Sexual Orientation in the Media
"In a hundred years of movies, homosexuality has only rarely been depicted on the screen. When it did appear, it was there as something to laugh at—or something to pity—or even something to fear. These were fleeting images, but they were unforgettable, and they left a lasting legacy. Hollywood, that great maker of myths, taught straight people what to think about gay people … and gay people what to think about themselves."
-Vito Russo
Larry Gross and George Gerbner are two media educators that argue media participates in the “symbolic annihilation” of gays and lesbians by stereotyping them in negative ways. This can be seen by the flamboyant characters or dangerous psychopaths that lesbians and gays tend to play in media. In the small amount of roles they do receive, gays and lesbians are rarely portrayed realistically, if at all. Gross and Gerbner also argue that because the mass media limits the opportunity of representing diverse characters, networks and film companies tend to shy away from portraying gays and lesbians in fear of offending their audiences.
Representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people have become more acceptable in today’s society, but it has not always been this way. They are still underrepresented in media although it is significantly better than in previous decades. In the early Hollywood years, if you were homosexual you were ridiculed, laughed at, and usually given the role of a wimp. This role reassured the audience that homosexuality wasn’t threatening. From the 1930s to the 1950s, films could not feature openly gay characters because many women’s and religious groups criticized films for contributing to immorality. Because of this, if film makers did want to have a gay character, it had to be hinted at through their actions and behaviors. Years after this in the 1960s and 1970s, the gay rights movement started up. Homosexuals became more visible in everyday life; however their roles in films became even more demeaning with representations as dangerous, psycho, or violent. Today, we know that portrayal of gay and lesbian characters has become more acceptable, but only if the audience can actually enjoy the films and television shows.
Besides film, made-for-television movies and television shows are other forms of media that are common to see portrayals of homosexuals. Just like Hollywood films, made-for-television movies featuring a gay character in a prominent role were still something a majority of people felt uncomfortable watching, so compromises had to be made in order to air these movies. These compromises made sure the story was told within a popular television genre, such as crime or drama; the story focused on the straight character and his interactions with gay characters, not focused on the gay character’s interactions with straight characters; and the movie couldn’t have any romantic scenes between characters of the same sex. These restrictions helped to create movies that were acceptable to the general public, as well as the gay community.
After seeing that made-for-television movies were accepted by a variety of people, television show producers were less hesitant to feature gay characters, like the show Will & Grace or Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Although they rarely discussed gay relationships or romance between same sex couples, they were able to stay on the air for their entertainment purpose which was generating profits for advertisers.
Progress of media’s depictions of gays and lesbians can also be seen through gay-positive advertising and marketing. They are typically shown shopping together or in family-like settings, or on the more erotic end of the scale, posing in a sexual manner for clothing and accessory companies. One of the first companies to target gay consumers with their gay-positive ads was in 1994 when IKEA aired a commercial showing a gay couple shopping for house wares. After realizing how large of a market the gay and lesbian community actually serves as, many other companies followed in IKEA’s footsteps, targeting these people. Some critics argue if including gays and lesbians is actually increasing the social acceptance of these people, or if companies are merely using them for accessing a new market of consumers. Either way, the increase in positive gay and lesbian representations in media shows improvement in including them, and thinking about them as part of our society.
In conclusion, typically LGBT persons have been stereotyped in media to be either ridiculed or feared. Thanks to the slow integration of homosexuals into our media over many decades, we have started to see them as real people and stopped dehumanizing them. We still have a long way to go until all representations are realistic, but we are on the right track and will only get it right when we start incorporating them more into our everyday media.