Glee Representation

The inaccurate or lacking representations of LGBTQ people in media results in misconceptions about the community. Media, such as literature, television, and music, particularly those targeted towards middle

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.

Connor Manning addresses some of the more common stereotypes bisexuals experience such as people not accepting your sexuality unless you have had sexual experiences with multiple genders, that bisexuals are more likely to cheat on a partner, bisexuals are greedy, that sexuality is black and white between homosexuality and heterosexuality (Manning). Within media representation of bisexuals is scarce. When there are bisexuals in media, writers often either rely heavily on stereotypes instead of developing an interesting and complex character, like Alice in The L Word (Schrag and Dabis), or they use bisexuality as a plot point and gloss over it for the rest of the show, like Reagan in New Girl (Meriwether). If bisexuals were portrayed more

Amy Zimmerman's position on the difficulties of bisexuality on TV presents an intriguing argument. However, Her use of pathos and ethos were rendered ineffective because of her select choice of audience and use of real-life examples.

Although, we have improved in our acceptance many still target such individuals who sexual orientation differs. It is alarming when looking at the advertisements and media in today’s society and how they depict women and gay individuals. Women for instance are often depicted in the media as objects of men’s desires and treated as so on television broadcasts. Gay individuals are depicted in a comical way which is degrading. Another alarming factor that went unmentioned in the documentary is the age of many girls in the advertisements.

Throughout the article Zimmerman uses television shows such as House of Cards and Game of Thrones to show examples of how media portrays bisexual men. Zimmerman found that in both shows the bisexual actors were muscular men with toned abs, and that these characters were limited in their roles. Zimmerman

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

In the current society that we live in, there are many things that help shape our perception of sexual identity. In the discussion with the class, there was a consensus that family, media, religion were the major influencers on how we develop our sexual identities and how we view other’s sexual identity. From childhood, most of us are shaped by the view of our parents and often follow the same principles and views at them. Though many people usually divert from this thought process, it still serves as a foundation for our future views and principles, whether we agree with our parents or not. Going through our individual groups discussions, many people in my group felt that a large part of their perception about the LGBT community came from the media and how the community was portrayed in the media. We discussed that in our childhoods we were often presented with gay characters that were often very flamboyant, feminine

Hayward (2000, p. 309) There are also numerous instances where a queer portrayal have gone publicly on television and has made a television history. The post-structural theory that presents strict categorical views on gender and sexuality. Base to Staiger (2005, p. 103) Slash fiction describes same-sex relationships between male protagonists in some textual world. But it seems female same-sex sexual behavior is more common than male, possibly because heterosexual men are more likely to feel threatened by gay men than lesbian women.

On the same cable networks that act as the home for gay and lesbian television series, America finds its new woman for the new millenium: she’s smart, independent, gainfully employed, sexually confident, and, usually, she’s single. Television finally has room for a woman to fly on her own, without her minivan, Cub Scout den-mother meetings, or workaholic husband to feed and clean up after. The prime example for TV’s new “wonder woman,” is found in the four women of HBO’s Emmy Award winning series, “Sex & The City.” These

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).

For most shows, the LGBTQ characters either a) get written off, or b) fall into heteronormative gender ideals. When a writer does decide to add a queer character seen beyond the use of the “one time experiment” episode, these queer storylines that end up formulaic and lacking substance (Kessler, p.1). These queer characters are usually depicted as either Lesbian or Gay, thus leaving the Bisexual and Transgender characters much harder to come by. In most situations characters and audiences react to bisexual characters just as Erica Hahn did with Callie in season 5 when she said, “you can’t ‘kind of’ be a lesbian.” (GREY’S ANATOMY SEASON 5 EPISODE 7). These were some of the last words that doctor Erica ever said on the show. Ironically this was

From the new part 2 of season 2 trailer there has been a lot of criticism of bisexual erasure on the show. The

Television has come a fairly long way since then, and there are multiple other bisexual women on TV — Bo in Lost Girl, Callie from Grey’s, Brittany from Glee, Delphine from Orphan Black, and more — who we see in real relationships with other women, relationships that aren’t portrayed as a phase even if they don’t end up lasting forever. It’s pretty cool in and of itself that The 100 isn’t the boat that all of our bisexual representation hopes are riding in together. Clarke is a unique kind of protagonist in that her choices have consistently been shown to be rigidly controlled; every decision she makes on the show is ratified by strict standards of rational necessity, moral righteousness, or both. In fact, at some points it seems almost like

Bisexual people may be men, women, transgender, or genderqueer. They may be monogamous or abstinent or may have multiple sexual partners, just like heterosexual and lesbian and gay people. Many people are bisexual and bisexuality cuts across distinctions of race/ethnicity, gender identity, age, class, ability, and religious affiliation.