Sassy Gay Friend

Like many other people, I love wasting time on youtube. And it was on this fabulous website that I discovered Sassy Gay Friend. I love these videos! If you haven't seen them, Sassy Gay Friend is, you guessed it, a gay man who pops up to provide an alternate ending to famous, but tragic, female characters. The first few videos have SGF saving the lives of Juliet, Ophelia, Desdemona and Lady MacBeth; after that, he branches out from Shakespeare to save the lives (or destinies) of The Giving Tree, Eve, and Miss Havisham. (Recently, he also tackled Nina from Black Swan, but I don't like this one.) In each video, SGF sassily talks the women out of ending (or otherwise destroying) their lives.

First of all, I love these videos because they are hilarious! Especially in the first few, SGF makes very clever jokes based on the text he's making fun of. ("I think you're 14 and you're an idiot. You took a roofie from a priest. Look at your life. Look at your choices." -Juliet video) Also, he often points out the absurdity of the power dynamics between men and women at that time; in Desdemona's video he says, "Some guy ends up with your handkerchief so your husband gets to murder you?" In each of these videos, he takes a female character who is, at least by the end of her literary journey, powerless, and gives her strength to make a change.

But what about the continued stereotype of gay men as simply fun accessories for straight women? In most (commercial) movies I have seen with a gay male character, he is the sidekick to the female heroine (Monster-in-Law, The Devil Wears Prada, Easy A, Bridget Jones's Diary, Clueless, to name a few off the top of my head). The gay friend is usually a good shopping buddy, a good listener, a shoulder to cry on, and, most importantly, single, and therefore available to the female, until the end of the film (if even then). Many of these characters in commercial films have little importance as people; they are sidekicks, crutches and open arms. And aren't the Sassy Gay Friend videos just perpetuating this stereotype?

In some ways, I think they could be. But I think, more than that, these videos are making fun of these stereotypes. His language and mannerisms are completely over the top. And he is always pointing out the obvious that the straight girls are completely unable to see. It's almost as if the creators of SGF are saying, "OK, you want to make the sassy gay friend a necessary accessory to the straight woman? All right then, he'll just be way smarter and more clever than her! And he'll save her life! Take that!" 

At least, that's what I hope they're saying. I'll definitely keep watching these videos as long as they keep making them.