Hello there fello Homosexuals Have you been acting a little straight lately? Uh, coffee? No ice today. STRAIGHT Let's remember to act Gayly, Daily. And share our power with the world By checking out the Are They Gay Merch Store How's that worldwide agenda going? Are you meeting your recruitment quota? I know I am, and we only grow. Member of the homosexual agenda? Let it be known. Bisexual disaster? Be proud of your chaos! The town lesbian? Uh, of course you are. Head to the link in the description or teespring.com/stores/are-they-gay The history of queer allegories is one full of
rich and beautiful works of the western canon. You’ve got the classic examples: X-Men,
Frozen, Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer, just to name a few. But one movie never gets
mentioned in this landscape of gay metaphors. High School Musical. Ah, the story of one young man struggling
to reconcile his love for singing against his hyper-masculine jock
persona. This story… a story about being yourself… a story about embracing the
theatre… hmm, are you starting to get it? And while a heterosexual christian rock story
is at the forefront of Highschool Musical, I think that the queer subplot
between Ryan and Chad is the REAL story of Highschool musical.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Ryan and Chad? They barely interacted outside
of the lovemaking on the baseball field! That’s what I thought. Despite my childhood crush on Corbin Bleu, I didn’t even know someone could be unironically named Chad until last week. So I thought all these suggestions to
make a video on Ryan and Chad were a joke. Being the confused bisexual that I am, I
googled who the hell these people were and I still wasn’t convinced
this would make a good video. But no, fellow Ryan and Chad
fanatics. This goes deeper. Deeper than Chad went on his
and Ryan’s wedding night. For those of you who have no
idea what I’m talking about, let me give a quick rundown. High School Musical
is a Disney channel original movie from 2006 starring a dude named Troy and a gal named
Gabriella. Troy is a basketball star and Gabriella is a new student. They like to
sing in secret together but Troy’s afraid that all his basketball jock friends
are gonna find out because singing is… Because singing is GAY. So they don’t exactly say in the
movie that singing and theatre is gay. I mean everyone who sings
and does theatre knows that, but the middle schoolers watching this
movie may not understand the implications. There’s an ongoing theme in this movie that
suggests a subtle gay or queer allegory. Troy and Gabriella are both afraid
of being labelled. They feel like there’s a part of them that other people
don’t see, a part that’s true to them. Gabriella is new to the school, but at
her old school, she was always labelled the “freaky genius girl.” At this school, she
just wants to be a person, not another label. Troy is in the clique of jockey basketball players
who’ll all grow up to question their sexuality. But because of their position, there’s
this super macho attitude among them. The cliques at this school are tight
and locked. No one can cross into another clique that isn’t theirs. Jocks
can’t suddenly become theatre gays. Just look at how Troy asks his dad for
advice about him trying out new things: 23:40 "dad were you ever
afraid of trying something new, but were afraid of what your friends might think? what if you want to try something really new" Hm, interesting thought Troy. If I were the dad I
would be getting ready for the coming out speech. Suit up, pa. He’s been recruited. (wink) Shortly after, Gabriella and Troy and up
being outed and the whole school is like “Oh my god people are nuanced!” Subsequently, MORE people start coming out for drama!!!
