Even the right-wing Media Research Center’s Evan Mantel was moved by the Modern Family episode where Cam and Mitch got engaged…which is exactly why the sitcom is so dangerous. “As a conservative blog on entertainment, I’m in a tricky predicament during episodes like these,” Mantel explains. “It moved me like a good art is supposed to do. But that’s the problem. It moved me.”
He said that while he works for an anti-gay group, Modern Family “made me feel joy for Cam and Mitchell after the Supreme Court over-ruled California’s Prop 8.”
These feelings of joy for gay couples being happy and getting hitched, of course, is exactly “what makes this show great. And dangerous. It relies on feelings which mislead.”
According to Mantel, “there is no logical argument in favor of gay marriage,” just the “sweetness” and “touching” feelings of Cam and Mitchell, which he wants viewers to remember is “not a realistic portrayal of reality.”
This was a classic Modern Family. And as such, I am upset. Wanna know why I’m upset? (if you don’t, why are you even reading??? Why?)
I’ll let you in on a little secret: I write for a conservative blog. (I’ll wait for those gasps of shock to die down.) As a conservative blog on entertainment, I’m in a tricky predicament during episodes like these. With a crappy episode, (like this one; HIMYM LINK)it is easy to rip the flawed presuppositions.
But this was a good episode. I laughed. I cried. I felt. It moved me like good art is supposed to do. But that’s the problem. It moved me. It made me feel joy for Cam and Mitchell after the Supreme Court over-ruled California’s Prop 8.
And that is what makes this show great. And dangerous. It relies on feelings which mislead. There is no logical argument in favor of gay marriage, but the sweetness of Cam and Mitchell trying to outdo each other’s proposal is touching. Their simple and spontaneous proposal was as sweet as the portrayal of those who don’t agree with gay marriage as spitting babies was subtle.
So what is a person to do?
Watch, I say. Watch a classic sitcom, but know that what you are seeing is fiction and not a realistic portrayal of realty.
