PRS, I wish you continued good health and am glad that you're doing so well in your recovery from stage III cancer. I also applaud your willingness to have people discuss how many, um, testicles you have -- you have undoubtedly inspired many men to realize that life is still worth living after cancer surgery.
Ace Katherine Plumber, I applaud your courage in telling people about personal matters. I have only one question: Are you REALLY a plumber? If so, here's the one about a doctor who is getting ready to pay the plumber and says, "Your charges as a plumber are higher than mine as a doctor," and the plumber answers, "I know -- I used to be a doctor." [Yes, it's a groaner.]
Audrey Liebross
Audrey, the Phantom Phanatic, who nonetheless would rather be Jean Valjean, who knew how to make lemonade out of lemons.
"Gaveston writes: "[T]he constant objectification of females gets just as boring after awhile as gay men who speak only in double entendres or quotes from show tunes." Amen on the objectification of women. Question: is a gay man's quoting from a show tune, which I often do even though I am neither gay nor a man, is that a gay stereotype? I know that gay men frequently joke about their platonic interest in certain characters (e.g., Dolly from "Hello Dolly" or the Bea Arthur character from "Golden Girls"), but I'm not sure why they select particular characters."
Audrey, it's not a cliche if you quote a show, and I'm not complaining about the occasional theatrical reference (like the ones we see in this thread above).
I'm talking about a minority of gay men who think it's sophisticated to carry on entire conversations where every response is a quote from a show tune. That's all well and good for college sophomores, but, personally, I find it gets boring pretty quickly.
Likewise, I'm not opposed to an original double entendre; but as with everything else, repetition is tedious.
***
As for your question regarding which characters are quoted by gay men, I think (i.e., I am about to broadly generalize) that many gay men are attracted to outsized female characters bordering on drag (Dolly, Mame, Fannie Brice) or characters with a gift for snark, sarcasm having long been a gay male response mechanism.
Disclaimer: this is just a personal impression. I am not a sociologist and have not conducted formal research on the subject.
Upon watching the film Auntie Mame my mother once exclaimed "I think every gay man has modeled himself on this woman!"
When I told a gay friend later he pointed out that at that time in history for gay men who couldn't marry or have families the eccentric spinster aunt must have seemed like an appropriate role model.
^^^^ Absolutely! Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick wrote an entire book on the subject of gay aunts and uncles and their importance as role models to we who are "differently abled". (Sedgewick's writing is almost impenetrably academic, so just take my word unless you like that sort of thing.)
In my case, it was a drama teacher who had Mame's flair and courage without all the recklessness. That teacher saved me from the tedium of evangelism and remained a close friend until her death 15 years ago. I still thank God for her every day.