#gay best friend

[chanse-mccrary]

Bonus:

BILLY ELLIOT (2000) - directed by Stephen Daldry

[raydoesart]

Drew me and my gossip bestie TEHEHEHE

@dynamicsimp!!! ILY!! 💛💛

[ohmyboytoy]

G.B.F. (Gay Best Friend), 2013

[ubi-goes-uwu]

The Mistreatment of Tom Levitt on SMASH

I know that literally no one cares about this, but I want to talk about it, so I will.

In the short-lived TV Show "SMASH" (2012), which I quite liked and strongly reccomend -- as long as you don't watch season 2 --, there is something that really, really bothered me, and I haven't seen it adressed on the internet. Mainly, perhaps, because the show is 11 years old, and because it had a very niche audience.

But here it is: The show treats the character of Tom Levitt terribly.

I will now explain.

Romantic relationships take up a sizeable part of the screentime of "SMASH". it was a drama series in 2012, after all. We get long scenes exploring the romantic relationships of the two leads, Ivy and Karen. But that's a given. And, you say, Tom isn't a lead. And while that is technically correct, he is one of the main characters, seeing as the show structures itself around an ensemble rather than one or two leads.

Furthermore, the relationships of every other member of the main ensemble are treated with importance by the show, given time and thought.

Julia, for example, is Tom's writing partner, and they are equally important to the plot (they are at more or less on the same level vis-a-vis their primary/secondary-ness to the show). And her marriage is a big part of the show. Her husband and her son regularly appear, and she has an affair with an actor that takes up a significant amount of screentime. Not to mention that it brings us the most beautiful and emotional sex scene in the show. Also, her affair has a real impact on the plot of the show.

Eileen, a character who is arguably less prominent than Tom, has an important relationship with her ex-husband who used to produce musicals with her, and a passionate relationship with a younger man that ends up financing the production of Bombshell.

Now, the way that the show treats Derek's blatant abuse of authority is incredibly problematic. The show attempts to adress this in some way in season 2, but no one treats it seriously enough. But, I will say, even he gets to explore different relationships.

Now, Tom has a few relationships throughout the show. The first one with John, a lawyer introduced to him by his mother, the second one with Sam, one of the members of the ensemble of Bombshell, and Kyle, an up and coming writer in the field of musical theater.

There are many things that I didn't like about the way that Tom's relationships were approached. Mainly, they weren't given nearly as much screentime as the other ones on the show.

With Jonh,

Almost every single time they're out on a date, Tom gets a call from one of the other main characters and he has to go solve some problem or another;

Them not having slept together is brought up by John, and it's introduced as a plotpoint, but the the first time they sleep together is off-screen (we're not even shown, like, the lead-up to it), and the show informs us, for seemingly no reason, that it was really bad. They keep dating, but it's weirdly never brought up again;

Other problems in their relationship are introduced but never explored. Not only did they have unsatisfying sex, but John is a Republican while Tom is very clearly anti-Republican, and Tom is always prioritizing the other people in his life (the characters themselves speak on those at some point, but these plotlines are just dropped);

Their break-up is very underwhelming. They've been dating for most of the season, and they have one (1) fight while Tom is like, eating cereal, and then we never see from John again. Tom isn't even really upset.

John is never a priority for Tom. It could be a part of his character, but it feels like the show just doesn't care enough to explore Tom's relationships just for the sake of Tom himself. It acts flippantly about it and doesn't give it importance. Even if Tom doesn't really prioritize John in his life, the show could explore that, but, and here is the bigger issue, Tom is just never allowed to have a meaningful storyline outside of his platonic relationships with the rest of the main ensemble.

With Sam,

The fist time they go out, Tom kisses Sam and he basically slut-shames Tom, making him feel that it's his fault that he's alone even though he's 37 because of his *gay stereotype alert* commitment issues that "obviously" show in the fact that he's "easy";

They're rarely shown alone, and we don't ever see them "finally" having sex, even though they're together for a sizeable chunk of the show;

They have a nice relationship, Tom meets Sam's family, and it seems like they're in love, but Sam breaks up with Tom FULLY OFF SCREEN (like, we knew that he was going on tour for the Book of Mormon, but there's no goodbye at all).

It's strange that Sam is so slut-shamey with Tom when a big plotpoint between John and Tom was that Tom didn't want to have sex with him for an "unusual" amount of time (enough for John to ask him why they hadn't had sex), and it seems like this relationship was just used to shame gay men who enjoy a more bohemian style of life -- it's taking a swing at the gay stereotype of the high-maintenance libido man who has sex with every other man he comes across. Mostly because they don't even try to adress his commitment issues after this (at all! this conversation is literally never brought up again).

