Gay Table Commercial in No Particular Order

Tyler Raso

after Dining Room, a 1994 IKEA commercial which was “considered the first television advertisement broadcast in the United States that openly presented a gay couple”

Eagle angle on gay men with identical haircuts eating salad with fork and knife. Sensible decor. Band-aid shade of beige. Fingernail shade of beige. Tree-inside shade of beige. Hotel wall shade of beige. Shot of gay men at dining room table, point of view flat, so that viewer believably sits in a chair that is also for sale. Dark liquors in transparent glasses confirm that these gay men are man enough. No adornment besides the shadow cast by an indoor tree, which brushes the brick wall like a price tag. This commercial bravely depicts two gay men in public wearing a suit jacket and a concrete windbreaker. Shot of uncentered gay man lifting chair in showroom with oblong cradle arms, looking from object to camera. Every object the gay men touch tan, gray, white, or out of view. Shot of gay man standing behind open cabinet, partially windowed like a neighbor. Shot of gay hand knocking on table’s edge to prove its design, gay body otherwise absent from frame, gay body otherwise immaterial. The commercial even has an element of romance. See gay man place gay hand on gay man’s gay shoulder, gay hand unlingering, gay hand wiping downward like a paper towel and unperching from gay shoulder, less than a second of contact, more shots of a silent dinner, gay man wedging a butter knife like a finger through steak, cut to blackjust before he opens his mouth.

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Headshot of Tyler Raso

Tyler Raso (they/she) is a poet, essayist, and teacher. Her work is featured or forthcoming in Electric Literature, The Offing, Black Warrior Review, DIAGRAM, Salt Hill Journal, Split Lip Magazine, and elsewhere. Previously a Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center fellow, they currently teach at Fordham University. She feels most at home near rivers, and can be found tweeting @spaghettiutopia.

Cover of Passage North Issue 45

https://www.passagesnorth.com/passagesnorthcom/2024/3/29/gay-table-commercial-in-no-particular-order-by-tyler-raso

Marquette, Michigan

Northern Michigan University

Editor-in-Chief
Jennifer A. Howard

Managing Editor
Selah Tay-Song

In their print issue, Passage North publishes a variety of short fiction, poetry, short-short stories, creative nonfiction, and visual essays. They print writings from every demographic and from all over the world, and are an accomplice to LGBTQIA+ communities, Black Lives Matter, and abolitionist movements wherever they may be found. Passages is comprised of many editors at the intersections of various communities, and strongly encourage BIPOC, disabled, economically marginalized, and queer and trans writers to submit.

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