A REBOOT OF Queer Eye For The Straight Guy has hit Netflix.
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy ran on the Bravo TV network from 2003 to 2007. The show focused on a group of five chatty, personable gay men, called the ‘Fab Five’, as they gave a make over to a straight man who needed help “getting his life back on track”.
Each guy focused on a different area which needed attention - design, personal grooming, fashion, food and pop culture.
Despite the fact that American media was still conservative in terms of promoting LGBTQ culture, the show was a hit.
With that said, that doesn’t make it unproblematic. The show did a lot to enforce certain stereotypes associated with the LGBTQ+ community. So, when Netflix announced they would be rebooting the show, people were a lil’ bit skeptical.
The show’s creator and producer David Collins explained to NPR how the show has changed 15 years on.
Fifteen years ago, it was one thing to walk into a fancy store on Madison Avenue and redo someone — you can do that. But we wanted to come down South, come into the red states and know where we’re going to meet very different guys, right?
I’m from Ohio, from Cincinnati, Ohio, and I know what it’s like, you know … we don’t live on the coast. When you’re down in the South or in the Midwest, dialogue and conversations are a little more iffy and intense about this, so we decided to head down to Atlanta and each one of our guys comes from a different small town in Georgia and those towns, we get to see as each part of the stories as well.”
The new cast is made up of hairstylist Jonathan Van Ness, Bobby Berk (design), Karamo Brown (culture), Antoni Porowski (food and wine), and Tan France (fashion).
You may know Jonathan from his Instagram @gayofthrones – he also counts model Tess Holliday as one of his clients.
Reaction has been pretty evenly split so far. Many reckon the show remains progressive and does a good job of acknowledging a wider spectrum of LGBTQ+ men and masculine presentation than was previously shown on the show. Others argue that the show doesn’t succeed in doing this, and the format hasn’t aged well.
The series is available to watch on Netflix now.
