Monday, September 1, 2014

Different Shades of Gay


The way that gay men are portrayed through media, specifically television, is not only often an offensive exaggeration but also supports the American ideology that most gay men act like women. In past history, gay characters were both negatively and infrequently portrayed on television. When gay men and lesbians were represented on TV, they typically appeared as mentally unstable, or morally corrupt individuals. However, in recent years, new groundbreaking shows started to appear. In the mid-90s, a popular sitcom, Will and Grace, introduced a character who went against these common stereotypes.

Will Truman, is a different representation of a gay man than what audiences were used to. Will is a successful lawyer and a very logical thinker which began to break down those previous assumptions of the Gay community as reckless, unstable, and unable to live a moderate and professional life. Will also lives a life of routine, with little partying, and nearly no pizazz which supports the reality that gay people live an array of different lives and are not confined to one image of “gayness”.

Jack, another gay male on Will and Grace, is in many ways a perfect reflection of the stereotype of the flamboyant, fashion crazed, promiscuous gay male. I think that what makes this show revolutionary is that it shows both characters side by side, breaking down the idea that gay means one thing. Here we have one character breaking down the barriers of a stereotype and one character supporting it which reveals that both can exist together. Recently through media Americans have been given an even larger taste of what being gay can look like. Audiences can see that there is not just gay men like Jack or Will, there are many other personalities in between. Shows like Modern Family and The L Word and artists like Macklemore and Rob Halford of Judas Priest to name a small few have opened America up to the reality that being gay does not mean one fixed thing. The spectrum of what it means to be gay, straight, and everything in between is not fixed and popular culture in America is finally beginning to reflect that.

5 comments:

  1. Always love when I find another fan of Will and Grace! You're a neat one Emma ;)

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  2. That sounds like a cool show. That's definitely the way to go about representing the LGBTA community - by showing them as ACTUAL HUMAN BEINGS with actual diversity. If every single straight character in every show ever fit the stereotype of jock-ish overly masculine dudebro drinking Bud Lite and screaming at football, with his entire plotline revolving around his straightness, people would throw a fit.

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  3. I completely agree with this. Although american culture has made progress in supporting the LGBT community, the media seems to constantly associate gay males with flamboyance and sassiness and lesbians with short hair and a "guy's guy" personality. In order to be a more accepting community we cannot continue to stereotype.

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  4. It's always nice to hear about progressive lgbt characters portrayed in media, I'm really glad you wrote about this. I personally have never seen the show, but It's a really great thing to have gay/lesbian/trans/etc characters on a show. Even better if they are treated as human beings, as opposed to a funny trope.

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  5. Its unfortunate that the media represents the LGBT community in a negative way because its misrepresenting them. Its good that this show finally portrays gay people in a normal non flamboyant way

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