Tucked, Taped and Gorgeous

Current mood: blessed
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

Last night, I watched a re-run of Two and a Half Men, a show, I frankly admit to being completely addicted to. It is the best show on TV. I’ve yet to see a single un-funny episode.
My niece, Eleanna, whose parents are both men, watched the episode, ‘Tucked, Taped and Gorgeous’ (season 4 episode 21) with me. We laughed out loud at this particularly funny episode.
The action revolves around two brothers Charlie and Alan Harper (Charlie Sheen and the divinely brilliant Jon Cryer) who reconnect with a gay male friend. He’s so great and so easy to be around that both brothers end up questioning their sexual identity.
I thought this episode was brilliant because Charlie – off screen and on – has the rep for being a real ladies’ man. And Alan is a divorced father with a teenage son. How cool for a mainstream, network TV show and a ‘light comedy’ at that, to weave such powerful words into an insightful episode where straight men question their sexuality.
It encouraged me to think that mainstream media is finally realizing gender is fluid. I personally think it might have been great if Charlie discovered he was gay…but at least the discussion happened. There was some real soul-searching, aided and abetted by the three funniest women on TV: Conchatta Ferrell (the brothers’ housekeeper, Berta), Jane Lynch (their therapist) and Holland Taylor (their mom).
While Charlie secretly agonizes over his sexuality, Alan finds it loudly and proudly forced onto him with his ex wife, his mom and every other woman he knows telling him how proud they are that he is out of the closet.
When Berta says, “Alan, life is much happier when you decide if you are the pin or the cushion,” you can hear the mixed reactions of the studio audience.
It may seem an offensive statement but that’s Berta. Poor Alan, however, starts to find acceptance and happiness at the notion of being gay, until he discovers otherwise.
Gay or straight, most of us at some time have found ourselves attracted to the opposite sex, the same sex and in Charlie’s case, a transvestite who was, well, tucked, taped and gorgeous.
I am happy mainstream TV provided the beautiful words in this episode that may or may not help men and women who are feeling changes within them find the lifestyle that suits them most. There is nothing wrong with being gay…or as the only, real gay character in Two and a Half Men states, “There is nothing wrong with being straight.”
My wish as a writer, reader and fan of Two and a Half Men is that the discussion should continue to bridge the great divide – with or without the laughs.

Aloha oe,
A.J.
Currently listening:
The Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band Vol 1
By Gabby Pahinui
Release date: 1991-07-25

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