Clueless

"He does dress better than I do. What would I bring to the relationship?"

When I was ten, I used to watch Clueless all the time on TV. I thought it was totally awesome then, and now that I understand all the jokes, I like it even more. Besides introducing me to Jane Austen, Clueless was the first time I encountered the gay best friend archetype.

Cher, our heroine, pursues Christian, the dreamiest boy in all of Beverly Hills, using tricks straight out of Cosmo (“Sometimes you have to show a little skin. This reminds boys of being naked, and then they think of sex.”). Christian dresses like a grown-up, calls her “dollface,” listens to Billie Holiday, is knowledgeable about modern art, and brings Spartacus to movie night, and flees from Cher’s advances like a cheetah on fire. Cher is, of course, clueless about Christian’s homosexuality:

Murray: Your man Christian is a cake boy!
Cher, Dionne: A what?
Murray: He's a disco-dancing, Oscar Wilde reading, Streissand ticket holding friend of Dorothy, know what I'm saying?
Cher: Uh-uh, no way, not even!
Murray: Yes even, he's gay!
Dionne: He does like to shop, Cher. And the boy can dress.

When Cher realizes that Christian is not a viable boyfriend prospect, they become shopping buddies.

Christian fits the gay best friend movie mold pretty well. Cultured, a little bitchy, sweet to straight girls—and there’s nothing inherently wrong with having one of Cher’s many romantic mishaps involve an obviously, stereotypically, gay guy. The part that makes Christian, and characters like Christian, problematic, is that they never get a date, ever. Their love lives are never given the same attention as the straight friends in movies. Christian’s not even at the final wedding scene, where all the major characters are paired off: Cher with Josh, Dionne with Murray, Tai with Travis, and even the minor villains, Amber and Elton. There’s not any room in the movie for him actually being gay, just jokes about it.