Monday, April 7, 2014

Queer Representation

All of these articles were very interesting to read about. I agree that there is misrepresentation of the LGBTQ community in media. Even though there are more "queer" characters in shows and movies, there isn't a clear or fair representation of all walks of life of the members of the LGBTQ and that image can be misleading and stereotypical. What you see most of the time are white, upper middle class gay or lesbians who are extremely attractive, flamboyant or sassy. The problem is, is that the writers of the shows are probably straight and they dictate how the character acts on screen and this is where the stereotypes come into play. The media is concerned about making a profit, so they have to be able to sell it, but what is shown on screen isn't real life. there are many poor, homeless, middle class, lower middle class, white , black, asian, the list goes on.

Another thing that happens in media with LGBTQ community, lesbians especially, is over hyper sexualization. usually when a LGBTQ character is in a show they are never in the same relationship for long or jump around to different partners. Speaking from personal experience when watching shows i don't think iv ever seen an extremely provocative sex scene between two men, but i definitely have seen lesbian sex scenes more often in TV shows. This is because lesbians have become some thing for straight men to fantasize over (They don't want you guys, get over it). I also think the reason behind the scarce amounts of sex scenes between men comes back to our societies value of masculinity and if a show has a scene like that there is a risk it could backfire. Also, there are straight people playing homosexual roles in the media and thats just another reason there is a whole population of people being misrepresented. The casting director really couldn't find some LGBTQ actor for the role? but even if they did find one, they would still probably be directed to act in a stereotypical manner versus a normal human being. You can't see someones sexuality, so the media and even everyday people, use stereotypes to label a person gay, straight, bi, ect.

* My question for class would have to be if anyone else noticed the difference in representation of sex scenes for gay men versus lesbians? or am i just not watching enough shows? haha

4 comments:

  1. there are definitely very few sex scenes involving gay men, actually i never even really see a kiss between men on tv, but when it comes to lesbians, they are thrown into the mix whenever possible. it is just more visually appealing and more of a money maker. this is very sad but true.

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  2. I agree that there isn't a fair representation of all walks of life of the members of the LGBTQ and that the images can be seen as stereotypical... just as there isn't a fair rep. of anything when you think about it.. those of different race, class, gender.. I mentioned in my post that it can almost be impossible for there to be one representation of somebody since EVERYBODY is different!!

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  3. SO true about the lesbian sex scenes! The women are always super sexy that it doesn't seem like they are even lesbians. Hopefully with time these companies get more input. I love your pic about! Hate is not natural!



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  4. I have definitely seen these misrepresentations- you're not wrong! And thank you for what you said: "You can't see someones sexuality..." You're SO RIGHT, you can't see someones sexuality, so why do we stereotype them? My boyfriend is constantly made fun of for "looking gay" because he cares a lot about fashion and wears tight pants...

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