On Objects and Affections: Contemporary Representations of the Gay Man/Straight Woman Dyad in Popular Film and Television Page: 81
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The issue of home is increasingly important as these shows are considered, because both
attempt to romanticize and to some degree fantasize the home. Lowell's show often
takes viewers into the homes of others. For instance, the water episode transports
viewers into a man's home with a water wall inside the living room. The same episode
plays soft instrumental music as a swimming pool shaped by natural rocks is renamed a
"waterhole" by Lowell's voice-over, negating the surroundings of a suburban
neighborhood. Other moments take viewers into exotic homes, such as a three story
floating home or a water tower that has been converted into a dream home. This show
offers the home as a desirable commodity and as an escape from the public world.
"Savoir Faire" works in a similar way because through the topic, the show creates a
fantasy dinner party. Even though the show is primarily concerned with entertaining
guests, the parties are small, and all take place inside of the home. This emphasis on the
home and private space is important and curious when we think about these men read as
gay.
The authors quoted at the beginning of this section describe the contemporary
state of public space. Its negative characterization begs the question, what of private
space? If public space is seen by Acconci as "life on the loose," what of private space,
the domestic, the home? Is it this realm of the private, the home which becomes the site
of stability, of order, and of comfort? Marjorie Garber would answer in the affirmative,
contending the home "is the place where we stage the life we wish we had time to live"
(207). Not only are these shows presumably consumed in the home, but they locate the
center of life within the home. If one considers having a dinner party a form of public
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Pillion, Owen L. On Objects and Affections: Contemporary Representations of the Gay Man/Straight Woman Dyad in Popular Film and Television, thesis, December 2000; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2706/m1/84/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .