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From: sdo@brunix.UUCP (Scott Oaks)
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: Re: No Comment about "Consenting Adult"
Message-ID: <12191@brunix.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 16-Feb-85 13:05:04 EST
Article-I.D.: brunix.12191
Posted: Sat Feb 16 13:05:04 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 20-Feb-85 20:15:29 EST
References: ncrcae.2108
Lines: 21

I too liked Consenting Adult.  Okay, it admittedly had some problems--
but given its persepective (that of the mother, not of Jeff) I thouht
that it worked pretty well for what it was trying to do.  SUre, we all know
that Jeff must have had a harder time working things out for himself and that
his role was not well-developed, but you can't do everything in two hours.  I
am still amazed that prime-time even tried.

I remember when Making Love first came out (no pun intended), a lot a people
compared it to the early Sidney Portier movies:  they too weren't terribly
realistic, presented easy-to-accept, squeaky-clean images, etc.  Consenting
Adult seems to be in this genre as well, which may be a stage through which
the entertainment media must pass (it seemed to be a stage for the Portier
movies, for example; the movies [if not TV] then went on to more realistic
portrayals of Black people after that [though they might be in retrograde
again]).  Perhaps it's sort of like aversion therapy--you have to get
straight people used to the fact that gay men touch before you get them
used to the fact that they kiss.

This last fact is somewhat unfortunate, but it seems to be the way things
work, and it seems as if that's what we have to work against.  But, however
tentative, this at least seems to be a start.