My students, it seems, generally assume Astaire as well as Gene Kelly was gay until I tell them otherwise; and even when I do inform them, they’re still skeptical. (It probably doesn’t help that we’ve just watched the dream sequence from THE PIRATE, which features Kelly in “Daisy Dukes” with severely oiled-up thighs: http://www.gonemovies.com/www/XsFilms/SnelPlaatjes/ActKellyPirate.jpg.)

But I wonder if my students (and other audiences) think the same about the professional male dancers from DANCING WITH THE STARS, for example, who — in their minds, I imagine — ooze a more hardened, sexual, and conventionally heterosexual masculine representation of dance than Astaire/Kelly and their film musical partners.

It’s a central narrative urge, though, no? That story of becoming so often preempts other stories. Hence superhero movies endlessly rebooting, hence romantic comedies ending once the couple declare their love and get married, and hence the coming out being the big moment. I agree with you, however, that there’s so much more story to be told. Why aren’t there more romcoms about partnered couples, why do superhero films struggle once they’ve told us how the hero became the hero, or why are the competition reality show winners often interesting only when they’re about to win, not after? We seem to be suffering from a pervasive narrative poverty as a culture — great at Act One, bad at the rest

Gaydar and his unconvincing ‘girlfriends’.