Dan Savage

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're suddenly in this bar in Bangkok and there's this character we haven't met before who winds up unspooling this story that is insane and yet... some people's sexual journey really is that complicated. And there is a sort of fracturing of self in Frank's sexual experiences, sexual adventuring, where in some ways it's kind of beautiful.

We're suddenly in this bar in Bangkok and there's this character we haven't met before who winds up unspooling this story that is insane and yet... some people's sexual journey really is that complicated. And there is a sort of fracturing of self in Frank's sexual experiences, sexual adventuring, where in some ways it's kind of beautiful.

He talks about basically all these women that he's using, but then he sees maybe some narcissistic spark of humanity in other people because he projects himself into their experience and wishes to experience what they're experiencing.

He talks about basically all these women that he's using, but then he sees maybe some narcissistic spark of humanity in other people because he projects himself into their experience and wishes to experience what they're experiencing.

And maybe there's some crawling up your own ass redemptive arc in there because the type that the show keeps presenting to us, the losers back home, the bald middle-aged rich guys in Thailand with the hot girlfriends, it's indicting them, right? And their consumption of... the women and the people of Thailand as sex objects.

And maybe there's some crawling up your own ass redemptive arc in there because the type that the show keeps presenting to us, the losers back home, the bald middle-aged rich guys in Thailand with the hot girlfriends, it's indicting them, right? And their consumption of... the women and the people of Thailand as sex objects.

But there's something in that, in what Frank talks about where you see suddenly this not quite identification with them, but this desire to fully possess, perhaps a desire to ultimately own by claiming the experience, the lived experience, even the body of one of the people that he's having sex with and then fucking himself in that body. It's such a funhouse mirror around identity.

But there's something in that, in what Frank talks about where you see suddenly this not quite identification with them, but this desire to fully possess, perhaps a desire to ultimately own by claiming the experience, the lived experience, even the body of one of the people that he's having sex with and then fucking himself in that body. It's such a funhouse mirror around identity.

There's a lot of chatter in queer land online about what this actually means. Not whether Frank is gay, but that's certainly something that people are going, okay, well, Mike White, who understands what it is to be attracted to men, and there's sometimes this disconnect where do I want to be with this person or do I want to be this person? And that is something that gay men are very familiar with.

There's a lot of chatter in queer land online about what this actually means. Not whether Frank is gay, but that's certainly something that people are going, okay, well, Mike White, who understands what it is to be attracted to men, and there's sometimes this disconnect where do I want to be with this person or do I want to be this person? And that is something that gay men are very familiar with.

Sometimes we mistake people that we're attracted to as friends for a romantic attraction. We have to unlearn that or learn how to recognize the patterns. But there is often this desire to be the thing. That's why people talk about twin boyfriends in gay land. You want your double. You want your doppelganger. where you wanna be the thing that you desire.

Sometimes we mistake people that we're attracted to as friends for a romantic attraction. We have to unlearn that or learn how to recognize the patterns. But there is often this desire to be the thing. That's why people talk about twin boyfriends in gay land. You want your double. You want your doppelganger. where you wanna be the thing that you desire.

I listened to Mike White's interview on Andrew Sullivan's podcast where Andrew Sullivan brought up the very contested concept of autogynephilia, which is an attraction to yourself as a woman. So what exactly is going on with Frank? Who the fuck knows? But a lot of queer people saw themselves in it.

I listened to Mike White's interview on Andrew Sullivan's podcast where Andrew Sullivan brought up the very contested concept of autogynephilia, which is an attraction to yourself as a woman. So what exactly is going on with Frank? Who the fuck knows? But a lot of queer people saw themselves in it.

And a lot of people who are deeply invested in the political debate about trans issues saw AGP or autogynephilia perhaps being represented in this character's Although this character hasn't transitioned and doesn't seem to be making any plans to transition. And of course in episode seven reverts to form where he's no longer identifying with these women. Right.

And a lot of people who are deeply invested in the political debate about trans issues saw AGP or autogynephilia perhaps being represented in this character's Although this character hasn't transitioned and doesn't seem to be making any plans to transition. And of course in episode seven reverts to form where he's no longer identifying with these women. Right.

He seems to have returned to exploiting and using these women.

He seems to have returned to exploiting and using these women.