Gay straight or taken

Gay, Straight or Taken? puts the potential couples through familiar dating show set-ups designed to get them relaxed with each other -- yoga instruction, pool noun, a salsa lesson, etc. Each of these scenarios is awkward and hardly revealing, but, unlike some other dating shows, Gay, Straight or Taken? feels lighthearted and barely competitive: no binge drinking, no topless hot tubs, no catfights.

With its fairly original take on the dating-show concept, and one based on the day-to-day dating habits of heterosexual women all over the world, this show's premise is based on making assumptions about someone based on their appearance and actions while also being deceived -- obviously not the greatest lessons for teens. But watching an episode or two might provide a good starting signal for a discussion about assumptions and identity. And although stereotypes about gay men are certainly presented, viewers are often surprised by who actually ends up being gay -- offering a lesson in avoiding snap judgments and assumptions.

Lifetime&#;s new reality dating game disaster comes with the awkward title, Gay, Straight, or Taken? Just how awkward it is became clear in the frequent print and television advertisements leading up to the premiere, urgently asking viewers, &#;Do you have GST?&#; Why not call it what it is? The show is about gaydar, that mythical power of instant identification that gay men and some women seem to wield so naturally.

GST? presumes the existence of some such spidey-sense, or worse, some irreducible gayness marked on the body and in behavior that gives away the ghost for the straight girl who is able to read men &#;correctly.&#; Such feminine ability to interpret male orientation is of vital importance to the show&#;s assertion of the &#;difficulties&#; of heterosexual, female-targeted romances (apparently part of the empowerment message sold by Lifetime, &#;Television for Women&#;). As marketing for the display insists, GST? is &#;the dating game you already play,&#; the &#;you&#; being, presumably, restricted to heterosexually-identified single women.

In each episode, one su