Anything in particular makes you think he's not wildly happy to be in that role?
I can see that that's not the role he'd lined himself up for before entering the house, but now he's in, he seems quite keen to inhabit it.
I think "keen" is too strong a word here. I don't think he's unhappy but I don't think he's been jostling to position himself in that slot, which was how I read your last comment. I think that, having set himself up as "sex terrorist", taking on a parent role is a tad dadsy (if that's the male equivalent of mumsy). Sexless.
He quickly took on a consoling role (with Nikki in particular, but also Pete and Glyn). And when Nikki became upset at the prospect of Dawn leaving, Richard was quite sure-footed about declaring Lea the Mummy of the house and himself the Daddy.
Also, he was pretty quick to rally and lead the group in a united response to Shahbaz. Maybe others have just been reluctant to put themselves forward, but it's not a house of shrinking violets. I'd have thought Sezer, for one, would be keen to enlarge his alpha male displays beyond aggressive spooning. I suppose it will be interesting to see how he responds if a threat to his prevailing Daddy status presents itself.
I think it's a combination of the age-associations of "Daddy" (particularly acute for a thirtysomething gay gym bunny) and the platonic/sexless implications of taking on a parent role - which, as I say, slightly cuts across the "sex terrorist" thing. While that was always going to be an audition-tape exaggeration, I think Richard would've been happier for someone else to be paternal, leaving him to be more sexually active/aggressive. Of course, it's the lot of BB gay men to be sexually frustrated, having little or nothing by way of viable objects of desire. They're pretty much there to panic/flirt with the pretty hetboys.
And yes, I think Sezer is putting himself forward as alpha male - but alpha male doesn't necessarily map onto Big Daddy, particularly when there are gayers involved. Richard's sexual 'safety' arguably disqualifies him from alpha-maling in the way Sezer, Mikey and George are alpha-maling among themselves (ie. in competition for the desirable females).
I think that, however big his biceps, Richard's gayness prevents him from taking part in the true alpha-male dickswinging - so he occupies a curious position. For this reason, it makes sense to shunt him into the role of Big Daddy (old, parental) but I think Richard would prefer to be a sexual player within the House. |
