Just think - instead of sitting at my computer working on web pages for mobile devices, I could be watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Last night CHecker came over, he's normally pretty anti-television. But he was excited to see that I had a Tivo carrying a few old episodes.

So instead of our usual debate over games and devices and family and goals, we watched a tv personality assume a new wardrobe and disposition at the hands of five articulate men, who identify themselves as homosexuals. It's entertaining to watch this cultural exchange, as they've set it up: gay mentoring. The unspoken agreement of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is that gay folks are more self-aware and work harder to be beautiful. Behind that presumption is a history of bitter estrangement; learning to wear masks in public. And now they are sharing that skill back into the mainstream?

After Queer Eye, I watched Farewell my Concubine last night, starring Leslie Chung who came out of the closet and then killed himself. Being homosexual has historically been hard! So this show is a victory? Would there ever be "Black Eye for the White Guy?" I guess that's what MTV has become, in some ways. Probably not "Queer Eye for the Straight Girl" ("cut that hair short and put a chain on your wallet?")

I like to imagine all the papers being written in English departments across the United States - "Queering the Straight Eye: Politics of Sexual Identity in Post-Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell Television." I am curious to explore how this show, and its seeming popularity, reflects changing attitudes towards homosexuality. The show serves largely as a loving canonization of "homosexual style" if there is such a thing, though even Carson seems to stay away from things like HankyCodes.

I suppose that writing is out there - in Universities, maybe in the New Yorker, probably in blogs. Like I said, if I was really interested, I would be watching, or researching the show, instead of making web pages. But I think I will go trim my nosehairs.

(Speaking of English Departments, by the way, my roommate Austin has begun actually updating his web site FrostGiant.)