Recently the LA Times published an article called “A gay-friendly ‘Sesame Street’?” Jarrett Barrios, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation says, “As more and more loving and committed gay and lesbian couples begin families, it is important that their children see representations… Sesame Street has a long history of teaching children about diversity and acceptance, and I don’t expect that our community will be left out of that education (Maerz).” The exposure of gays and lesbians on mainstream television has created a sense of belonging for queer individuals, but not all denominations of the LGTBQ community are being represented.
Although Sesame Street’s vice president of corporate communications says that they are not consciously trying to appeal to gay viewers, the LGBTQ community is feeling support. Sesame Street along with other television shows have recently began to expose gay and lesbian celebrities as well as gay and lesbian characters (Maerz). The effect that this phenomenon has on the LGBTQ community is significant. For heterosexual individuals, this is an opportunity to become aware of sexual diversity, but for the LGBTQ community, this exposure is an opportunity to find community and a sense of belonging. Seeing your identity being represented makes you feel a part of a larger community. In the case of queer youth, a sense of normality is experienced when they are exposed to others who are just like them. Youth watching these television shows become more aware and accepting of the differences there are in respect to sexual orientation. Youth can learn to accept themselves and accept others. This mixture of queer and heterosexual individuals on television create a community in which both groups can get along. It is essential for queer individuals to find a community. Martin Manalansan writes about the way in which Filipino gay men attempt to “negotiate and represent their collectivity to themselves and others (Manalansan, p.280).” Manalansan also discusses the effects that racial and social class identities have on the formation of community. These different identities are not always seen in the representation of queer individuals on television. For example, Modern Family and Glee portray the gay community as dominantly white middle class males. While most queer youth benefit from the subtle and not so subtle representations of LGBTQ individuals, not everyone is being represented. On another note, to be tolerated is not the same as to be accepted. The media may play a role in the process raising awareness, but it does not necessarily fully embrace the gay and lesbian community. The LA Times article also raises another issue on whether cartoons and children television shows should portray openly gay and lesbian characters. In 2005, when Sesame Street was a part of PBS, it came under attack after featuring young people with lesbian parents (Maerz). Since 2005, people may have become more tolerant, but in my opinion trying to push for Bert and Ernie to come out of the closet and for a gay or lesbian Disney couple, is too much to ask for at the time. Small steps are being taken to get to an environment in which all sexual identities are accepted with love. In her article, Mary Gray writes bout the struggle for gay and queer individuals to find space in which to express themselves. Queer youth struggle with the same problem, except that in Gray’s article she is specifically referring to youth in rural areas. The only place that these individuals feel safe to express themselves is in a consumer setting (Gray, p.55). They are protected because they are consumers not because they are queer. That is also the case with the media. The reason that many television shows try to appeal to gay community is to make money. It is uncertain whether these big companies have sincere intentions of supporting the LGTBQ community or are simply doing whatever it takes to bring in more viewers.
Overall, the media’s portrayal of gays and lesbians is having a positive effect by raising awareness, acceptance, and a sense of belonging for the youth audience. But there are issues when it comes to who exactly is being represented and for what reasons.
References
Gray, Mary L. “From Websites to Wal-Mart: Youth, Identity Work, and Queering of Boundary Publics in Small Town, USA.” American Studies, Vol.48, No.2.
Maerz, Melissa. “A gay-friendly ‘Sesame Street’?” Los Angeles Times. 2012.
Manalasan IV,Martin. “Searching for Community: Filipino Gay Men from New York City.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. Routledge Chapman Hall, 1993. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-gay-friendly-sesame-street,0,3387719.story
In recent years, the portrayal of the LGBTQ community on television and in media has dramatically increased, and I agree with you that this trend is having a positive effect on LGBTQ communities and society as a whole by raising awareness and promoting the idea of acceptance and belonging. I believe that although television is producing more representations of gays and lesbians on television, not all members of the LGBTQ community are being represented.
ReplyDeleteWhen we typically think of a gay man we think of a white, middle to upper class, attractive man in a monogamous relationship with another white man living together in a big, metropolitan city. John Barnshaw and Lynn Letukas explain in “The Down Low,” that even in places with high racial diversity, “there is some evidence to conclude that htese areas are predominately White, and there may be some racism where Blacks and Latino gay men and other [men who have sex with men] may be less likely to feel welcome or valued, or have access to the same opportunities as Whites” (Barnshaw & Letukas 481). Even in our progressive society, it is obvious that racism within the LGBTQ community still exists, and this racism is represented in television shows and other types of media. One example you brought up is the T.V. show Modern Family, where the two gay characters are a white, monogamous, upper-middle class couple living in Los Angeles. While I think it is great that more and more gay and lesbian characters are appearing in television, I hope that a more diverse, more accurate, portrayal of the LGBTQ community will appear in the media in the near future.
Reference
Bradshaw, John., Letukas, Lynn. “The Low Down on the Down Low: Orgins, Risks, and Identification.” Health Sociology Review Vol. 19, Issue 4 December 2010.
I feel as if the numbers of LGBTQ representations in the media have grown, however, they often fail to deal with the intersectionality that most LGBTQ people also deal with. There is a definite lack of openly queer people in the hip hop industry for one, partially due to the response from the type of viewers it seeks to attract. Popular media is constantly pushing overarching themes of masculinity and male power that make certain areas in the public sphere have little to no representation of the LGBTQ community. In Thomas Almaguer’s writing on the intersectionality of Chicano men who identify as LGBTQ, it becomes clear that homophobia is not the only issue gay men have to deal with, but cultural stigmas as well. As Almaguer states, the “valorization of hypermasculinity can also be derived by penetrating passive, anal receptive men.”(77) As long as a gay man is the masculine one, he is not looked down upon. But the instant that a gay man assumes the passive role in the Chicano culture, he is allotted a slew of insults. While the media portrays LGBTQ people more often today, many openly gay celebrities are white men who have most other things in their life readily available for public acceptance. It appears as if in the media finds it easier to accept non gender conforming people who have no other traits to scare away the average American.
ReplyDeleteThomas Alamaguer "Chicano Men: A Cartography of Homosexual; Identity and Behavior" in Social Perspectives in Gay and Lesbian Studies ed. Peter M Nardi and Beth Schneider, 1998