Unit 5: Subject Specialist Investigation
2018 saw record growth in LGBTQ roles on television
In this article I found some interesting information about how the LGBTQ+ community is represented and sometimes misrepresented. The first bit of information that interested me is that the amount of LGBTQ+ series regulars has increased by 8.8% for broadcast TV, GLAAD counted 26 trans characters on TV which is 9 more than last year. A large portion of this progression is from Ryan Murphy’s show Pose which features five new trans characters.
In GLAAD’s study they say that Netflix is still the leading media format for diverse representation of their LGBTQ characters, massively beating out other subscription based streaming services Amazon Prime and Hulu.
A content analysis of LGBT representation on broadcast and streaming television
In a study published in 2006 by Amber Raley and Jennifer Lucas they aimed to understand how the representation of the LGBT community has changed since 2001 and how representation on streaming platforms differs from broadcasted shows. During this time of their study they found out that suggest that representation of bisexual and transgender characters has increased since 2001 and the LGBT characters are being portrayed making displays of affection more than was seen in 2001. The analysis also shows that the representation of bisexual and transgender characters is still lagging far behind the usual lesbian and gay male characters in some ways, overall there is still more LGBT representation on streaming platforms than on any broadcast television.
When asked about same-sex marriage in an interview (in 2015), Vice President Joe Biden stated that “I think Will & Grace probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody’s ever done so far”.
The Hollywood Production Code established and used from 1930 to 1968 and the code of practices for Television Broadcasters that was used from 1952 to 1983, both simply prohibited any depictions of homosexuality. Some early depictions were mainly of victims of violence or drag queens. In the (19)70’s and 80’s, some shows began to show gay characters in a more positive way however, only for one-off episodes (meaning no recurring character). In this way the character’s homosexuality was often presented as the main storyline or problem of the episode rather than a defining quality of that specific character, and that story within the episode was primarily based on how it may or may not have affected the heterosexual characters.
Why LGBT Representation Is Important In Media
When the community gets positive representation, it helps to remove any negative stigma that may be surrounding the LGBT community. It may also help those that are a part of the LGBT community to feel more comfortable about coming out about who they are and not feel ridiculed. This can avoided by always having someone to talk to and within the media there are many role models for those that feel they might be ridiculed although in some aspects representation can be seen as a selling point and not as an important plot point.
In broadcast television, of the 901 regular characters set to appear on scripted broadcast primetime programming 58 or 6.4% were identified as being either gay, lesbian, bisexual, and or transgender. This is the highest percentage that GLAAD has found in, there was also an additional 28 recurring LGBT characters. For cable television, the number of series regular LGBT characters that were used on scripted primetime cable increased to 103, and recurring characters increased to 70, adding up to 173 characters. On streaming services there was 51 LGBTQ series regulars appearing in scripted series on the popular streaming services Amazon, Hulu and Netflix as well as having 19 recurring characters.
Bisexual+ characters help make up the 28% of the LGBTQ characters that was tracked across all platforms, which is a slight increase to what it was previous. These bisexual+ characters are still heavily women than men (75 to 18 respectively). For results relating to transgender characters it was found that 17 were either recurring or series regulars and of this 17, nine were trans women, four are trans men and four were non-binary. For the first time Asexual characters have been represented with one character being found on cable and streaming each but non on broadcast yet, however moving forward GLAAD would like this representation to increase as asexuality is somewhat invisible regarding representation in media.
As far as women go regarding representation of characters 43% are series regulars on broadcast primetime television, which is a decrease but only by a small amount. However, women are still hugely underrepresented with the U.S. population estimated at being 51% women. Of the 901 series regulars that were noted, around 40% or 356 of them are people of colour which is an increase, while percentages of LGBTQ people of colour on broadcast and on streaming services has significantly fallen.
Media Portrayal of LGBT people
The medias portray of the LGBT often varies depending on which portion of the media sector is being mentioned at the time, the whole acronym of LGBT is most commonly used throughout North America and many other English-speaking countries.
Between 1947 and 1950, 1,700 federal job applications were denied, 4,380 people were discharged from the military, and 420 were fired from their government jobs for being suspected homosexuals. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and many police departments kept some lists of known homosexuals, their favoured establishments, and friends; the U.S. Post Office kept track of addresses where material pertaining to homosexuality was mailed.
Media Representations of the LGBT Community and Stereotypes’ Homophobic Reinforcement
Homophobes may have perceived that gays are immoral, are evil, are impractical to have, based on what is seen on television and film. Moving images (such as tv and film) have been proven to be effective carriers of ideology, especially if it hits mainstream. This becomes problematic because these representations may cloud some judgement, reinforcing the irrational behaviour towards the LGBT community.
Media Coverage and Social Changes: Examining Valence of Portrayal of the LGBT Community from 2000 to 2014 in Two U.S. Magazines
In 1997, one of the most successful talk show hosts (at the time) Ellen DeGeneres first came out as lesbian in one episode of the comedy show “Ellen”. For many young members of the LGBT community often search for resources that could help educate them on their burgeoning sexuality. The media does play an effective role in teaching many individuals about sexuality and sexual behaviour, so looking at exactly what young LGBT members might be learning about themselves from the media has some merits.
Focus Group Founding's
For my focus study on the representation of the LGBTQ+ community in media specifically TV, I found out some interesting details and would like to share them. The way that I began my study was to first introduce the topic of discussion, that being how the LGBTQ+ community is represented in the media and if more work needs to be done to make the whole community more inclusive. When I started this study there were a few rules put in place, the first of these being there are no right or wrong answers but differing opinions. Another important rule is that there will be no arguments and not need to agree with others but others opinions and views must be respected.
In this study I asked the follow questions to around 5 people because I felt it would be easier to get responses that will fit well with my survey that I also produced and share with multiple people to get their opinions on the LGBTQ+ community in media. The first of the questions I asked was how old the people answering were, with most of the answers coming in at 16-18, then a few answered 19-21. The second question that I asked was what do they identify as, most responses were female and an equal amount saying male and prefer not to say.
The third question that I asked was if they were a part of the LGBTQ+ community, the majority answered say no with some saying yes, the next question is a two-parter the first part being if they are aware of the representation in media the overwhelming majority result was yes, the second part of that question was “If yes what kind of things are you proud of”? Some answers were saying the awareness that people have towards the LGBTQ+ community, one said the development of LGBT characters in mainstream media and another said how much more it is accepted and talked about and how it’s a lot more popular.
Harvard Reference
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