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!

[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).

[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

[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.

[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?

[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.

[sabinetzin]

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

[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.

[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.

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

[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

[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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