North Americans have recently had the opportunity to see a TV show called "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy". In a nutshell, the premise is that five gay guys do a "makeover" on a straight male redoing his house, revamping his wardrobe, getting him a little culture cleaning up his personal looks.

So the question I'd pose here is: Is this actually a positive image for the gay community? Or does it feed into the stereotype that gay men are all about looks & fashion and not much else?

With this "reality" show, gays are now one more group with a little more exposure in the otherwise white-washed straight world of television and not simply used as 'oddity interest' or a minor joke or the depraved villain that the extremely rare gay character would have been used for in the past. But is it really "real"?

Or should we accept, to a degree, that this really IS one aspect of gay culture, with the understanding - or perhaps simply the hope - that we're going to be seeing a wider range of characteristics develop now that, with the plastic Will & Grace crew and this fashion-savvy gay gang, we seem to be making headway into everyday mainstream media?

Are the Queer Eye guys acceptable to you as the representatives, even in this rather early stage of gay exposure, for gays & lesbians in general?

What are your thoughts?