The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
"How TV Brought Gay People Into Our Homes"
TOoP/Bruce:
The interesting development here is the interweaving of gay characters into storylines where being gay isn't their sole defining purpose in the story. By embedding diverse gay character types in shows like Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters, Glee, True Blood, Grey's Anatomy, Modern Family, Law and Order, etc., being gay becomes an ordinary and visible lifestyle, and being gay has a place in the fabric of the perceived social fabric for viewers.
milomorris:
--- Quote from: TOoP/Bruce on July 20, 2012, 09:48:09 am ---The interesting development here is the interweaving of gay characters into storylines where being gay isn't their sole defining purpose in the story. By embedding diverse gay character types in shows like Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters, Glee, True Blood, Grey's Anatomy, Modern Family, Law and Order, etc., being gay becomes an ordinary and visible lifestyle, and being gay has a place in the fabric of the perceived social fabric for viewers.
--- End quote ---
While I would say that this is a change in recent years, from what immediately preceded it, if look back even further, we did have characters that were integrated into the story lines. Two shows that come to mind were Soap, and Dynasty.
TOoP/Bruce:
--- Quote from: milomorris on July 20, 2012, 10:01:47 am ---While I would say that this is a change in recent years, from what immediately preceded it, if look back even further, we did have characters that were integrated into the story lines. Two shows that come to mind were Soap, and Dynasty.
--- End quote ---
You are absolutely correct in citing Soap and Dynasty as early examples. Soap had a cross/dressing gay character, and Dynasty had a son who was sometimes gay, sometimes not, sometimes a different actor entirely. In their day, they were groundbreaking examples, but with the HIV crisis, gay characters became much rarer. Often linked to HIV storylines, being gay was often linked to being infected or infectious.
Beyond BbM, the embedding of gay characters in TV storylines has a much more ordinary feel to it. Often, the characters are just gay, and the story isn't about coming out, or hiding being gay, or about dying of AIDS. They are about living life visibly and openly, and the straight characters around them accept them as they are. Being gay in this new age is not a big deal on many of these shows. It just is what it is...
Modern Family has an example of gay parents, and they are no better nor no worse than any of the straight couples on the show. That is a slow and subtle drip drip drip of progress. Celebrities now announce being gay in a very off-hand sort of way, without making it a big reveal on the front of People Magazine (Zach Quinto, NPH, Anderson Cooper, Matt Bomer...)
milomorris:
--- Quote from: TOoP/Bruce on July 20, 2012, 10:38:44 am ---You are absolutely correct in citing Soap and Dynasty as early examples. Soap had a cross/dressing gay character, and Dynasty had a son who was sometimes gay, sometimes not, sometimes a different actor entirely. In their day, they were groundbreaking examples, but with the HIV crisis, gay characters became much rarer. Often linked to HIV storylines, being gay was often linked to being infected or infectious.
Beyond BbM, the embedding of gay characters in TV storylines has a much more ordinary feel to it. Often, the characters are just gay, and the story isn't about coming out, or hiding being gay, or about dying of AIDS. They are about living life visibly and openly, and the straight characters around them accept them as they are. Being gay in this new age is not a big deal on many of these shows. It just is what it is...
Modern Family has an example of gay parents, and they are no better nor no worse than any of the straight couples on the show. That is a slow and subtle drip drip drip of progress. Celebrities now announce being gay in a very off-hand sort of way, without making it a big reveal on the front of People Magazine (Zach Quinto, NPH, Anderson Cooper, Matt Bomer...)
--- End quote ---
Agreed. What I still see though is that some of the current crop of characters are still being written in stereotypical ways, and--while accepted by the other characters around them--still have an air of "otherness" about them. Reminds me of the way some black characters were written about 20-30 years ago. They often had an "edge" that was missing from the white characters, or a "knowledge" that was beyond the white characters around them. Its like being a dish on the table among the other dishes, but not being part of the tablecloth. Nowadays, it seems like blacks have become part of the tablecloth. And I'm sure that as the "drip" continues, so will sexual minorities.
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