section of the Washington Post characterized him as a representative "evil queen" one day and a "scheming nudist" on another; while Entertainment Weekly compared him disapprovingly with J.R. Ewing. Even Michael Musto, a gay columnist at New York's liberal Village Voice, called Rich's victory "a mixed blessing."
So, what do we really know about Richard? We've learned that the 39-year-old corporate trainer from Newport, R.I. is either a savvy strategist or a wily manipulator; a clever bluffer or an outright liar; a champion or a back-stabber; a loving parent of an adopted, emotionally troubled young son or an abusively strict disciplinarian who forces the overweight boy to join him in pre-dawn jogs (to the consternation of local child welfare authorities, who briefly removed the boy from his home but then dismissed their charges); a guy who happens to be at ease with his body or a shameless exhibitionist. See, we know plenty, don't we?
And that's the problem. While those watching the finale at gay bar Survivor parties seem to adore his moxie, the "official" lesbigay activists aren't rushing to embrace him. And why should they, you ask? Well, think of the battle against the "don't ask, don't tell" (i.e., "lie and hide") military policy. Rich not only is an army veteran who went to West Point (albeit briefly), but he forged and led the Survivor alliance with Rudy, who started out dismissive of "queers" and ending up expressing affection for Rich "but not in a homosexual way." Which proves you don't have to like homosexuals to serve with them - and to share close quarters while doing so. Perhaps being gay isn't so detrimental to unit cohesion after all.
But Rich isn't being touted as a gay posterboy. There's the nudism, the dropped "abuse" charge and the widely noted "arrogance." Much of the latter, I'd argue, is simple media homophobia. A straight master strategist is a master strategist; a gay master strategist is an "evil queen."
Rich, however, may yet become another accidental activist. After all , there will be product endorsements, book deals, highly publicized speaking engagements and sitcom cameos. Rich is hot. He may be not be the lesbian and gay establishment's idea of a role model, but he's likely to be someone to contend with for at least a while longer than the next 15 seconds.
And that, in the end, is not a bad thing at all. As Rich told the New York Post, when he was on the island and after, "there was no pressure about my being gay." And he noted, "if I'm also the gay me on TV, well, that's awesome." And it is.