On Chuck & Larry

Curiosity got the better of me; whether or not I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry was completely offensive or appropriately toned, I had to find out.

It turns out neither, falling somewhere in the middle. While Rob Schneider's performance as a Japanese minister seemed rather inappropriate and at times racist, if anything I would only fault Schneider for being inconsistent. The thing about his choices is that the obvious caricature is something you can't avoid, but it's also the thing you shouldn't be paying attention to. There are some pretty subtle moments of laugh out louds from Schneider.

What struck me about the pairing of Kevin James and Adam Sandler is that you get a sense that they do love each other even if they're not sexually attracted to each other. So why shouldn't they be able to get married. It seems that what about marriage that is being kept sacred, is normativity.

Looking back on Hollywood buddy films from the 1960s, you have the same homosocial paring going on in films like Some Like It Hot and The Odd Couple minus the homosexual overtones.

Although it was incredibly satisfying to see Adam Sandler punch a gay-bashing minister in the face, the film's message centers around centering. Or, provide some sort of normative structures for homosexual lifestyles, which is based on stereotypes and generalizations.

Levine (Sandler) and Valentine (James), two New York Firemen, register as partners to ensure Valentine's benefits go to his children. What follows is the opposite of a homosexual witch hunt where the domestic partners fear being labeled as not gay.

Perhaps most ridiculous is the fact that the government who made it almost impossible for Valentine to make sure his health benefits went going to his children following the death of his wife, needs some sort of definition of sexual choice in order recognize their union. In other words miles of red tape and inconsistency is fine when your getting screwed, but the minute they're getting screwed, all of a sudden things need to be clear as crystal.

I don't want to judge INPYC&L on what it is not, but I was hoping for something a little closer to the ahead of its time Fox sitcom Ned & Stacy starring Debra Messing and Thomas Hayden Church, in which high-powered lawyer Ned who must marry in order to receive a promotion meets out of work and looking for an apartment Stacy and they strike a deal. What was so great about this show is how it told the real story of gay marriage, or the story of the beard. Beard is a term for the female companion of a gay male who hides his homosexuality. While it is never stated that Ned is gay, his repulsion to Stacy makes you wonder and the open secret of homosexuality makes you not have to question.

What Ned & Stacy did so well is work on two levels by both reinforcing and undermining issues normativity and sexuality. INPYC&L doesn't so much do that.