Now everyone’s gay! What is this, glee???? And although High School Musical
starts to feel more like College Experimentation Musical, there’s
a large number of people who are firmly against people discovering
their sexuality-I mean interests. "stick to the status quo" Stick to the status quo? What is this,
a fundumentalist Christian youth group? Seems a little on the nose, huh? Is
it really that big a deal that some people like to bake or that some people
feel a spiritual lust for James McAvoy, like really…. the status quo? The
straight status quo? Heterosexualism? Oh but this metaphor just keeps going. 46:30 gabriella: "did you ever feel
like there's this whole other person inside of you just looking for a way to come out *biting knuckle* What is this, my highschool years? They even used the
word “come out.” How progressive, Disney! Troy says that he’s always been
labeled as “the basketball guy.” But he doesn’t want that life anymore. "Sometimes I don't want to be the basketball guy." Wow this is powerful stuff Disney. Really ahead
of its time. Well, at the end of the movie, everyone ends up accepting each other through
the power of friendship and neoliberalism. It’s beautiful. Troy and Gabriella get to be
gay together and everyone is happy. So we’ve established that High School
Musical is kinda maybe a gay metaphor. And this framework tints the whole
movie, and to an extent, the franchise, with a gay hue. The movie universe has established
that the idea of embracing an unexpected passion is part of being authentically yourself. And
that unexpected passion for Chad and Ryan may be... each other? And their
authentic selves…? It may be gay. Chad is bi and so am I Is Chad ok? Does he need some
slides for his projector? Because he really likes to
project his feelings onto Troy. Ok, so along the path of Troy’s self discovery,
Chad is always at his side telling him that theatre is bad. Now since this is a Disney
movie, Chad can only say that musicals suck and leave it at that. But if this were real life,
let’s be real. If a highschool jock is hating on musical theatre and singing what words are he
probably saying? He’s probably… calling it……. Gay! (angled head) Is he right? Well Just kidding, of course not everyone who sings and
does theatre is gay. But there is undoubtedly a societal connection there that overcompensating
masc people like to dunk on… literally! Is Chad himself gay, though? Well I
don’t actually think so. He seems to be into his girlfriend, so assuming that
he isn’t using her to hide his sexuality, there’s a chance he’s probably
bi. If so, welcome aboard my friend. But let’s first establish that he might
be bi. Besides the wildly inappropriate on screen baseball sex during the second movie, what
else is there to suggest he may not be straight? So I mostly established the gay metaphor before
and talked about how the whole jock/theatre dichotomy kinda represents coming and and stuff.
But one of the biggest people against the mingling of cliques, the person that felt so personally
invested in keeping everything seperate… was Chad. Chad is the dudiest of the bros.
He’s the cockiest of the jocks. *fart noise* And when he’s the one talking about
theatre, it actually frightens him. 13:56 chad is like "costumes and makeup" "It's frightening" Now, dudebros aren’t born hating costumes
and makeup. Dudebros aren’t born hating theatre. A dudebro is sculpted by societal
expectations. Chad wants to seem as straight as possible. He wants to fight anything
remotely different… anything remotely gay. The idea of “costumes and makeup,” an idea
very related to gay culture, makes him shiver! Bro if you don’t like makeup that’s cool!
I don’t like makeup either but the thought doesn’t make me shiver from fear. Anything remotely gay is terrifying to Chad.
It sounds like Chad may have a case of INTERNALIZED HOMOPHOBIA Now just because someone is homophobic doesn’t
mean someone is secretly queer. I reject that narrative because I was secretly queer and very
much not homophobic. But, there are alot of people that don’t know how to cope with certain feelings
and so they project that onto other people. It's also a common trope in movies and TV. Going back... When the school starts coming out in large
numbers, Chad is firmly anti-coming out. "suddenly people think they can do other stuff. stuff that's not their stuff." And to Troy specifically, Chad tries really
frickin hard to convince Troy not to go over to the dark side. Chad is one of the biggest
advocates of straight living. Everything in his being tries to get Troy to stay straight. I
get if Chads like Chad are casually homophobic, but to be this concerned about it? To spend
everywaking moment afraid that your bro who you may or may not have a crush on is suddenly
embracing a gay lifestyle?? Without you?? But does Chad show any explicit
attraction to men besides Ryan? Well not really, besides
this oddly handsy greeting…
