It Aint Easy Being Bisexual On TV By Amy Zimmerman

Representation in media is hugely important as it influences, both consciously and subconsciously, culture and society. Gender representation is especially important in this day and age because more and more media is being consumed by younger audiences. In G-rated animated movies and televisions shows targeted for young girls, the female characters are hyper-sexualized and, 9 out of 10 times, their stories revolve around finding a man to love them, facilitating our cultures obsession with heteronormativity. Boys are encouraged to watch male dominated action movies, full of violence, sexy, scantily-clad women, and heteronormative, hyper-masculine stereotypes. Boys who are interested in any media designated “for girls” is seen as less masculine and may face bullies and pressure from all walks of life, at home and in school. Society begins teaching boys and girls how to gender immediately, what is appropriate, tolerated, encouraged, and what is unacceptable. As we grow up our media becomes more violent, more sexualized, and even more gendered. I will be exploring gender representation in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls, and The 100, discussing the problematic and the progressive representations of gender, starting with Gilmore Girls.

Firstly, Amy used real- life examples of bisexual and gay actors/ actresses to prove her point, however, her examples not only proved to be biased, but also geared to the wrong audience. in paragraph four of her argument, she states a decrease in LGBT actors/actresses and supports this with a report

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.

When analyzing both the documentary and the mainstream film, one must first determine some of the important facets in gay cinema. Images about gay people seem to be more varied and recognizant of homosexuality though they may obscure other stereotypes or sectors of the LGBT community (Filaire 11). This is something both films may do in the end, since bisexuals or transgender are not present, but it serves as a

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.

Despite all of the progress that society has made in the treatment of minority sexualities, it still often presents stereotypes and reinforces homophobic concepts. This can lead to a plethora of issues for the LGB community. Non-heterosexual youth face more severe issues than their straight peers concerning their health and safety. Media consumers have an obligation to demand that media includes well-developed LGB characters, normalizing same-gender attraction and will lead to a more welcoming society more quickly than if consumers allow the status quo to remain, to the detriment of LGB people across the country.

Tristan Booth’s The Stability of Gay Identity Confronts the Liminality of Trans Embodiment explores the series, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, to inform its audiences on a subject matter that is socially misunderstood, and to confront a liminal social personality that was not naturally familiarized within the norm of the Queer Eye formation. Queer Eye has always given lifestyle advice that could be used by its television viewers. Although the Fab Five’s recommendations are distributed to certain make-over subjects, audiences can also benefit from their guidelines on home decorating, cooking and personal grooming (Booth, 411). Unlike Queer Eye’s typical “straight guy”, Miles Goff was neither “straight” nor a regularly birth “male”. Per se, he lacked the social freedom enjoyed by the great majority of makeover subjects and this information could not help but only effect the performance of the Fab Five. Transsexuals live in a liminal position essentially at odds with hegemonic patterns of sex, gender and sexuality, as a consequence outcomes ranging from worriedness to anger have often led to discrimination and violence. The final solution proposed by queer theory would be a paradigm shift away from these strict, hegemonic arrangements (Booth,

Chapter 18 was complex on all measures and for some reason it was hard for me to deconstruct what it was they were trying to say. What I have concluded is that the once leftfield concepts of the queer lifestyle are now being embraced and used in mainstream films. I also concluded from the chapter that Hollywood is embracing this idea of escapism and fantasy by opening avenues that combat the heterosexual hegemony.

This study fits our research very well. In this research is explained how media deals with gender, diversity. This fits our research topic very well since in our topic we are eager to find out what the diversity is in different kind of movies and why and how in some movies there is lack of diversity. The book sets out to establish what messages the media suggests to contemporary audiences about gender, and what the impact of those messages might be. Media and communications are a central element of the modern life, whilst gender and sexuality remain at the core of how we think about our identities.

In “The Sexy Issue: Visual Expressions of Heteronormativity and Gender Identities in Cosmopolitan Magazine” by Michael J. Saraceno and Rachel B. Tambling (2013), a study comparing images found in magazines found a significant bias towards heterosexual depictions over homosexual ones. Non-heterosexual images were much less prevalent than expected. When non-heterosexual imagery is displayed, it’s displayed in a condescending manner - e.g., a woman kissing another woman as the magazine article criticizes her behaviour. Magazines also display men and women in heteronormative-matching roles, as either masculine or feminine. Movies, another component of mass media in the United States, also heavily promote heteronormative

There are approximately 9 million people living in the United States who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Of the 126 film releases by major studios (20th Century Fox, Lionsgate Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sony Columbia, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Brothers, as well as films released by four major subsidiary studios) in 2015, only 22 of them contained characters who identified as LGBT. In other words, 82.5% of major studio releases failed to represent any of the LGBT U.S. population. The exclusion and/or marginalization of “the Other” has been the main focus over the course of this semester through various films and studies, showing an often one-sided narrative of “the Other”. We find at times, our films relying on stereotypes, which further the separation of minorities from a ruling white heteronormative society. Acknowledging film as a medium for socialization, it is important to monitor what is being constructed and how that is influencing how society views and thinks about a certain “subject”. I want to address the lack of representation of the LGBT community onscreen, but more specifically, the way in which the act of “gay sex” is constructed for its audience. For the purposes of this paper, I use the tv-show turned film Looking, because it is the most recent look into gay sex onscreen, to examine the messages it leaves behind. My hope, is to reflect upon these messages, and more deeply, delve into what

If the existence of the gender code myth is not scary enough then having media outlets projecting that myth in a hegemonic manner should do the job. In regards to that, “the images that are shaping our own senses of gender identity are playing now at a theater near you…What are you being told about you sexual identity? What stars are you supposed to emulate?...What does a ‘real man’ look like on screen? How about a ‘real woman’?” (412) as Maasik argues. With the varieties of movies and TV shows that normalizes these gender codes, “Friends” is a prime example for that. In this response, I will discuss Ross’s reactionary behaviors towards his girlfriends and son how they are justified and excused due to the major effect of gender codes and assumptions.

In this chapter, I compare and contrast representations of gender and motherhood in two pop culture sites—the film The Kids Are All Right, the television series The Fosters. My intention is to examine representations of gender and motherhood and uncover these discourses affect lesbian parents and lesbians more broadly. The following sections divide into individual discussions of each cultural text to reveal the cogs within each site. I then compare and contrast both texts to investigate the tensions between both productions and how the discourses thematically collude. Finally, this comparative analysis considers who is harmed and who benefits from the disciplinary discourses of gender and motherhood these productions

This essay will explore studies by Van Damme and Biltereys, Meyer and Wood and Haslop. Each of these three studies uses qualitative research, such as focus groups or interviews, to determine how sexuality and its hegemonic discourse plays a role in identity construction for media audiences. Discourse has previously been defined as a “…form of power that circulates in the social field and can attach to strategies of domination as well as those of resistance” (Diamond and Quinby 185). I aim to substantiate this claim by illustrating

Scandal is just one of the recent shows featuring gay characters and themes. Slowly, television and motion picture movie films are striving to be inclusive. Gay characters on prime- time shows and in top rated, popular films are trying to generally become the norm rather than just the exception, whether as regular characters, or occasional ones. As the world is becoming interconnected and as globalization is at its full peek, people are increasingly being influenced by mass media and popular culture. While society is changing through each decade, so has the media’s portrayal of the LGBT—gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer—community. But, do these depictions truly reflect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer reality? And are these