In the last year, many teen suicides related to homosexual bullying have been covered heavily on news outlets. Now more than ever there seems to be an overwhelming sympathy and awareness of just how prevalent homosexuals have become in our society. It even seems like now almost every television show out there has at least one gay character. Some find these characters to be pigeonholed into certain stereotypes/tropes and therefore not a realistic representation of the LGBT community as a whole but I quite frankly disagree. Just like the famous saying, ‘there is no such thing as bad press,’ I believe just having the presence of a gay character in a television show is a success considering it was so taboo not too many years ago.
In the article “Popular Culture and Queer Representation” it states that, “situation comedies – however realistic they might be – do not claim, like dramas, to be offering us “real life.” That lack of seriousness may allow these programs to play with themes under cover of humor where those themes be too volatile or even too didactic for another sort of audience” (Raymond, 101). This brings up a great point because there are numerous comedies out there with prominent gay characters that deal with it a comical manner therefore it never makes the audience too uncomfortable. Shows like ‘Will & Grace’ and the recent ‘Modern Family’ have leading and supporting gay characters but because the subject matter never delves too deep into the true emotions of being gay it is more accepted by viewers.
On drama television series there is less of a display of homosexuality. For instance, on the widely popular Fox television show ‘The O.C.’ leadcharacter Marissa Cooper (portrayed by Mischa Barton) began having feelings for another girl Alex (portrayed by Olivia Wilde) in the middle of the second season. Unfortunately, this relationship was ended after a few short episodes and the character Alex who had been around for a long time before that left the show along with this storyline. It soon was revealed that the head creator of the show Josh Schwartz intended for Alex to become a main character so the show could develop her bi-sexuality but the network (Fox) said no to this and made him write her character off in fear of having a lead character apart of the LGBT community. For me personally this was a serious disappointment for many reasons. The O.C. had an extremely large homosexual fan base and yet other than the short fling between Alex and Marissa there was never really a storyline dedicated to this. Additionally, Alex was one of the few characters on television to represent the bi-sexual community, which we discussed in class is due to bi-sexual characters having too much fluidity for many audiences.
Mischa Barton and Olivia Wilde in 'The OC'
Another important factor to homosexual representation in the media is the specific depictions of LGBT people. As evidenced in the Raymond article, “those rare depictions of glbt people tended both to dichotomize anyone glbt as victim or villain and to reinforce demeaning stereotypes and caricatures: gay men as effeminate and lesbians as unattractive man-haters” (Raymond, 101). This was reinforced with the screening of ‘The Celluloid Closet’ in class discussion. Specifically in many earlier films there was the gay trope of the ‘sissy’ character who was extremely effeminate and never really had much development except for being comic relief for the audience. Similarly, in many films homosexual men are either portrayed as being a victim of gay-bashing or AIDS (Philadelphia), or being villains. Take for instance the very trendy show ‘Glee.’ One of the main characters Kurt (portrayed by Chris Colfer) finds himself a victim of gay bullying this season by the school villain Karofsky. However, it is later revealed that Karofsky himself is a homosexual when he kisses Kurt in the locker room. Therefore, in one episode alone ‘Glee’ managed to show homosexuals as a victim and a villain.
Chris Colfer in 'Glee'
Overall, after reading “Popular Culture and Queer Representation” as well as the screening of ‘The Celluloid Closet’ I have definitely started to look more closely at the media and notice the structured representations of homosexuality. This has definitely had a strong impact on my own life as well because of the limited representations that we get. I have come across many individuals who truly believe AIDS is still a gay disease and that heterosexuals are not at that high of a risk. Clearly this is false and while I don’t entirely blame the media for this cliché I do find it to be a strong correlation. Additionally, I think a lot of people view homosexuals as being two things, either being an effeminate bitchy funny man or being a homophobic villain. This is very obviously in relation to the representations made by the media. While I still love any homosexual presence on a television or film nowadays, because like I said there is no such thing as bad press, I have begun to wish there would be a more rounded depiction of the LGBT community, and hopefully in the future we will.
I agree with what you've said here, because I too have felt that there has been an overcritical reaction to the growing number of the LGBT appearance on TV, and media as a whole. I feel that there are a lot of equally good representations (like Ellen), and those who are critical seem to only focus on the bad. I also find it interesting how there is such criticism of the LGBT representation, and very little about the others. I don't know if it's just because it's a "newer" thing, or if people are just more critical. However, I hope the media doesn't get stuck in portraying LGBT in just a certain way, and hopefully becomes even more prominent.
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