True Blood: Too Gay? Or Not Gay Enough?

It seems that the "controversy" over Eagles offensive lineman Todd Herremans and his Twitter comment on the "barrage of homosexuality" on the HBO show "True Blood" has died down. These things generally do go away when a person issues an apology in a situation like this. Whether or not the apology is sincere, when it's issued -- and especially if it's issued quickly, as Herremans did -- the public and the media runs off to other stories. Only Twitter seems to want to keep the story alive in my mind, as it keeps recommending I follow him, and I keep ignoring it.

Those who took no offense whatsoever and became indignant at anyone who did, or who blamed the media, usually made the point that Herremans was only expressing his opinion about the show. So when I read this column at AfterElton.com the other day, I couldn't help but wonder if the writer and Todd Herremans were watching two different shows.

Again I have to point out that I've never watched "True Blood," so I can only go by what was written in the column. I'll quote the section that specifically refers to "True Blood," as the column discusses a number of topics. It begins with a discussion of full-frontal male nudity in films (the topic in question referenced in the first line of the quote)...

I was thinking about this particular topic after watching this week's episode of True Blood which finally had Lafayette and Jesus doing it...off screen. As Steven Frank noted in his hilarious recap (read it for the Maggie Gallagher/vampire joke alone), we've seen puhlenty of Sookie and Bill doing it (honestly, if I see her sitting astride him one more time, I'm going to buy her a saddle) yet the show seems to mostly shy away from the male/male stuff that goes beyond kissing. Which is pretty typical in American pop culture.

On one hand, given the prevalent idea that gay men are all horndogs, it is great to show that gay relationships aren't all about sex, and that Lafayette and Jesus have an actual emotional connection. And the week before, we did see Eric and Talbot nekkid together right before Eric offed his one night stand. But if you compare the Eric/Talbot sex scene to most any of the straight sex scenes, the gay one was over a whole lot faster.

And I don't even mean this as a criticism of True Blood which is light years ahead of most shows when it comes to showing same-sex sex and gay relationships. I just think it tells us something about how far along the path we are that even on this show a double standard still seems to exist.

The article then returns to the topic of nudity, and does give "True Blood" credit for having the guys unclothed as much as, if not more than, the girls -- although the male nudity is never full-frontal. Still, it fascinates me that Todd Herremans sees a "barrage of homosexuality" while the AfterElton writer wants to know why the sex scenes are all hetero. Is this another sign that I should consider Herremans to be anti-gay and not just a doofus? Just another of these things, I suppose: