May 10, 2014

The Following: Gay Serial Killer Turns Straight

According to the FBI statistics, there were 14,000 murders in the U.S. in 2012, about 1/10th of 1% of all violent crimes reported.  And most murders are committed by family members or friends of the victims; only about 1% are perpetrated by serial killers.

So why is serial killing by far the most common crime portrayed in movies and on tv?

And, more important, why are the serial killers in the media usually gay or transgender?

The media myth of the gay serial killer is so common that my students usually think that most serial killers in real life are gay.

It makes you long for the good old days when gay people were just invisible.

The latest entry in the Hall of Shame is The Following (2013-) on Fox, the same network that brought you the ongoing hate crime of Family Guy.  It stars Kevin Bacon as a stalwart, heterosexual FBI agent and his stalwart, heterosexual team trying to track down a serial killer cult led by Joe Carroll (James Purefoy).

The two gay members of the serial killer cult, Jacob (Nico Tortorella) and Paul (Adan Torres, left), appear in episodes #2-6.  Apparently they were heterosexual to start off, but while assigned to live undercover as a gay couple, they turned gay.

I guess it's contagious.

While busy kidnapping a child, Paul flirts with fellow kidnapper Emma. Jacob gets jealous. They argue, fight, kill people, and join Emma in the shower.


When Paul is killed, Jacob and Emma return in episodes #10-13, now a conventional heterosexual couple.  Apparently the gay thing was just a phase.

I don't know which I find more disgusting, the myth of the gay serial killer, or the myth that gay men can turn straight through the love of a good woman (or in this case, a female serial killer).

I didn't watch the second season (2014), which involves a whole new cult.

Nico Tortorella has been asked in interviews if the gay kiss grossed him out.

Is this 1985?


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