Um… But what about Ryan, the embodiment of 2000s
twink stereotypes? It’s clear that Chad is a bisexual disaster just waiting for the right
college sociology class to open his heart, but Ryan… well he’s gay. I’m sorry, he’s
just… do I need to say anything/?!?!?! I’m sorry, Ryan’s gay. So Ryan is the brother of the main
villain of the movie, Sharpay. Sharpie is supposed to be like the spoiled
shallow rich person that is the most influential theatre person at the school. It’s implied she’s
popular and stuff, but no one seems to like her, so I don't really know the deal there. As I said, Ryan is her brother. Although
Sharpay manipulates him to an extent, Ryan also really loves being a star and the
center of attention. So let’s talk about the gay
stereotypes Ryan embodies. He loves theatre. He loves fashion. He
loves dance. He loves Ashton Kutcher. "Maybe we're being punked... maybe we'll get to meet Ashton!" they see troy and gabriella have a callback…
ryan's very very very homosexually excited. Loving all these things don’t make you
gay. I’m sure the theatre nerds among us know plenty of theatre guys in highschool
who basically lived the gay lifestyle, but identified as hetero. But let’s talk about Ryan. He isn’t a complex
real individual, but a character written for a Disney TV movie in the mid 2000s. Were all
these stereotypes hints that Ryan was gay? Yes. Director of the movie Kenny Ortega is actually
an openly gay man. He recently did an interview with Variety where he was asked about his
movies and High School Musical came up. When asked if there was a “queer aesthetic”
that ran through his movies, he replied: Yeah, for sure… The character of Ryan [played
by Lucas Grabeel] in “High School Musical,” Sharpay’s twin brother, we decided he’d
probably going to come out in college.” When asked on whether it was possible to have Ryan be openly gay in the movie
at the time, Ortega stated: I have to be honest with you. I didn’t
think at the time — and Disney is the most progressive group of people I’ve ever worked with.
I was concerned because it was family and kids, that Disney might not be ready to cross that
line and move into that territory yet. So, I just took it upon myself to make choices that
I felt that those who were watching would grab. They would see it, they would feel it, they
would know it and they would identify with it. And that is what happened Oh! So he’s gay. Ryan is gay. Highschool musical has subliminal gay messaging. Now this is obviously really important. Unless
Kenny Ortega is talking about a flashing message every three seconds that says “HAVE GAY SEX,” he’s
probably talking about certain gay stereotypes and moments that Ryan embodies. The way that
Ryan acts, his interests, his presentation, they are all explicit and intentional cues
that point towards Ryan’s homosexuality. I could rest my case here, but let’s
see if there’s anything within the text that suggests Ryan’s love for Ashton Kusher
burns with the fire of teenage repression. What more evidence do you need bro,
like he’s basically roleplaying as Elton John here while singing
about being fabulous, excuse me??? How do the people around Ryan act? Well Ryan’s dad
doesn’t seem to be okay with the whole gay thing. When the dad first shows up, he’s trying
to have a typical father/son relationship. "you've been workin out?" "yoga" His dad seems a little disappointed that
Ryan doesn’t conform to traditionally masculine roles like working out. And
when his dad notices his fashion sense... Ryan’s hat is sitting on his
head on an angle, and as we know, having taste is secret code for gay sex. But his
dad movies it forward, because that’s what big sweaty heterosexual men do! This is probably one of the hidden gay propaganda cues
that the director was talking about. What do Ryan’s fellow teens think? I’m guessing they all know but
just kinda don’t say anything. There’s this moment in the second movie where
Gabriella and Ryan are just kinda hanging out and Troy catches them together
kinda embracing each other. But he doesn’t seem jealous and the scene
doesn’t have the tension you would expect it to. Usually when men and women do anything on
screen, the mainstream media immediately goes into hetero romance mode. But when
Ryan’s on screen alone with Gabriella, we don’t get any of that. It’s like… everyone’s
in on it? I was literally waiting for there to be some drama where Troy is like “Oh looks like
you found a new boyfriend” and then Troy sings about some stupid shit, but no! My expectations
have been subverted! By highschool musical! Did Ryan get a girlfriend in
the last movie? Not really, he just asked Kelsi to prom and shared some nice
moments with her. Maybe that semi-heterosexual influence had something to do with Disney polishing and heterosexualizing
the film for wide theatrical release. Sure Ryan and Kelsi Bleeding Love fan videos are
fire, but let’s not kid ourselves people. Was Ryan gay? Yeah.
