Thanks to the rumors about a possible Straight Eye for the Queer Guy, there’s another round of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is stereotypical-and-therefore-offensive” complaints floating around, so I thought it important to point out that television shows, particularly so-called “reality” TV, don’t portray ANY demographic group realistically—or all that positively, either.

Can you imagine if most straight people were like those on Joe Millionaire or The Bachelor? And are all folks over the age of 50 as curmudgeonly as those we see on the screen?

I think most reasonably intelligent people, within all societal definitions, recognize that no one is accurately represented in the entertainment media, or sometimes even the news media. That’s just how it is. If people meet me for the first time and assume I’m able to arrange their living room just because I’m gay, then they’re idiots and I don’t need to be associated with them anyway.

Of course, like most reality TV, Queer Eye lost its novelty very quickly. I stopped watching months ago.

But if I do watch, I don’t bitch and moan about my misrepresentation. I laugh at “myself” and at my friends, both gay and straight.

It could be worse, you know. We could be Asian-American, Pacific Islander, lesbian, Native American, or even Hispanic or African-American (to a slightly lesser degree) and therefore invisible in the eyes of television executives.

I’m just damn grateful there are gay men on TV at all, skewed as the final product may be.