Performative queer theory challenges the flow of power through counter-hegemonic narratives of where queer people are situated in hierarchical relationships. This is a way to reverse, erase, and perform a critical inversion of the “heterocentric closure” of the resolution.

Richard Schechner tells us that performativity "points to a variety of topics, among them the construction of social reality, including gender and race" (110). Marvin Carlson further suggests that "(p]erformance can work within society precisely to undermine tradition to provide a site for the exploration of fresh and alternative structures and patterns of behavior" (15). Consequently, the performances are discussed here for their potential to reinvent and reformulate identity constructs. In order to evaluate this performative/ transgressive potential, Mikhail Bakhtin's idea of the carnival and Michel Foucault's ideas on discursive power must be foregrounded. The Bakhtinian carnival often involves identifying binary oppositions and inverting their hierarchical relationship. This may be evident in the representation of homosexuals as dominant providers (as occurs with Richard Hatch) or as romantic partners (as is evident with James Getzlaff): this practice inverts the alleged natural sexual order. In this context, the gay male is no longer a lone subject (of derision or enter-tainment); he plays a central role in the development and resolution of the narrative. In their analysis of the Bakhtinian carnival, Peter Stally-brass and Allon White have acknowledged the potential to shift "the very terms of the system itself by erasing and interrogating the relationships which constitute it" (58). The removal of traditional power bases which form cultural hegemony (such as the dominant role of the heterosexual male) may result in "a potent, populist, critical inversion of official worlds and hierarchies" (7). Reality television retains a great deal of "car-nivalesque potential" in the replacement of the heterosexual with the homosexual as the central impetus behind the narrative action. The narrative and the discursive performativity of gay cast members challenge established sites of power. This may be possible if we consider Michel Foucault's postulate that power is "everywhere; not because it embraces everything, but because it comes from everywhere" (93). Foucault proposes that power can be fluid, a dynamic interaction between individuals, organizations, and hierarchies, as well as a source of resistance. Although the texts discussed here may be termed mainstream, the inclusion of gay performers generates the potential for resistance. Such opportunities may be created through the alliances between gay performers and producers or other cast members; relationships that challenge and overturn the idea of "heterocentric closure" • as a textual norm. In order to discuss this further, it is important to establish the textual and discursive circumstances that have contributed to the heightened visibility of gay identity within reality television. Competition oriented reality television and its romance with gay subjectivity (as illustrated in Survivor and Boy Meets Boy) is not a new development; it is further evidence of a progression initiated by The Real World.