Queer Representation in All Ages Media Growing up as a Catholic, Puerto Rican gay boy in the 90s and early 2000s, I struggled to discover my queer identity as well as queer representation in the media I consumed. Being gay was something that was never discussed. If it was brought up, it was usually in hushed tones (I remember being introduced to my uncle 's close 'friend ' each holiday) or as something negative (I still remember the sting of being called a faggot in elementary school). This reflected exactly how homosexuality was portrayed in media at the time. Queer characters and homosexuality were at best portrayed in codified, 'blink-and-you 'll-miss it ' labels and affectations, or at worst, something to laugh at, pity or even hate. As someone who still regularly watches reads comics, watches Saturday morning cartoons and plays video games, it is so exciting to discover the lengths of progress that has been made in queer representation in all ages media. In this paper I hope to detail the highs and lows of LGBTQ representation in all ages media and highlight the impact of media representation. Before celebrating the strides of queer representation in all ages media, it is important to look back at queer representation in the past. The late film scholar Vito Russo painstakingly researched the evolution of queer representation in cinema in his landmark book The Celluloid Closet. In both the book and the documentary based of the book, Russo details the
The representation of the LGBT community in the film industry has long been a topic of much debate. In her article, “It Ain’t Easy Being Bisexual on TV,” Amy Zimmerman addresses this topic with specific interest on bisexual representation. By appealing to the logic of her audience, using an informal tone, and referring to relatable content, Zimmerman constructs an argument which persuades readers of The Daily Beast that the film industry is unfairly and inaccurately representing bisexuals. However, her argument holds little influence over those who are not movie fans or The Daily Beast readers.
As the years have gone by, you can see the change of how gays and lesbians are widely seen in mostly every tv show or movie in today’s society. This is something most of our own parents didn’t even grow up seeing gays throughout the media. Living in today’s time period, you’re able to see how the influence has changed the way people see gays and lesbians. The nation has become more accepting of the gay and lesbian culture verses back in the days of when our parents and even grandparents were our age. Not only was is rare to see homosexuals on television, it was portrayed negatively, and now you can see it portrayed positively.
He adopts an ambivalent tone in order to examine the conflicting views of high school genre films. Denby’s purpose in writing this essay is to show how the overuse of these stereotypes results in few original teen films. Original movies expose their viewers to a diverse range of people and ways of thinking. Adolescents often mirror or find inspiration in the characters they see in media, so it is important to depict a variety of people in media targeted towards them. People of various sexual orientations should be represented more prominently and truthfully in media targeted towards children in order to promote acceptance and provide role models for those exploring their identity.
In their journal article of “Hetero-Romantic Love and Heterosexiness in Children's G-Rated Films,” Karin Martin and Emily Kazyak discussed how the animated Disney films as well as G-rated movies construct heterosexuality to young viewers – children, as they should not contain any of heterosexual scenes. According to the authors, young children are seemingly involved deeply in media world as it is a fruitful chapter of their sexual socialization; animated Disney films or other G-rated movies are what they are oftentimes engaged and attracted. It is always plotted as a stunning, beautiful lady waits for a brave, handsome guy to come to her life, then they would live happily ever after since the movies mark relationships between opposite sex repeatedly,
This approach to queer subtext has been has always been a part of Western media as we as we explored in the film “The Celluloid Closet” (1995). Queer representation for many years was an continuous uncategorized personification that was vaguely acknowledged but to those who understood the subtext, it became an undercurrent of complex coded information that eventually paved the way for the integration of queer identification within the hetero film storylines. Doty speaks about this and also mentions that at some point in time representation of queer culture and sexuality
The 1970s was considered the “Me Decade” because of the increasing amount of individuality that people were beginning to exhibit. Americans started discussing important issues, such as divorce and gender roles but remained silent on the subject of sexuality. One of the reasons was because television in the 20th century hardly mentioned homosexuality. The idea was considered taboo, and many Americans were not comfortable or familiar with this issue, much less talking about it. In recent decades, Americans have made tremendous progress towards the acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in just forty years because of the television programs that have introduced Americans to these types of people. Many of the individuals that belong to either one of these categories have long struggled for equality and respect, just as other minorities have in the past, and continue to do so. Although American culture is more focused on individuality than conformity in today's times, the idea of what is “normal” is still an issue for many people. However, more television programs are bringing awareness to the idea of homosexuality, which makes for the gradual acceptance of it. The increasing amount of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender characters portrayed on television programs in today’s society has helped change the views of many Americans into embracing gay individuals into their lives. People are also more accepting of same-sex relationships or marriages and are
