While already successful, “Queer Eye for the Straight
Guy” has some ironing to be done ““ with or without
“fashion savant” Carson Kressley’s help.
In fact, as the series began its second season Tuesday on Bravo,
Jai Rodriguez, the “culture vulture” of the
show’s “Fab Five” (the five gay men who make over
a different straight man each episode) acknowledges that sometimes
he still doesn’t have a clear view of what to do with the
straight men.
“I have sex with them,” he joked. “Culture is
a journey. I can’t take them to a store and have them buy
culture.”
Consequently, Rodriguez relies heavily on the show’s
directors to get information about the straight men on the
show.
“(The directors) bring ideas to the table with us,”
Rodriguez said. “They know the guy in and out. They know what
the guy is going through.”
Becky Smith, a professor at the UCLA School of Theater, Film,
Television and Digital Media and one of the series’
directors, enjoys dealing with Rodriguez’s flexible role on
the series. It allows her to be more creative in directing the
straight guys’ stories.
“Everybody knows they should probably use better shampoo,
but it’s exciting to introduce them to something they
don’t know about (in the arts),” she said.
Following the first season’s success, NBC (which owns
Bravo and also airs the show) is providing more money and leeway to
expand the show’s cultural angle.
Rodriguez has already noted changes in series’ budget.
“We started as a teeny-tiny cable show,” he said.
“We didn’t have a huge budget at all. We were getting
ready in friends’ apartments or basements. Now we have a
motor home to get ready in.”
The reasons for the show’s success have been heavily
debated. While some place emphasis on the recent popularity of
reality television or “metrosexuality,” a fashion trend
in which men are encouraged to get in touch with their feminine
side, Smith has her own logic.
“We’re getting beyond that and telling great
stories,” she said.
Rodriguez, however, sees the show as being more important than
just telling good stories. He sees it also as a vehicle to promote
larger issues relating to homosexuality.
“I’ve had tons of gay friends who have said,
“˜I could never talk to my mom before about being gay, but she
loves the show,'” he said.
Still, some people criticize “Queer Eye” for
representing gay people in a simple and stereotypical fashion, an
assertion Rodriguez thinks isn’t fair to the cast of the
show.
“I’m being me,” he said. “I don’t
want to represent gay people. I want to represent me. Five people
cannot represent a whole nation.”
Judging by the series’ popularity, many agree with
Rodriguez’s opinion.
And as the show’s advertising campaign implies, as long as
there are interesting people to make over, the “Fab
Five” will be around to help.
“At first straight men were like, “˜Yeah, uh,
no,'” Rodriguez said. “But now we have a
lot.”