Slightly old news, I know, but I am busy and delinquent and not meant to make social commentary. But here goes.
So, about 5 days ago, Charles sent me this delightful casting call for a new reality show on Bravo entitled "Kept," which showcases gays on TV (oh my goodness! What will they think of next?! Those kooky TV networks...) I thought to myself, "WOW! I'M GAY! I COULD SO TOTALLY DO THAT!" But then I paid attention to the rest of the sentence and realized that there was no way in hell that I could ever ever ever ever be cast as anyone vaguely important ever for LOGO's project.
Here's a copy of their casting call, in case any of you folks fit the bill, clearly:
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From the same production company that brought you "The Real Housewives Of Atlanta" on Bravo, Classic Entertainment Group (Casting) and LOGO, We are pleased to announce casting for "Kept" – a look at the A List gay social life in NYC.
This series will begin casting immediately – with a series premier next year on LOGO.
Casting For:
"A List" gay men in the age range of 20 – mid 30's who have steady relationships or dating extremely established, successful men, or have that as a goal. Very interested in couples where one guy is the "breadwinner", the other living large on his dime.
We are looking for SUPERSIZED PERSONALITIES and SUPER - FAB EXCITING LIFESTYLES. We want Drama, drama, drama!
You must have A LOT going on— hot careers, take fabulous vacations, have second homes, do the Hamptons, & Pines or Bucks County or Asbury Park and know the IN social scene in NYC.
You have partnered with a Sugar daddy to make your dreams come true. Together you make a great team.
Maybe you are fresh out such relationship and you are in search of the same.
You are WELL CONNECTED – and there is no doubt that you are part of the "in" gay crowd of NYC.
**We are looking to infiltrate a circle of friends who fits this criteria.**
Open to guys making families or who have children already.
Must live in the greater Manhattan area – or VERY close to the city.
Please Submit:
- Photos (many) of yourself AND your significant other. Multiple photos please. We need your name(s) / age / email address / cell #.
- Mention what you do for a living (or are pursuing) / what your significant other does for a living…. We want to know everything.
- Snapshots of where you LIVE. Mention if you have a weekend house / vacation house etc…. mention all of the trappings. PHOTOS HELPTell us about FRIENDS THAT WE CAN CONSIDER along with you for this crazy ride. **Very important.
- SELL US on You and your lifestyle! Why are you so fabulous? WHAT'S THE BIGGEST DRAMA IN YOUR LIFE?
- If we like what we see you will contacted for a phone interview and possibly be asked to visit our casting directors to be put on tape so that you can be considered for the show.
Send all of the above to: KEPTNYC@gmail.com
Part of our team will call you right away to set up a casting appointment (in Gramercy Park area). Jimmy Floyd – Casting Director / CEG
TIME SENSITIVE – IF YOU WANT TO BE CONSIDERED WE MUST HEAR FROM YOU RIGHT AWAY!
My lord, do these people actually exist? I'm sure they do, because New York is a crazy place, and if man can land on the moon, I'm sure LOGO can dig up some excruciatingly unbearable gays that spend all day making fun of everyone else while taking money baths in the midst of their stem-cell facials. I wonder if these people even get boners anymore, or if it's actually literally impossible to arouse them because their love-instincts have been smothered by riches and botox and caviar and Viagra.
Anyway, this also confirms my theory that TV writers are just getting lazier and lazier and that if you can grab attention whores from off the street and profit, you might as well capitalize on an infinite resource, because I don't doubt that this will air next Spring. Fame is totally compelling, and if you're already rich and SUPER-FAB, the only thing left, really, is to get on TV so you can show off your riches to the world and get lots of unwanted attention that secretly flatters you to a large degree from strangers that knock on your door at odd hours to bathe in your microscopic shed skin cells that blow into the air as you open the door then close it after seeing nothing. Or to become one with the photons you emit.
Oh, photons.
(I've been thinking a lot about this Human Happiness class I'm taking with Dacher Keltner. I do not begrudge the people that apply to be on this show. According to Professor Keltner's class, our happiness, although mostly determined by our genes, is also greatly influenced by our positive emotions, as well as our connections with other people; dramatic changes in wealth are, for the most part, not correlated with most measures of long-term happiness unless the beginning status was one of abject poverty. A need for approval, in a sense, in necessary for us to function as social beings, since it's evolutionarily advantageous. Do you want to live with the monkey who gives a crap about your feelings, or with the monkey that just likes to throw feces at you? I think my point is that it's possible for this lifestyle to exist and that it's not fair for me to be annoyed by its exorbitance and attention-whoring ways, as it may be the only sort of human interaction (a hazy, distant approval) that touches them after their years of empty gold-digging and partying in an increasingly veneered social context that's drifts further and further away from human need. So, it's not the rich people you should be angry at whenever they talk about being lonely, it's the pretty people you should bitch at, because pretty people with even the most scant allotments of social aptitude always have friends, and they should just stfu and stop whining.
Oh, you wanted me to talk about the people filming this behavior and packaging it as television.
I think it's fine, in that they've found an interesting facet of humanity they'd like to showcase, and that in watching this sort of thing, people also fulfill some sort of need, whether it be to deride some ridiculous way of living, or learning a bit more about the human experience. Because, really, isn't it up for the individual watching to decide? I have a hard time believing that grown-up adults could watch anything on television without a sense of detached bemusement ['Hahahahahaha, who are these people? And how would they ever change any attitude I had about the people in my life?'], but I'll admit, I've been wrong before.)
4 comments for this post
I agree fully. Reality tv is the easiest form of tv broadcasting because you don't need much besides a camera and people willing to "whore" their values for their <15 minutes. And when was the gay lifestyle all about "sugar daddies" and living "fabulously"? Just perpetuating what it means to be a stereotypical aesthetic-driven homosexual. Wow, congrats LOGO, you're setting the gay community back decades.
I'm ashamed to admit that when I first read the premise, I was excited and looking forward to the series. Reality TV is one of my guilty pleasures. But I have to agree with YinYH90 that this show will only continue to stereotype the gay community. It is not my place to disapprove or judge the people on KEPT. But I can see how many viewers will be misled to believe that the cast is a reflection of the entire gay community. The last thing we need is a show that confirms homophobic stereotypes.
One of my dearest friends dropped out of college to become a kept man and for the next 15 years of his life he was a good partner to an older man with whom he truly shared an intimate and multi-dimensional relationship. The older man was well known in the community and well respected.
When the younger man was in his mid 30s he went back to school, became a lawyer and served the poor as part of Legal Aid until he died of HIV complications in his mid 40s.
He died in his lover's arms.
There were many who didn't respect him (or his lover) for the choices they made. But they were true to each other in ways many conventional relationships never are. I felt privileged to know them.
And I find the prurient nature of the concept of this program to be a flattening of the extremely complicated realities that exist in the world.
Hey another, I just got around to reading your comment and I found it really interesting. Most of what I was writing about was criticizing the concept of the "kept" lifestyle and your description of the men you knew gave me a few things to think about.
I think I'd understand why people don't respect a kept man's way of life: my understanding is that a kept man in a relationship yields a degree of his sovereignty in his own life out of convenience, rather than because of the connection he feels with the other individual. If your two friends had a dynamic that enriched both of their lives, and they truly wanted to be with each other, then I don't think I could begrudge their choices.
What really intrigues me is what drives people to make these choices, in the first place, and what results from them. The casting call, here, completely steers me in one direction with a very clear breadwinner-hooks-up-with-ridiculous-socialite-somehow relationship, which, to me, is just a moment of complete *rolleyes*. I really liked that you shared your example of something different.