Tales of the City

Tales of the City

Tale of the City was the original book that gave birth to Tale of the city series. It was written by Armistead Maupin, an American novelist in 1970, initially in the San Francisco chronicles. Its set was an apartment complex at Barbary Lane,  which includes the landlady, Anna Madrigal. The book looks at the juxtaposition of various segments of life and society in New York. This novel explores American cultures and the complex relationship between sex and sexuality.

At the time this novel was being written, sex and sexuality were not viewed at the same angle as we see today. Sexual diversity was there, of course, but not as open as it is now.  Maupin brought in a topic where people explored their sexuality without fear. During those times, the 1970s, it was challenging to come out and proclaim yourself as a gay or a lesbian or a bisexual. But Maupin, in what will become his signature for his novel and TV series, brought out the matter in a clear way – a way which everyone understood. In the rickety house at Barbary Lane in Francisco, with all the upheavals in the real estate market, gender identity and sexuality are brought out in an openheartedness and dedicated manner.

From the depiction of gays cruising to sex, romance, and parentage, The range of experiences documented in Tales of the City was far away out of the thinking box for popular fiction, even by the standards of San Francisco. There was a scenario when Maupin got the critics from the gay people that he had revealed so much about their so-called subculture. In his response, Maupin said that he was not only writing about the gay subculture but writing about everyone, all the people. As the novel progresses a lot of secrets about the characters are revealed, it is discovered that Anna Madrigal, who takes the tenants to be her children and brings the chosen family together at the story’s heart is transgender, a shocking discovery for the perceived mother of the family. Anna Madrigal turns out to be ‘a man’ and ‘a girl.’ In the early times, playing tans roles was something unfamiliar, or that was rarely practiced as the minority group tended to conceal their sexuality for fear of ‘not belonging’ to any gender. But since Maupin created his work on Tales of the City, this ‘not belonging’ slowly started to fade away as we can see in 1993. Dukakis won an Oscar award for playing a trans woman on PBS in 1993. This was taken as a daring act, bravery, and a turn in the acting field where people are no longer afraid of making the ‘minority groups’ roles in plays.

Today, it has reached a point where trans roles in plays and films are the norm. It has even gone a notch high to the extent of having the actors have the characteristics of their characters. For example, a trans role being played by a transgender person, themes depicting gays and lesbinianism being performed by gays and lesbians. This was totally unheard of when Maupin was writing his first novel, Tales of the City. No one could come out publicly to announce his sexuality in such a manner and be filmed for everyone to watch them across the world. But due to Maupin’s exposure to sexuality, gays, lesbians, and transgender, in his writings, people started to understand their selves and accept what they were. The public, too, or the majority, males, and females, also started having a different perspective about these minority groups. They accepted them to be equal members of society and not as social outcasts. The roles of gays, lesbians, and transgender in films and plays came to be accepted as societal normality and started being appreciated by the members of the public. These groups of people no longer needed to hide their identity anymore or feel being exposed whenever the topics regarding them were being discussed. It is no longer considered as an abnormality to belong to such groups today; rather, it is regarded as sexuality diversity.

Due to the impact brought by the novel Tales of the City and the others in the series, the Netflix series on the novels included several trans actors, like Jen Richards, who took the role of young Anna and Daniela Vega and Garcia, who plays Jake. Jake is a trans man who is coming into terms with his recent transition. These actors take the roles willingly and play them skillfully without fear of being subjected to societal misjudging, although there is still a small number among the minority groups, who are yet to come into terms with their diverse state. They still shy from the public and are always concealing their true feelings. Some gays and lesbians in the US today cannot publicly announce their sexuality because they are much concerned about what other people will think about them, instead of enjoying what nature can offer to them. It has been many years since lesbianism and gays were publicly accepted as legal, and in recent years, we have witnessed marriages between same-sex partners. This is an excellent advancement in society to accept the reality of life instead of suppressing it, giving everyone a chance to live a normal life. This should be done without fear of being victimized by anyone in the society of authority.

