"Six Feet Under" - Redefining Queer Television?
March 10, 2011 by Shannon Mulloy
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The wide array of shows HBO offers gives insight into the things people really want to see, but are too afraid to admit. Shows like “The Biggest Loser” and “Glee” pale in comparison to HBO’s “True Blood” and “Big Love” in terms of the racy issues they are not afraid to bring up and the gross things they are willing to show. Yes, HBO inherently allows for more controversial topics to be brought up because it is a cable channel, as opposed to part of network television, but this being said, a lot of what makes HBO different is the staff they draw in. Take for example, Alan Ball, the creator and producer of the popular HBO series “Six Feet Under”. As an out, gay male he incorporates homosexuality into his show. However, rather than subjecting us to yet another flamboyant homosexual character, as so many shows do, he uses this to his advantage and challenges the ideologies we have in our mind about what it is for someone to be gay with the character David Fisher, played by Michael C. Hall. The character of David Fisher is what Michelle Aaron describes in her article, “Towards Queer Television Theory”, an example of new queer culture. It is by embracing this idea of new queer culture that “Six Feet Under” departs from mainstream representations of queer television and creates a whole new definition of the concept.
After growing up in a small, rather whitewashed town, I am assuming that for many people film and television are the only door they have to queer culture. This is not to say I had never met a homosexual person before I came to Stanford, but definitely not one who was out and willing to talk openly about their experiences. For me, television was all I had, and only mainstream television at that. I was bombarded with stereotypes and what I consider to be negative images, but after watching “Six Feet Under” I realize it is possible for queer television to push against these boundaries.
“Six Feet Under” is an HBO drama centered on a dysfunctional family that owns and runs a funeral home. Immediately we are bombarded with images that do not make sense to us. The series opens with the father, who clearly acts as the glue of the family, being hit by a car while a jolly Christmas carol plays. Ball plays with societal norms to encourage viewers to question what it is they are really seeing. While most people are offended by the lightheartedness he gives to death, others are intrigued by the way he creates such powerful cognitive dissonance. He employs these same techniques when dealing with issues of queerness as well, bringing the new queer culture, “the mainstream embrace of a certain kind of queerness as a departure from the radical intent of queer texts, in particular those of the so-called New Queer Cinema”, to the show (Aaron 65).
Ball questions the assumptions widely held about sexual norms in “Six Feet Under”. The character of David Fisher appears to be the only “normal” character in the entire show. While Ball reveals David’s homosexuality to the audience in the first episode, we are still left to question just how gay he really is. He does not fit the mold we have become used to and therefore we do not know how to handle this information. Consequently, we are forced to just think of him as another member of the family – the only strong, centered one at that. In comparison to his other family members, David appears to be the only grounded one. Ball constantly experiments with sexual norms, giving other family members issues like sex addiction, adultery, toe fetishes, and intergenerational relationships, rendering these things everyday. He does so in order to show that the heterosexual ideals we are raised by are rarely strictly followed. Viewers are forced to ask themselves, is homosexuality really that strange? Do gay people exist that are like David, “normal”?
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Another way that Ball contests the “old queer” is through the use of camp. Ball utilizes camp in an uncommon way, putting camp features on heterosexual characters. “Six Feet Under” intersperses musical numbers, a traditionally queer genre, into various episodes. Most of these musical numbers feature straight characters in flashy dress making loud gestures. These numbers, performed by straight characters contrasted with the dead pan of the queer character, attempt to give a new definition to camp, one that is not associated with homosexuality and instead with simply bad taste and irony.
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“Six Feet Under” is an unprecedented show. Not only does it center on a taboo topic, but also it raises issues of representation of homosexuals, heterosexuals, and even the in-between. Ball gracefully redefines queer television as Aaron argues, creating a forum for reinterpretation and new definitions. While mainstream queer television has its place, it is nice to know that shows like “Six Feet Under” do exist that do not play directly into the political economy of television. We need more shows like this for people like me who grow up unable to form their own attitudes towards homosexuality without the influence of television and cinema. Is it possible that with “Six Feet Under” a new genre of queer television, post Aaron’s new queer culture, will arise? I sure hope so.