So, they like… did it, right? But Chad and Ryan together? How are we to
suggest that two people who barely interacted were actually a powercouple? Well most of the Chad
and Ryan fuel comes from one scene and one song. I. Don’t. Dance. The question is… Who? Doesn’t dance? Chad? Oh, silly boy. Chad. Chad Chad Chad. NO! Let’s breakdown this cinematic and
musical masterpiece into three sections. Number 1: The Tension, the eyesex. The PG-13 worthy chemistry
that would but Walter White to shame. Number 2: The Allegory. The metaphor. The
secret truth behind Dancing and Swinging. Number 3: The clothes switch. The raw passionate
lovemaking. The embracing of identities. Before I get into the eyesex, let me
talk about how Chad got into Ryan. To understand the gay tension, we have
to understand what the hell is going on. Even if gays never know what's going on. So in this movie everyone from East High
coincidentally gets a summer job at Sharpay’s family’s resort thing. Ryan and Sharpay aren’t
employed since they’re the kids of Mr. and Mrs. gentrification, but everyone else from
East High is there as the proletariat. Now, it turns out that every year there’s a talent
show at the resort and Sharpay and Ryan usually end up winning. But the kids from East
High want to stage a communist coup and overthrow what is mostly Sharpay’s
reign. They try to get nice with Ryan because they feel as if he could
help them perform their gay commie show. Now, at this point of the film, Ryan feels
manipulated and undervalued by his sister, because she’s trying to get with Troy and totally
forgot about their sibling duo act. So Ryan gets invited by the Christian Youth Group to join a
staff baseball game. And of course Chad is there. Chad is a part of the communist dance party,
but he’s a little aggressive when Ryan comes. He thinks that Ryan will try to recruit
him through the power of dance. And so, we have the beginning of the
end. Of Chad’s heterosexuality. "if you wanna play ball grab a mitt, but I don't dance…" Number 1: The tension Some people don’t understand
it. Have they even watched it?? Throughout this scene, in which
Ryan literally tries to seduce Chad, there is a palpable tension. The small
glances are there. The way Chad smirks and sorta gives a playful resistance
against Ryan. It’s overwhelming. 1;03;13, chad gives ryan a
reaaaaaaAAAALLLLYYY gay look And when Chad says “You got game?” My god… no. I’m done. I can’t do this. He gazes at Ryan up and down, as if
he’s scanning him for queerness. Listen, when Troy and Gabriella sang
together, most people in the audience probably picked up on their chemistry and
attraction. I am literally just doing the exact same thing. I am noticing something and
alot of other people are noticing something. I’m not injecting my agenda into
this movie. Kenny Ortega already did. And then they grab this phallic looking dildo
bat as if Freud himself wrote this scene. This has to be some weird symbolism a drunk gay
writer snuck in. What are they even doing? Is this a baseball thing??? Is it a baseball
thing to look sensually into your bro’s eyes??? Like this whole scene is supposed to
be competitive but instead it’s just Ryan giving Chad looks as Chad smiles sensually??? I don't get it. "I'll show you how I swing" “you never know”
“oh i know” “you never try” I’m Sorry? What? He knows? So he’s like
experimenting? Is Chad coming out? Is Ryan threatening him? Does he want to help Chad “try”?”
Oh no… These gay recruitment methods are getting a little old, Ryan. Just continue looking at each
other passionately and let it happen naturally. They also have an obligatory moment
where they get too close to each other, but I think Disney cut it off before
it got too gay for comfort. Some of the choreography is… interesting, as well. 1;06;46 Does Chad not realize his motions imply
that he wants Ryan to come closer? A little weird to want to enter a
romantic embrace with Ryan in front of so many people, Chad.
Well Chad ends up winning the game and Ryan is like Ok Whatever, I’m a twink, I don’t need this
life. And then CHAD, oh Chad is like, “Wait!” I'm not saying I'm gonna dance in the show. But if I did. What would you have me do? So Chad… kinda does want to dance with Ryan? And Ryan is doing a powermove
thing and just smiling to himself? Like, yeah boy we got one fresh. What kind of
smirk is that? It’s so devious… it’s so… gay? In summary, Chad and Ryan really
like looking at each other in the same way I look at Trader Joes Milk
Chocolate. If you don’t understand it, then I don’t understand Gabriella and Troy.