Tales of the City has been considered as the eye-opener of society by many people. Its actualization into a film played by real gays and lesbians brought a significant change to the community. L.A Times in one of the reviews stated that “Years from now, television may look back at PBS’ groundbreaking six-hour Tales of the City and say this is where broadcast television really grew up, where mainstream viewers finally welcomed diverse sexual behavior — straight, gay, young and old — in TV drama.” And indeed, Tales of the City was the catalyst for change in society, not only in the US but also across many countries across the world, especially in Europe. Maupin’s plot was likened to ‘unflinching adult version of Melrose Place’  by Critic Ray Loynd who praised the series for its depiction of homosexuality activity as refreshingly free of doom and gloom.

Despite Tales of City having enlightened people on sexual diversity, PBS faced funding threats for involvement in the series and as a result, declined taking part in the following two series based on Maupin’s second and third book, which was later produced by Showtime in 1998 and 2001. Maupin once told The Post that Tales of the City paved the way for many things on the televisions. He said that people started to realize that they were also beautiful in the art context. And to his own accord, he thought that it was his most significant contribution to the world, and his greatest achievement too. Today the original characters of the Tales of the City can brag of their perspective they brought to new series and also having witnessed their city change and with it the turning point of the world’s perception of sexual diversification.

In the novel, Maupin did not forget to include the differences among the homosexuals, which was so great during the time he was writing his book. Characters Ben and Michael could not cross the generation gap that divided gays who lived through the worst days of the HIV crisis and those who came after. This is seen in a painful scene while at a dinner table when Ben, who Michael’s friend suggested that they should use a more respectable language. He is met with a rebuke from an older gay man who claims that Ben is ungrateful for the work the former generation did for him. This showed that there was a difference between the old gays who had championed for their recognition through the hard times and those young gays who never found a lot of criticism from society.

In the series, modest utopian, in its optimism, showed that people of goodwill could overcome the ideological conflicts and navigate the changing social currents with kind and an objective towards making compensation for the past mistakes. Actually, in Tales of the City, it is suggested that these qualities are the only effective things at all. The novel anticipates the argument that it takes courage, determination, and self-drive to bring a change into a society laden with people to whom change is like a hot knife cutting through their flesh. Maupin’s work on sexual diversity carried a different view on how society perceived things. The marginalization of people, according to gender, would still be going on in the US and oppressing the minority who cannot enlist large numbers enough to bring change in the constitution. These people could only express their grievances through art in a skillful way to drive their point home.

It is also not shocking that during the initial stages of Maupin’s work that the gays expressed the concern that he was overexposing them and talking about them in detail. This feeling of not wanting to be associated with what you are greatly permeated the gay community of the old times. It was as a result of failure to accept oneself due to the views of others about your state. What they failed to understand is that nature cannot be compressed even by the strictest laws. Today we have witnessed gays going through harsh experiences in countries that are yet to come into terms with sexual diversity, especially in African countries. For example, some gays have been sentenced to life imprisonment for being what they should be. It is always a great shame to dictate the sexuality of a person when it cannot be accommodated in the categories provided by the law. If it is not for Maupin’s great work and sacrifice in producing the Tales of the City, American society would still be a sexually restricted nation.

Producer Alan Poul, who worked on the Tales Series, described the Tales of the City as a complete departure from the old days and an entirely different universe with several casts to be explored. Today sexual diversity is embraced in every part of the US. We see it every day as we go through our various activities. On televisions, advertisements on gay products and events are done publicly with no fear of intimidation.  Sexual diversity has brought a great sigh of relief to society and has taught each person to be accommodative of one another. Being gay or lesbian is not a person’s choice, and neither can it be altered.

The most surprising thing is how the old days when Maupin was expressing his ideas and thoughts through his first novel, the Tales of Cities have been forgotten. The criticism of those times has wholly erased from the people’s thinking, and Maupin is now taken as a hero who, through his work, fought for sexual diversity and the rights of the minority. It was difficult for someone to associate themselves with gays or lesbians, the thought of a boy having a boyfriend was totally insane, but today we live with them in a peaceful society brainwashed by change and time. We live with them, go to school together, work together, all in a collective unity and acceptance.

In conclusion, sexual diversity has brought a significant change in society. The cohesion we have today is a result of the effort of people who went through great difficulties to bring diversity into existence. People like Maupin had to receive all kinds of dirty words and rebuking for publicly talking about something that the society perceived unethical. The results of those efforts can be seen all over the country, a diverse society where your sex or sexuality does not define who you are.