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.
Gay Table Commercial in No Particular Order
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”
Feature Date
- November 2, 2024
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Copyright © 2024 by Tyler Raso.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.

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.

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