Prove it to me nerds. What they kissed like once? Well Chad and Ryan consummated their
marriage on a baseball field in broad daylight. Number 2 The Allegory. So dancing is gay. Sorry, I’m not saying Dancing
is gay as in, you’re gay if you dance. But you are. What I’m saying is that
Dancing is actually secret codeword for gay stuff. We established the gay metaphor in the first
High School musical where the whole singing and performing arts thing was actually about being
gay and coming out. Now Chad, while accepting of performing arts at the end of the movie, never
thought it was something for him personally. Chad was hardcore anti-dance, but now he’s
tolerant but absolutely against it for himself. It’s no coincidence the person who is clearly
gay is also the biggest advocate of dance in this movie. And it’s no coincidence
that he’s trying to get Chad to “dance.” First of all, let’s just think of the structure
of this scene. There’s a saying that goes, “They play for the other team.” In english,
that phrase usually means that someone’s gay. So here we have Ryan. A character who
was CONFIRMED as gay by the director, LITERALLY playing for the other team. And he’s
trying to get Chad on his side. Any questions? Some of the phrases in this song just confirm
the idea that this song is probably a metaphor. There’s another English phrase that goes: “I
don’t swing that way.” In the phrase, “swing” means sexuality, at least most of the time. So
if you’re straight and someone calls you a gay for doing something gay like eating a quiche,
you may reply with “I don’t swing that way.” But in this song, they use swing in creative
ways. The fact that Ryan is trying to seduce Chad is obvious. Ryan, along with
the support of his community sing: “Hey batter batter hey batter batter swing!” As if he should swing for RYAN. And then, Chad says, “ I’ll show you how I swing.” Chad wants to reassure Ryan
that he’s totally 100% straight. Or at least he's trying to be. And then Ryan responds with “You never
know. If you never try.” (play clip) I’m sorry, are we still talking about baseball and dancing? Why are we giving Chad an identity
crisis in front of all his friends? So as we saw before, at the
end of the song, Chad says: "I'm not sying im gonna dance in the show, but if I did, what would you have me do?" Now instead of Ryan saying, “I’d have you take me on a
Venetian boat ride and kiss me on the lips,” Ryan doesn’t say anything! As if he’s won! Chad
WANTS to join the other team. He’s tempted. He’s curious. Ryan knows he’s won. The audience knows
he’s won. Is it not clear what’s happening here? Number 3: The Clothes Switch After a rough game of baseball the bros
Chad and Ryan went into the locker room. They had a hot, steamy naked shower and s they were ridiculously naked they clearly
chatted because when they changed, they decided, hey… Let’s switch clothes? Excuse me, why? I’m sorry, but really, what are
the implications here? This is pretty intimate… I mean. Switching clothes is the kind of thing you
either do with really close friends your age with a similar style ...or people who've seen you ridiculously naked. Now Chad and Ryan barely know each other.
They don’t have the same sense of style at all. They play for different teams-OH!!!! They’re
confirming that Chad had joined Ryan’s team? That once and for all he will dance. He is not a lowly heterosexual Patrick Swayze type dancer.
He is a homosexual or bisexual man of culture. I’m just saying it’s a little… unexpected. Chad
isn’t sitting with his gf and Ryan isn’t trying to make friends with anyone else. They’re sitting
there, talking together, loving ea ch other’s presence. Chad playfully hits Ryan’s head as if
they were two highschool kids with a crush. Wait. They got away with it I can’t believe it, but it’s true. Chad and
Ryan are probably in love. When people sent this me this thing I thought it was gonna be some weird
one off scene but instead it’s the culmination of a franchise long metaphor and the subtle codings
of a gay director who just wanted to be seen. The gay metaphor.
The gay man. The gay repression. The bi man! The gay acceptance.
The gay coming out. The gay love. And while we have a mountain of evidence
larger than Everest, I still have to ask, were Chad and Ryan gay? Were they meant to star
in their own musical? When is Chad gonna tell his girlfriend he’s in a committed relationship?
What song will Ryan sing at his coming out party? Are they gay, bi, pan, trans, ace,
or something else entirely? You Decide.
