In & Out: Deep Thoughts About Toxic Masculinity, Barbra Streisand, and Coming Out in the 1990s

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Podcast

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Does anybody here know how many times I had to watch Funny Lady?

The 1997 film In & Out, directed by Frank Oz (yes, the one who voices Miss Piggy) and starring Kevin Kline, Joan Cusack, and Tom Selleck, has mostly been forgotten–but this feel-good comedy had a lasting impact on Emily. When she saw it in the theater as an undiagnosed neurodivergent 18-year-old, she was confused as all hell when Kline’s character comes out at his wedding (to a woman) about three-quarters of the way into the movie, despite his protestations of heterosexuality up until that point.

Baby Emily understood something that may have been unclear to the intended audience: that the stereotypical characteristics of “masculinity” have approximately jack-all to do with sexual orientation. Although Oz created a lovely story about acceptance (and one that was likely an important stepping stone for straight Americans to embrace LGBTQ rights), the reliance on stereotypes for humor makes the movie a cringey, if well-meaning, time capsule.

Throw on your headphones and take a listen–and don’t compliment the fabulous window treatment.

Mentioned in this episode:

“In & Out” Is a Great Gay Movie and Deserves as Much Love as “The Birdcage”

Classic Film Review: “In & Out” turns 25, old enough to be a “classic”

Tango Men, Choreography by Ezequiel Sanucci

This episode was edited by Resonate Recordings.

Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls

We are Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our family as the Guy Girls.

We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com

We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, and analyzing pop culture for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, and whatever else we find.

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1. Introducing In and Out (1997) (00:00:00)

2. Plot Overview: Howard's Outing (00:07:45)

3. Howard's Self-Discovery Journey (00:24:12)

4. The Wedding Scene and Aftermath (00:35:58)

5. What the Film Gets Right (00:44:32)

6. Stereotypes and Consent Issues (00:52:00)