With the media becoming the main source from which the current society gets their daily information concerning products, news stories, and entertainment, it is wise to think critically about the messages they are conveying to us. These corporations spend large sums of money every day in order to grasp our attention. The question as to whether or not they have their customer’s best interest in mind arises and leaves the public no answer but to look to the advertisements they have produced. Consider the pistachio industry using a woman with a whip to grasp the viewers’ attention. In reality, is a provocative image what it takes to sell us a simple bag of pistachios? With advertising decisions like these come negative consequences such as the
Media has always been highly influential in our society; it’s carefully constructed in order to show certain values, beliefs and messages. When viewers are exposed to topics they have little experience or knowledge in, media can especially play a large role in shaping their own opinions. It has been shown that people who know a LGBT+ person in their lives are much more likely to be supportive of same-sex marriage and the community in general. In place of that, viewing characters in film or television can adequately supplement the empathy gained from personal experience. This is exemplified by Wilson Cruz, the actor of Rickie Vasquez, a gay character on the 1994 television series My So-Called Life: “...Vasquez was the first gay person that they knew and because of the light he shed on the issue...I think people took up the cause of LGBT rights...I know for many people the only LGBT people that they know are people that they meet on their television screens or at the movie theater.” Since then, the amount of programming featuring openly gay characters has steadily increased, and with it, people are gaining a better understanding of the issues they face. As the years progress, Canada is being exposed to greater diversity: both on the television screen and within its community.
The representation of LGBTQ youth in the media is just sickening and makes many of the youth of America hate themselves, just by the way they’re portrayed. They make it seem like you’re supposed to act a certain way or be a certain way to be accepted. Or they make it seem like certain sexualities and genders do not even exist. The way media portrays everything on this topic is just completely inaccurate. The worst part of it all is the fact that a lot of people, queer or not, believe it and think that it’s a proper and accurate representation. Queer people feel pressured into acting a certain way or else they’re not really queer and straight people feel the need to force these stereotypes on those that are queer.
Throughout our readings this semester, the three best topics that I have read were chapter 18, “pretending to be post racial: the spectacularization or race in reality TV’s Survivor,” chapter 22, “educating the Simpsons: Teaching queer representation in contemporary visual media,” and chapter 50, “video games and machine dreams of domination.” These specific readings helped me learn more about various forms of diversity, including race and sexuality. These chapters presented the material well, allowing me to better identify the diversity issues that our society faces, which I was not aware of before.
Since the beginning of the Australian film industry Homosexuals have had a certain depiction made of them. One of the first ever Australian films to include the idea of homosexuality is The Set which was released in 1970 (Davidson, 2016). This movie assisted in the set up the stereotype of gays in the Australian film industry. Although, Since the 70’s the representation of the minority group of homosexuals has changed drastically in the 21st century.
Media and its representation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual (LGBT) themes has been prevalent throughout time. According to the collections of studies and stories by Meem, Mitchell and Jonathan (2010) concerning LGBT individuals, it is important to represent such themes because it is able to enlighten people on how our society as a whole, has become dynamic. The Media can be seen as a “central source” where negative perceptions can be created. As a result, stereotypes can be either created or perpetuated about this group, negative or otherwise. Media as a medium, therefore, is an extremely powerful tool in our society, and can be used to change or create people 's perceptions about this particular segment of our world (LGBT).
I chose to write this project on the movie Grease. Growing up, this was my favorite movie. I chose to write about this movie because I haven't watched it since I was a child, and wanted to look back and reflect if there was anything I hadn’t picked up when I was younger watching this movie. The movie was made in 1978 by director Randal Kleiser, and was based on high school teens in the 50’s. Since it was based in the 50’s and most of us grew up watching this famous movie, I thought that there had to be social norms and stereotypes written and performed throughout the whole movie. The movie stars the famous actor John Travolta, who was a very young and upcoming actor in the 70’s. Since this was created in the late 70’s, there was a big push for equal rights of gays and lesbians going on in the real world at this time. I thought this movie would be a great example of gender, and other social political conflicts to help shape younger kids in the way “we are supposed to be”.
The Representation of Children in the Media I am writing about how children are represented in the media, after a group investigation carried out to see how they are portrayed in different papers; local newspapers, tabloids and broadsheets. We were looking to see if newspapers showed positive or negative images of children and how they portrayed them in general.
During the hundred years of movie history, there is a startling lack of representation of gay, lesbian, and transgendered persons, and when it does appear it is often feared or laughed at. Hollywood, as a universal influencer, has