Arnold Zwicky's Blog

🐅 🐅 🐅 tigers seeing off the month of September; meanwhile, the October Oz-rabbits are massing behind the great fence that separates the two months, and will soon burst through, to blanket the calendrical landscape

Today I will step way from the events of the day and of my life to pick up a recurring theme on this blog, that of the cultural type the queen, moved by catching an admirable exponent of the type, the actor Peter Paige, in an episode of the tv drama Bones (S6 E14, “The Bikini in the Soup”, from 2011):

(#1) Emily Deschanel (as Temperance “Bones” Brennan), Peter Paige (as Darren Hargrove), David Boreanaz (as Seely Booth); Paige plays Hargrove with plenty of queeny mannerisms, but also a certain degree of slyness (he looks serious here because he’s being arrested) (screen shot from IMDb)

Background. From my 6/30/22 posting “Ultimate Queen Day”:

I am suggesting that 6/30 be recognized as Ultimate Queen Day, especially celebrating men who are flamboyant (in any way) and those who are effeminate (in their presentation of themselves). Stereotypically, these two bundles of characteristics are manifested together, in the cultural type the queen

… illustrations of a tough queen — Emory in the 1970 movie of The Boys in the Band — and a ditzy queen — Randy Rainbow giving his musical commentaries on the news

Both characters [Emory and Randy] are dead serious, with moral agendas behind the apparent superficiality of the personas they project (of eye-rolling, disdainful self-involvement for Emory; of wide-eyed, scatter-brained silliness for Randy).

… There’s more. For several years, my department chair at Ohio State [Robert Jeffers] was a good friend who presented himself as what I now think of as an ornamental queen: full of amiable laughter, warm companionship, and energy, with the gay gestures, the gay voice, all the gay eye stuff (side-eyes, wide eyes, eye rolls), all of that dialed up to about 150% of normal. He had a fine conventional three-piece suit that he wore when one of his students defended their PhD dissertation (the suit was a mark of respect for them), but mostly dressed flamboyantly. He went to Humanities College Executive Committee meetings (with the deans and the other department chairs) in very worn denim short shorts that showed off his gym-developed lower body, plus an equally worn Mickey Mouse t-shirt that showed off his upper body. Vibrating energy and enthusiasm.

And it all worked. Well, he was an able administrator, a solid scholar (in Indo-European historical linguistics!), a wonderful teacher, and a tireless, thoughtful adviser. And yes, a treat to look at and a hell of a lot of fun to be around.

Queen personas. I was beginning to survey various queen personas: the tough queen, the ditzy queen, and then the ornamental queen. Now cue Peter Paige’s character Emmett from the US series Queer as Folk. From my 2/2/17 posting “QaF and its men”:

Originally from Hazlehurst, Mississippi, Emmett is the most flamboyant of the group. He goes through several jobs, including shopkeeper at a clothing store called Torso, porn star, naked maid, party planner, and correspondent for a local news station

… I think that he is in a sense the moral center of the series. Emmett is a self-described nelly bottom (but with a high-end pornstar dick), full of banter but also defiant courage. Wise-cracking but also wise about people and their relationships: he’s genuinely in sympathy with other people, and he has a lot of self-knowledge, so he’s a truly good friend. He tricks a lot, but in the series, manages to have three boyfriends, each unlikely in his own way: a much older, very rich man; his friend Ted; and a professional football player. Ok, I have a thing for nelly queens with hearts of gold and great senses of humor, so I love the character, portrayed so well by Peter Paige.

What I saw here was an analogy to the characters in the Mozart/Schikaneder Magic Flute. That opera is nominally about Tamino and Pamina, the high priest Sarastro, and the Queen of the Night, but I’ve maintained for some time (on this blog) that the moral center of the piece is the Vogelfänger Papageno — apparently simple and artless, but utterly steadfast in his relationships and a perceptive observer of the other characters. More important, he’s not a stock type (handsome prince, noble ruler, etc.), but a real human being, with human frailties, a sense of playfulness, and bonds of affection to those around him.

… The character Emmett … arrives on screen with all of his adorably human characteristics right out in front: he’s empathetic, loyal, self-mockingly funny, and vulnerable enough to risk getting his heart broken. I’d want him as a friend and I’d want to be like him (except for the nelliness, which I admire but don’t perform well).

Here we have the convivial queen, the queen with the gift of friendship.

Peter Paige. The briefest of surveys from Wikipedia:

(#2) PP projecting focus, competence, and niceness (photo: Entertainment Weekly)

Peter Paige (born June 20, 1969) is an American actor, director and screenwriter. He is best known for his portrayal of Emmett Honeycutt in the gay drama series Queer as Folk. His debut as writer and director was on the film Say Uncle [(2005): Paul (Peter Paige), a childlike artist, becomes upset when his godson’s family moves from Oregon to Japan. He tries to compensate for his feeling of loss with visits to the neighborhood playground. Paul’s best friend, Russell (Anthony Clark), tries to warn him what people might think if they see him hanging around their kids, but Paul doesn’t quite see it that way. It isn’t long before a suspicious local mom, Maggie (Kathy Najimy), launches a crusade against the naïve Paul, with an army of furious parents in tow.]

… An accomplished stage actor, Paige has appeared at major regional theatres throughout the country … He has performed nearly every genre of play, from the Greeks to Shakespeare to contemporary American work.

This entry was posted on September 30, 2025 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Academic life, Actors, Effeminacy, Events and occasions, Gender and sexuality, Movies and tv. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.