Gay as a maypole

LOL. Erm, the expression is "Gay as a May-pole" and I suppose the saying came about in an older time, when gay meant happy or jolly or bright. Or, in the grand tradition of the unethically horny journalist, political reporter Miguel Ramos Juan Castanowho eyes Alex so hungrily I wanted to make him a sandwich.

The film's best throwaway lines, about auctioning shoes off to fans, leading with one's height, the difference between rugby and football, all have the feeling of an in-joke for those of us who are, as the prince describes himself, "gay as a maypole.

Maypole Okay people. Please explain to me why a maypole is GAY? I know what a maypole is. Sign up for L. Goes Out, a weekly newsletter about exploring and experiencing Los Angeles from the L. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

In an antechamber nearby, Alex Claremont-Diaz Taylor Zakhar Perezwhose mother, a pioneering Democrat, is in the midst of a tough reelection campaign, and Prince Henry Hanover-Stuart-Fox Nicholas Galitzinewhose brother is heir to the British throne, have just begun their own, ahem, special relationship.

I've been in festivals where they use it, dancing around it etc. In being so unabashed about its political fantasy, though, the film clears a path for its romantic one. Sign out. If you've already spent a lifetime clinging to winks and nods, counting milestones and historic firsts, it almost comes as is laurel holloman gay relief.

If you are prepared to the accept that the pretty-boy son of the first female president could lead the Democrats to victory in Texas, or that the coming-out of a British royal could spark spontaneous demonstrations across the U. It's just another exquisitely entertaining fillip of invention.

Neither "Bros," stridently attuned to queer people's erasure from the romantic comedy, nor "Fire Island," mischievously mapping it onto queer spaces, so thoroughly captures the element of make-believe at the heart of the genre, queer or otherwise. Yet one would feel cheated without them — or without Uma Thurman's demanding, hard-drawling rom-Mom, President Ellen Claremont.

Be too specific and it suddenly becomes "niche. The challenge for queer reinterpretations in any genre, unfair as it may be, is to walk this tightrope successfully. It's a playful touch — a love tap, really — but the moment is made cheekily scintillating by its maypole, a state dinner for the leaders of the two world powers, negotiating a new trade agreement.

Perhaps most cleverly, the film reserves its comic firepower not for references to Grindr, Truvada, bottoming and "the B in LGBTQ" the last three of these from the mouth of mama bear Claremont, giving "the talk" to her bisexual cubbut for less obvious material.

“Gay as a maypole” is a double-barrelled reference, relating to both the gay (happy) celebration of dancing around the streamer covered maypole, and the fact that a Maypole is the banner staff of the Merry Mount gay colony. Let’s kick off. Hell, if you're keeping score at home, the opening sequence, which leaves our protagonists covered in white frosting, could be taken as foreshadowing.

A may-pole is a long white post sometimes with flowers and decorations on it, and many coloured and white ribbons on it. But why on earth is it gay related? Learn the meaning of this phrase and how it relates to the story and the characters. Like some straight beachhead in the war against heteronormativity, the rom-com can be captured by force "Bros"stolen for our own purposes "Fire Island"or, as in this case, subject to a sneak attack under cover of night.

The phrase “gay as a maypole” typically draws on the exuberant and festive nature of these celebrations to describe someone’s high spirits and happiness. Which is, to be clear, no more the "right" way of updating the genre for the 21st century than any other.

Randy if not raunchy, it unashamedly cuts away to the Washington Monument at one electric moment, zooms in on the spare's bouncing derriere at another. These ribbons are used to dance with, by maypole dancers (Now, I wonder who came up with that inventive name!?)I don't know for sure.

For it may be true that the rom-com's evolution, in the aggregate, reflects real issues, and revolutionary changes, in class structure, sexual mores, gender norms, even constitutional law. Blithely or gay, depending on your point of view, the film even skates over its own political backdrop: Xenophobia, gender-neutral bathrooms and resentment of the monarchy all receive passing mention, but these just blend into the palace wallpaper.

I mean "straight men" in the comic sense, of course. Return to Homepage. Sidekicks have never been practical in a genre where clocking in above two hours is a violation of most international treaties, so Henry's poor sister Beatrice Ellie Bamber gets predictably short shrift; as Alex's BFF Nora, the vice-president's daughter, Rachel Hilson at least has a chance to throw some Judy Greer-style shade.

But film by film it asks us to daydream of developments smaller in scale, albeit no more fathomable: meeting cute and trading barbs, falling head over heels and falling apart. Henry, a prince in a romance novel and movie, describes himself as "as gay as a maypole".