A kiss is still a kiss

I'm far too old to be watching the high-school drama "Dawson's Creek" but I admit it: I tuned in to the May 2, 2001 episode after reading in the papers that Dawson's pal Jack -- yet another gay-but-celibate TV character -- would actually kiss his male prom date. It reminded me of Monday nights in my university dorm TV room as everyone gathered around for the trashy nighttime soap "Melrose Place." Week after week, I had to shake my head at how its characters scandalously hopped from bed to bed while the lone gay character had not so much as a dinner date. The trend hit its lowest point with the ridiculous censoring of a chaste goodnight kiss in 1994. University of Pennsylvania professor Larry Gross describes the scene in his essay, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Lesbian and Gay People and the Media":

"When the episode aired the two gay men were shown becoming attracted to each other. But, when they stood saying goodnight, shaking hands, giving each other a meaningful look and moving towards one another, suddenly they were in slow motion and the shot cut to Billy Campbell looking through the blinds of his apartment with a shocked expression (he hadn't known his best friend was gay). The scene then cut back to the couple as they moved apart. The audience's tender sensibilities had been spared the sight of two men exchanging a loving kiss, although the same episode offered promiscuous (heterosexual) sex, attempted murder, false accusations of (hetero)sexual harassment, and two daughters' recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse by their father; apparently, none of these required a parental advisory."

It's taken seven years but at least "Dawson's Creek" got it right. While the main characters wrestled with the show's usual teen angst, Jack and Tobey shared cute banter and sideways glances until their scenes together culminated in a brief kiss. Nothing sexy, just a quiet and realistic display of prom-night love that made me smile. Sad then, that the press treated the brief scene as something shocking, giving space to reactions like this one reported on the entertainment news website Zap2it.com:

The May 2 episode of “Dawson’s Creek” seemed to present prom drama in typical Capeside fashion...But the entire show is, in fact, “an indoctrination tool for homosexual activists,” according to Family Research Council Associate Director of Media Heather Cirmo...If FRC ran TV, “We definitely wouldn’t want to glorify the lifestyle,” Cirmo tells Newsweek. “Every program that has a homosexual character in the show, he or she is often the most stable character. He or she is not promiscuous or entangled in a bad relationship most of the time. A lot of times, he or she is the most comedic person. That’s kind of strange.”

I'm going to play Dan Ackroyd and say, "Heather, you ignorant slut." Most of the gay people I know are, in fact, fairly stable, not very promiscuous, not entangled in bad relationships and yes, often very funny. In fact, the only strange thing here is Cirmo's bizarre conspiracy theory. While it's true that the show's executive producer Greg Berlanti is himself gay and says that, "I think a lot of kids out there deserve to see positive images of who and what they are," calling "the Creek" a homosexual "indoctrination tool" is giving the show WAY too much credit as an influence on today's youth. As Berlanti says, "I watched millions of teenagers kiss on TV growing up, and it didn't make me straight."

Besides, if Jack was truly cool enough to inspire a generation of kids to switch teams, wouldn't the actor who plays him be gay by now? Apparently not -- Kerr Smith enraged many of his fans that week with a tactless rant in "Entertainment Weekly":

"Got the annual smooch with a guy," laughs the straight Smith, whose gay character laid one on another boy last May. "It's not the most fun thing in the world, but I agreed to play this role, and [producer] Greg Berlanti does want to take it that far." While he's proud of helping to break TV taboos, Smith draws the line at a once-a-year snog: ''That's as far as I'm going to take it. I don't think teenagers need to see two guys kissing on a weekly basis."

And suddenly, this harmless teen TV show had me seriously annoyed. Are we supposed to feel sorry for this highly-paid TV pretty-boy because he has to act? Fortunately, "Creek" fans fired up the message boards at the aptly-named Television Without Pity website with comments like these:

"I could see laughing and snarking that Jack got his annual Big Gay Kiss if he were, you know, making fun of the network for being afraid to show gay interaction, but the comment about teenagers not needing to see two guys kiss every week is just so, so wrong...You know how Kerr always manages to "casually" drop a line about how he still gets lots of fan mail from girls? Well, he's going to be getting some decidedly NON-fanmail from this girl in about 3 days. GOD."

"...a comment about not all teens wanting to see a gay kiss on T.V. every week. Well let me just tell you there's PLENTY who do (including me, a straight girl)..."

"Everybody I know who is familiar with the show and saw those quotes was just horrified...I really don't think I've ever been more disappointed with a celebrity's witless comments than I was with these."

"I was so pissed off by that comment and I couldn't pinpoint exactly why. Now I get it, loud and clear...That statement carries the fear of infection undertone; if teenagers see it they might want to imitate it. Which implies that being gay, affectionate towards your partner, is abnormal and wrong. And that is not only so much bullshit it ain't even funny, it is also dangerous stuff."

These kind of statements were by far the majority and I felt a bit better knowing that fans of the show were not only unfazed by the kiss but actually appreciated it as a sign of progress. Also, these people are articulate and critical about television -- hardly the passive dupes of potent media manipulation. Now I will grant Ms. Cirmo that I've noticed an increase in what "Will and Grace" called "man-on-man lip action" lately -- mostly played for embarrassed laughs in movies like "Dude, Where's My Car?" and "American Pie 2" (come to think of it, both those scenes involve the same actor -- if he was as traumatized as Kerr Smith by the kissing, he's had the decency not to say so).

Unlike the Family Research Council, I don't see how all this smooching will lead to mass conversions of straight teenagers but I do concede that it might eventually cure people of being squeamish over two men kissing. I look forward to hearing 'aw' rather than 'ew' next time Jack and Tobey are feeling affectionate. I look forward to gay teens having honest and smart depictions of themselves in the media, rather than the "Melrose Place" era's timid ciphers. But mostly, I look forward to the day when Jack's lovelife is as natural as his friends' and "Dawson's Creek" becomes as forgettable as it should.