US of Tara's Marshall Stands Apart From Other Young, Gay Television Characters

Marshall is the most annoying character for me, because all of his storylines are related to his sexuality, as if there was nothing else about him worth to write about. His line about gay being like christmas every day in the last episode was so unnecessary and cringe-worthy. I really wish for them to write more interesting stuff for him.

Marshall is now getting threesome action…hmm. Again why did the writers think this was necessary? Is there a secret law that all gay people should have threesomes? Again, I wish they would give Marshall fewer storylines that have to do with his sexuality only or would at least have the decency to not give him storylines that fit rather to Queer As Folk and not to his character.

United States of Tara fans on TWoP

I've been a big watcher of Showtime's United States of Tara since its inception, and reading those comments from Television Without Pity is disappointing, to say the least. Youngest son Marshall's coming out has been one of the show's better subplots. I think what distinguishes Marshall from other young gay characters on tv is that they actually allow him to be sexual (within the limits of what's appropriate for a teenager -- the "threesome" was limited to kissing).



That’s been one of the biggest criticism of Glee’s Kurt from day one:

One of the things that could help to construct Kurt as something other than a girl would be to allow him to express the sexual part of his homosexuality. Certainly the castration of gay men on television is nothing new, but it works in conjunction with feminizing gay men to render them nonthreatening and oftentimes womanly.(PopMatters)

The truth is Marshall is a pretty nuanced characters, and his sexuality is a part of that.