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by Jack Nichols
In this final episode of Survivor, whose ratings were supposed to equal or exceed those of the Super Bowl, the gay contestant that had become the "villain" everyone loved to hate prevailed over a woman named Kelly whose bland wholesomeness appeared to make her the emotional favorite of most of the vast viewing audience. For several weeks, David Letterman had viciously described Richard Hatch, age 39, as that "the fat guy who keeps walking around naked". On CNBC’s stock market news channel, anchor men made pointed jokes indicating that other co-anchors were "rooting for Richard" as if that was a "label" by which macho Wall Street types would be stigmatized. The New York Times ran several articles on the program. In one, in the "Arts Section", the Times writer described the success of the entire program as being rooted in "Richard" as someone everyone loved to hate. Every "good show" needed a villain, according to the Times and Richard had provided that in spades. While millions of CBS viewers, among the oldest of the three major networks, watched they were joined by many more millions of younger viewers who turned Survivor into a cultural phenomenon. Richard Hatch is now the world’s most famous gay male parent. Early on, sexual politics came into play. At one point, the females decided to form an alliance against the males. That fell apart and an alliance between members of the two original tribes emerged. As the number of survivors dwindled, the "alliance" that found itself strong enough to dwindle down the number of survivors ultimately found itself having to choose between their own allies. A professional corporate trainer, Hatch obviously used his professional skills to outmaneuver his opponents. In the final episode, Hatch, who’d lost a hundred pounds before the show and then lost 34 pounds while on the show, gave a misleading demonstration of the "disadvantages of weight loss" by grabbing the lose folds of his skin and shaking them for the viewing audience. Viewers were left with the misleading impression that losing 34 pounds left you with folds of loose skin. Actually it was the loss of 134 pounds that left Richard with those folds of loose skin. Among the last four survivors was a retired 72-year-old Navy Seal name Rudy. Early on, he and Richard formed an alliance. It was an alliance that Rudy, who posters on the Badpuppy.com Forum web site described as having (at age 72) a ‘certain attractive masculine edge to him’, would honor to the end and give Richard that one vote margin he needed. New York Times columnist, John Tierney, described the interactions between the two women and two men going into the big showdown as an interesting example of male versus female politics. Tierney said that the females entered the last episode at a disadvantage because they had commenced quarreling. Ultimately, he was right. A very masculine female truck driver that many gay males would insist was gay (Susan) ended up giving a speech on the program along the following lines: "The world is filled with rats and snakes. Kelly (the female she had a fight with was a ‘rat’ and Richard, the gay male was a ‘snake’. In her concluding statement, Susan said that, in nature, snakes ate rats. She obviously voted her feelings and gave Richard the final vote he needed. However, how Richard won will always be a mystery. A few episodes ago, the women were accusing "Greg" of using his blond youthful masculinity as a means of endearing himself to openly-gay Richard. Richard Hatch’s triumph flew in the face of polls that showed only 11% favored Richard while 45% favored Rudy, the 72-year-old Navy Seal and over 35% favored Kelly. The bottom line of Survivor is that a gay male "a corporate communications trainer" beat out fifteen other competitors and is sure to emerge as in that milieu and in others as a memorable cultural icon. Immediate reactions from gay Survivor fans were effusive. Said one: "It brings back memories of the rock singer, Queen, singing that wonderful ballad: ‘We Are The Champions’ "Today every gay person is a champion because of someone who prevailed, someone of whom too many were too quick to describe as ‘a fat-assed faggot’. Long live "King Richard", exclaimed Randy Wicker, a dedicated fan. "He’ll go on from here—with this win-- and show America that they have underestimated gay people." In an hour long present-day discussion among the 16 contestants,, Richard Hatch declared that he wanted to "open a camp for troubled teens" because "someone did it for him."
READ JACK'S COLUMN FROM LAST WEEK Jack Nichols is Senior Editor at GayToday www.gaytoday.badpuppy.com. Jack Nichols is also the author of Men's Liberation: A New Definition of Masculinity (Penguin); Welcome to Fire Island: Visions of Cherry Grove & the Pines (St. Martin's Press); and is co-author with Lige Clarke of I Have More Fun With You Than Anybody (St. Martin's Press); and Roommates Can't Always Be Lovers: An Intimate Guide to Male/Male Relationships (St. Martin's Press)
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richard e. schiff,
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n last week’s
concluding episode of the CBS blockbuster show Survivor, Richard Hatch, a
gay male with an adopted son, beat out fifteen other contestants, becoming
the last "Survivor" and winning, in the process, a million
dollars.
