something that i love so much about david rose is that he’s an archetype we don’t ever really see on television and if we do it’s certainly never in a positive way or as a main character. seeing a guy who’s feminine in a complex way, that he cares about his clothes and appearance, he has ‘impeccable taste’, he “doesn’t do sports”, and not having those traits be used to belittle him or demean him, or at least rather pointing out the impracticality of those traits in the situation he’s in, instead of implying the joke is that he’s feminine, that’s so unique in tv.
and not only that, but in regards to his sexuality, that he can be attracted to women and date women, and sort of defy that expectation, but also date men and enforce that being feminine of course doesn’t mean you’re gay, but being gay is never a bad thing, and being feminine and gay isn’t “conforming to stereotypes”.
there aren’t really any shows that do that, that portray overt femininity in men without it being degrading, and there are certain moments about this unique role that david has that stand out to me, like when david alexis and moira all decided to go get manicures with david’s money and left johnny alone, the joke wasn’t that david wanted to do the “girly” thing and get a manicure, it was that johnny didn’t. Or the times when jocelyn asked david to talk to a gay teen, or roland asked david to help him pick out an outfit for jocelyn, they had an expectation of him to be like a gbf and just naturally do these things expected of him, but at the end of the day the humour is that david is stubborn and doesn’t get along with people, and is very protective of his ego, and his similarities to alexis and moira are something more tied to his class than his sexuality.
And we get that lovely contrast with him and patrick, that patrick doesn’t behave the same as david, and he doesn’t fit the image of what a gay man typically looks and acts like because he grew up presumably middle class and was with women his whole life, but we get little glimpses that patrick has his own feminine side, that he volunteered to play mary in the christmas pageant, he’s dramatic and sensitive, and the entirety of his arc during cabaret is him coming into his own skin.
and with david and patrick there’s that sort of self recognition through the other, that while they come from different backgrounds, they see in each other their desire to be loved and their desire to start over, and i think that discovery we make about david through patrick allows us to see david’s mannerisms and style in a new, more sympathetic context, and gives us more than we could possibly have asked for in complex portrayals of gender nonconforming characters.
anyway dan levy is an absolute icon and genius.
