An Early AM Question

[deelaundry]

Do you think the male nurse House spoke to in episode 6-8 (the Thanksgiving ep) was gay? Why or why not?

I know some people on my f-list thought the male nurse House spoke to in episode 6-8 (the Thanksgiving ep) was gay. If you thought this, what specifically made you think it?

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Comments

[recrudescence.livejournal.com]

Since he only had about seven seconds of screen time, the obvious solution is to write fic and find out!

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

That would work, for sure.

[hibernia1.livejournal.com]

Was that that guy played by that narcissist Jeffrey Sparkman? UGH. Haven't seen the episode, but played by a guy so full of self-esteem issues, I rule that he's not gay (totally based on Hibernia-logic, so feel free to ignore this comment).

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

That's the guy. What makes you say he's a narcissist? *out of the loop*

[daisylily.livejournal.com]

He was certainly played as gay, IMO (he was so "bitch, pleeease!" stereotype) but I don't know whether he was supposed to be gay or not.

As played, I would say he wasn't a standard-issue het male, but he might have been acting up to annoy people, or anything else. *is non-committal, lol*

Why do you ask? :D

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Non-commital is fine! : )

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

House the character leaves no stereotype unturned, so I had the impression that was House being an ass just because he could.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Yes. Someone had just gotten the best of House, so he had to turn his scorn somewhere to make all things right in the universe.

House: [He sees Ronnie leaving.] Hey, hey, hey! [She runs for the outer door.] Sorry. I can't remember if I've mocked you yet for being a male nurse.

Jeffrey: I think this counts.

[zulu.livejournal.com]

Do you think the male nurse House spoke to was straight? Why or why not?

Or, in other words, why does queerness have to be interrogated when straightness doesn't?

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Queerness doesn't have to be interrogated, and I'm not doing so. I am asking whether anyone made an assumption that that character was gay, and if so, why they did. I am seeking information.

Sabine and I had an interesting conversation about some linguistics work being done about speech patterns among (said that wrong, sorry) sounds associated with homoseuxal men.

She has a link below if you're interested.

[onewayfreak.livejournal.com]

Queerness is a deviation from averages, that's all. Asking about deviations from averages is something curious people do.

Furthermore, this nurse is a fictional character and his sexual orientation is part of his character (whether he's important or not). Asking questions about fictional characters is not an affront to the queer community. In fact, asking whether a fictional person is gay can sometimes just be an effort to understand the thinking of the character's creators. Perhaps the question was asked to get a sense of how forward-thinking the producers might be.

Would it have bothered you less if the question had been phrased differently? How about "Do you think the male nurse was straight or gay?" The implication and the intention is exactly the same; inquiring about someone's sexuality implies that there is reason to wonder whether that person's sexuality deviates from the average. There's nothing inherently offensive about questions like this. If you're curious about a person's personal background, this is the kind of thing you wonder about.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

I have re-worded my question. I hope you find it non-problematic now.

[bell]

I think the character showed stereotypical male homosexual traits (as seen/defined by US society). If he is gay or not, we could only know if & when the character said so or showed attraction to other men. That said, I imagine the showrunners think he is gay, since I believe they think that stereotypes = often truth.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

What were those traits, in your opinion?

[sabinetzin]

Ooh! Soundsgay ratings! ::claps hands excitedly::

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

I want to hear more about that! Any papers online yet?

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Joke, ne?

[hannahrorlove.livejournal.com]

I thought he was acting nonplussed due to working in PPTH long enough to get used to House's general behaviors, if not comfortable with them.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

I quoted to Corgigirl the line I loved best: "I think this counts." I really enjoy it when people House is trying to disparage get the punchline. Remember when House was hassling the EMT and got told "Bite me"? Heh.

[theunknownsoul.livejournal.com]

I assumed he was gay. By the way he talked and he looked nice, fluffy hair.

OH GOD STEREOTYPES.

But honestly, yes. Same with Nurse Brad from 'Alone' I assumed right off he was gay as well.

HONEST ANSWER I don't like that I jump to conclusions, and if I sat and THOUGHT about it I'd tell myself not to assume, if like, I met/knew them. But, from the few seconds on a tv show, I remember thinking they were gay.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

I can't remember what I assumed about Nurse Jeffrey. Nurse Brad seemed like he was giving Wilson bedroom eyes -- that's what made me think he was gay. : )

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

didn't get enough to do for me to guess.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that seems fair.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

Same as some others here -- yes, I assumed he was gay, based on the way he was played by Jeffrey Sparkman and my own stereotypes.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

A number of people thought that.

[spoggly.livejournal.com]

in case you're not aware of it, there is an actual field known as "lavender linguistics" that might contain some of the information you're trying to get

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Sabine gave me a link to an awesome linguist whose stuff I'm checking out, thanks. My question wasn't solely about linguistics, though, but perception. I can be very clueless and it's helpful for me to hear how other people see things.

[m-supercomputer.livejournal.com]

Hm. Well, in fiction, I pretty much always think that unless there's a narrator who's omniscient, or a character self-identifies with a particular identity when there's no reason for them to feel there might be negative consequences for stating a different sexual identity (which is...practically never, if said character is verbally describing him/herself as straight), then it's impossible to say definitively what identity the character 'actually' has within the text. (*rereads sentence* And that's a mighty convoluted sentence structure I have there, geez.)

But if we're talking intent on the parts of the writer/director/actor, that's such a sticky area to me, because we (or, well, I) know so little for sure about their goals for even regular characters, much less ones who have brief cameos like Sparkman. And since we have so little definite evidence, the only thing we can examine is the character's adherence to stereotypes about that identity. Which, given that I am what conservatives might call "P.C.," seems like a really uncomfortable and (depending on how it's done) potentially problematic area.

So, um! In answer to your question that's not overly long, I don't have a strong impression either way.

[nuclearfootball.livejournal.com]

holy fucking shit

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