With Kyle,

Full disclosure: I couldn't get through season 2. It's really bad. But correct me if I'm wrong, but on episode 14 Kyle f*cking dies and the entirety of Tom and Kyle's relationship is one flashback that's less than 5 minutes in length. And why did they choose to include this secret fling? Tom is barely affected by Kyle's death. And Tom is, like, TWENTY years older than Kyle. Why do this?

The only good thing to come out of this is the audio of Billy Joel's Vienna sung beautifully by Christian Borle (Tom).

This relationship is not only all sorts of problematic, but it's also so short. And the only romantic relationship of Tom's on season 2. It hurts to see that we weren't allowed to see any of it (it had literally no screentime), and that even though the only scene we get to see of it is romantic and cute, Tom is basically unnafected.

This problem extends beyond Tom's romantic relationships.

Tom is basically not allowed to have independence.

His relationships don't matter as much as the other characters'. The only meaningful relationship he is allowed to have is with Julia. They have a really nice friendship. It even seems like he might evolve to have a good relationship with Derek after their big fight where we find out about their backstory (or at least one that's worth exploring), but that doesn't happen.

There are many things that are "almost there" about Tom. They bring up aspects of his character or his life that could be worth exploring, but they're never given any time or care, and the show just sort of forgets about them (his literal character is re-shapeable so that he can serve any purpose in the narrative).

Mostly, he exists on the show to support other characters. He is always sacrificing his own time in being there for Ivy 24/7. And while his relationship with Julia is very nice, he is heartbreakingly attached to their family (he has no family from what we see on the show) while they don't really value him in the same way.

He's always just so worried about everyone else's problems, and not really focused on himself, it's like he's a halfway developed "Gay Best Friend".

He just deserved better.

(This is mostly fueled by the fact that I love Christian Borle so much, and I would like to see him playing fleshed out characters in dramas. He's underrated. Yes, he is great in comedic roles, but he's got range, and he's really good in Smash and Falsettos when he plays more serious roles.)

Anyway, that's that. Tom Levitt had everything to be a good, fleshed out character. But the show didn't really care enough about him.

Also, I hate that SMASH had so may straight sex scenes but was completely unwilling to film two men doing anything other than chastely kissing or laying a foot away from each other in bed half-naked.

[a-very-zilly-gooze]

one of my best friends and i do the whole thing where gay bffs are just entirely too flirty with each other and we always are in close proximity to each other and sometimes lean our heads on the others shoulders and often tell each other that we are “deeply romantically interested” in each other and for some reason the whole theatre department thinks that we’re dating??? preposterous.

[almost-an-artist]

The guy <3

[mattjeevhs]

the hottest girl u know will post a pic of him and say "I want him carnally"

[wewerealwaysthere]

/100gayicons/634757395010174976/lem-billings-although-it-is-not-widely-known-john

[daily-uquiz]

[number1omorifan]

Me and those very few straight girls who treat me like any other girl

[drake-fanpage]

nicki and her gay best friend!! 💕🏳️‍🌈✨

[elsasylvia]

My gay and girls love this stuff

[asdro]

Is it me or the "gay friend" stereotype has made it so cishet people actually don't care about their queer friends lives... (?

Like I don't remember the last time a cishet friend asked me how I was, how things were going and if they did it was super superficial.

And when I'm in a friend group the only one who asks the other queer person about their life is me and they're the only one that seems to care about me too. And when I finally talk about my life they soon change the topic back to their straight drama.

And it has happened with almost all of my straight friends, am I just bad at choosing friends or is this a thing? :((

[may-prime-the-writer]

Beauty and the beast thing where instead of falling in love the girl helps the beast come to terms with the fact he is in love with the stable boy and she is the best wing gal ever helping him work on his comuncation skills and they fall in love.

[lamstrash]

they have the most heteroerotic friendship ever.

the're not queerbaiting the're straightbaiting

[suiheisen]

what if i risked my life and put up (affectionate) with your unhinged monsterfucker brother to save you. and then revealed i was an expert in illegal black magic just so i could resurrect you from a pile of bones. and what if i later explored your body in the bath. and you laced our fingers together and offered to share your energy with me. and what if after all that… there was only one bed. what then.

update: it's been ANIMATED. gifs here