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James Corden’s performance in The Prom is wildly offensive and homophobic. Casting a straight person in an ostentatiously camp, gay role is a byproduct of institutional homophobia: straight people capitalising on enacting the behaviour queer men are often bullied/ostracised for.
And casting James Corden? The man who last year co-wrote the G&S Christmas Special that included the homophobic slur from FTONY for prime-time TV; endorsing bigots everywhere to passionately and proudly sing it in spite of how offensive they are told (they know) it is.
Am I suggesting queer people only play queer roles? Absolutely. To do otherwise is allowing cishet people to capitalise and benefit from behaviours and expressions that queer people often have to check/suppress for fear of being beaten, bullied, or berated.
Am I suggesting only cishet people play cishet people? No. The societal mould for being straight and cis is still the most widely accepted and preferred. Giving openly queer people the opportunity to be cast in these roles gives them to access spaces that they are often denied.
After all, consider how many straight, cis characters there are in movies, and then think how many there are for queer characters. Allowing cishet people to dominate roles made for them and queer people pushes queer people into the closer or out of the business altogether.
And in my opinion, James Corden is only an ally when the cameras are on. Not really even then.
He is literally benefitting from behaviours and expressions that I have been/get called a f*ggot for, but he didn’t consider that offensive enough to omit from his Christmas special last year - in fact, he defended his choice to leave it in there.
