How come tabloids spatter all manner of gossip about celebrity women’s same-sex relationships, really brief ones, but you never hear about celebrity men’s same-sex relationships, even when they’re really long-term?
It could just be I don’t read the right gossip-magazine covers in the grocery store checkout lines. I don’t think it is. And it could be that there’s some sort of “unspoken code” not to discuss male celebrity relationships. But since they seem pretty ready to speculate about different men’s sexuality I don’t think it’s that either. Or it could be that gossip almost by definition is about enforcing widely agreed upon narratives and so the idea of men (gay or straight) in relationships that aren’t mediated and maintained with the enormous Cosmo-style effort of women just don’t exist.
The other possibility is I don’t know about them because they really don’t exist. But since I only know what I read on gossip magazine covers in checkout lines (ok, ok, I’ve also skim the firehose of posts from Jezebel.com in my newsreader) I have no independent way to verify so it’s all guesses.
Submitted by 3066 (not verified) on Wed, 2009-07-15 17:37.
Elton John and his husband appear in the gossip magazines semi-regularly...
Submitted by 3066 (not verified) on Wed, 2009-07-15 17:53.
Well, those types of magazines don't tend to be interested in long-term relationships of any kind unless they're salivating over, or fabricating something about, problems the couple is having. Long-term relationships aren't interesting for people who have a juvenile fascination with novelty and drama.
Maybe famous men who have same-gender relationships keep a very low profile. Maybe it's part of the idea that "girl-on-girl action" is sexy and hot, but two guys together is just, ew, two guys together.