#or subtextual

So, in ‘This Had Better Come To A Stop’ Marvin sings the line “that’s what pretty boys should do”, and I’ve always interpreted this as another example of Marvin thrusting Whizzer into an unrealistic role. We all know Marvin treats Whizzer like the woman of the relationship, expecting him to cook, clean, serve him, and be generally feminine. However, Marvin also puts Whizzer in the category of ‘pretty boy’ in addition to ‘woman’.

Whizzer is, in many ways, more traditionally masculine than Marvin. He knows more about and is good at sports, he’s tall, he’s what one might call a ‘player’. Especially how Stephen Bogardus plays Whizzer in the OBC, he is not a stereotypically gay man. This, obviously, is not okay in Marvin’s eyes. He sees his own failings of masculinity through Whizzer’s performance of it, and this makes him incredibly insecure, so he forces Whizzer to be ‘the feminine one’. The gay one. The pretty boy. The twink.

So, when Marvin calls Whizzer a pretty boy, that is a slight against him, that’s Marvin trying to force this idea of a ‘small, feminine, non-athletic lover’ onto him because it makes him ‘the man’ in the relationship. Nearly everything Marvin does that hurts those around him is not done because he hates them, but because he hates himself (that’s a whole other point but anyway). So, Marvin calls Whizzer a pretty boy because it’s everything Whizzer isn’t and Marvin can never accept being the less masculine of the pair.

This analysis is running on a correlation between the terms ‘pretty boy’ and ‘twink’ but I think my point stands even without that.

Whizzer isn’t a twink because just like Marvin is trying to force him into being ‘the woman’ he’s making him take on an effeminate, not traditionally masculine role.