Gay Characters In Mainstream Media

[JamesSavik]

On another board I ran across this question:

 

 

What do gay men think of the gay couple on "Modern Family?"

 

 

 

Which I answered:

 

I don’t think much of them. Some years ago I ran across a definition in the Urban Dictionary:

 

 

“Stepford Fags- A gay couple who are nice, sexless and nonthreatening. Typically they live in the suburbs, have an immaculate house and yard and don't scare the neighbors while they are in fact just as much a slave to heterosexual establishment as everyone else.”

 

 

I think that sums it up nicely.

The characters are sexless eunuch clowns meant to get laughs and not scare the hetero white people. While they could be actual personalities with complexity and layers, the network has written them as comic relief.

We don’t get the back story on why one is always a clown. We don’t get that he made people laugh to keep them from beating the s*** out of him every day in high school.

We don’t get the back story on why the little guy clings because he’s horribly insecure and dependent and how that came about.

We don’t see them or their friends struggling with chemical dependency which is rampant in the gay community.

Maybe presenting these characters as real complex personalities is simply beyond what Hollywood is capable or even willing to do. Gay characters will probably continue to be comic relief until someone breaks this wretched mold.

______________________________________________________________________

 

How do we break this wretched mold?

 

 

[Graeme]

Comic relief in a show that is supposed to be a comedy is to be expected. There are other characters in that show that are also mockeries of different groups.

 

I would look more at shows which have characters that happen to be gay with no obvious reason to be so. For example, the police captain in The Flash, and one of the student lawyers in How To Get Away With Murder. These sorts of characters help make gay characters mainstream.

 

For exploring what it means to be gay, I can't name any USA shows, but I know that Eastenders in the UK and The Secret Life Of Us in Australia did so more than a decade ago. That's still not common, but these types of shows do exist and can be popular.

[metajinx]

"Modern Family" is desexualized as a whole. You see exactly the same amount of sexual innuendo for the gay and the straight couples, so it's not really fair to point at one side and ask for more "background", and ignore the other. Why does Phil think so much of himself? Why is Claire in contrast to her gay brother so controlling and stiff?

The whole TV series is clownish and made for laughs, to be non-threatening to everyone.

[Emi GS]

I have to agree and at same time disagree with Jamessavik, because all the gay characters I see in my native language movies are just as comic relief.

 

And I'd again say there are some stories got picturized these days that give some value to the character and gayism itself. Protested country like India itself making some movies that are more important than the main roles, who are gay.

 

So its true that they used to make us some comedy cartoon but now-a-days, they are intending to show what is true and giving some importance for such characters too...

[Krista]

I agree with others, Modern Family, being a comedy relies on very known stereotypes for comic relief. Aside from the "goofy gay couple," you have the very stuck-up and neurotic nerd. A girl that jumps from boy to boy, knowing she can get by on her looks and not her brains. A Dad and Son combo that share the same childish qualities and likes and are completely clueless when it comes to the women in their lives. The very hot and loud younger woman to the rich older man... etc.

 

That show is just a big cluster of overused stereotypes. It takes somewhat clever writing for the show to work, which I think it does.

 

If you want better portrayal of Homosexuality in media, you shouldn't really be looking at Comedies in general. Even the newer gay comedies rely on stereotypes that overshadow the plot and writing.

 

These for the hell of it characters that Graeme mentioned are far better portrayed in the shows, but they aren't really the focus of the ensemble.

 

Television isn't there yet, where someone can be gay with a backstory that doesn't involve a crap ton of stereotypes. Also, stereotypes exist for a reason and a lot of television writers likely don't want to go out of their way to dodge all of them for the sake of their characters. There just isn't enough time and space for them to be 'that' fleshed out.

 

I don't really want to start seeing them get it right either... partly for the reason that I write. I don't see the group of gay guys that I know properly represented yet. Any good representation of a stable homosexual couple should be welcomed, stereotype heavy or not. It wasn't that long ago that gays were strictly sexually obsessed, drugged up, casual sex-only/risky sex only characters. Or.. they die a very brutal death in the end just because someone noticed they were gay... So growth is slow, but it is there. 

 

To add: I definitely do see your point and see the frustration with media portrayal. The real reason is that television typically only does what works, and keeps doing it. 

 

Oh, forgot to list some examples of shows that I know have nice representation of gay characters.

 

Hit the Floor - VH1. It is about a dance team, but two of the side characters are gay. If you can get past the dance heavy show.. the poor acting.. and the sub-par plot then those two characters are believable. - I got very bored of the show.

 

Grey's Anatomy

 

How To Get Away With Murder - mind you, I've only watched the first season.

 

Some One-Shot story lines in, NCIS, Cold Case, and some other crime dramas are some of my favorites. You would have to really research the titles to find out which ones those would be though.

 

Degrassi - if you can stand watching teenage angsty dramas.. lol. I have found that I can't stand the shows now, but I remembered liking them as a younger person/teenager.

Edited August 19, 2016 by Krista

[The Pecman]

I find the type of over-the-top gay people in Modern Family to be pretty offensive, kind of a "Steppin' Fetchit" kind of lame stereotype. I think gay people in real life run the gamut of a lot of different kinds of personalities, and I feel like they just used a cliched way to present those characters. The gay kid on The Real O'Neals -- which is a very different ABC sitcom -- is a lot closer to what I see in real life. I don't think the show is very good, but at least in terms of how a gay character is portrayed in mainstream media, it's not too bad. 

[Krista]

I find the type of over-the-top gay people in Modern Family to be pretty offensive, kind of a "Steppin' Fetchit" kind of lame stereotype. I think gay people in real life run the gamut of a lot of different kinds of personalities, and I feel like they just used a cliched way to present those characters. The gay kid on The Real O'Neals -- which is a very different ABC sitcom -- is a lot closer to what I see in real life. I don't think the show is very good, but at least in terms of how a gay character is portrayed in mainstream media, it's not too bad. 

 

I actually found him annoying in the show. I think it was the writing though, the only characters that I really liked were the Dad and older brother. The sister had her moments too, but... I don't know the Mom character and him just seemed blah. He is a different type of stereotype though, just not one used as much as the Modern Family ones. 

[spike382]

So keeping in mind portraying gay characters as normal regular people, like the example of the police captain in the Flash, does anyone else feel like sometimes these shows shoehorn in a gay couple to try to appear "hip" or "edgey" or "inclusive"? Not a character who's part of the cast who just happens to be gay, and might date somebody of sleep with them, as just naturally of occurring, but instead somebody thrown in there. "Hey look we have a homosexual. Look we included this, we're relevant and inclusive and we checked the box off."

[The Pecman]

Then again: my partner and I recently watched the 2-hour finale to the Showtime gay series Looking, about a group of gay men and women living in San Francisco, most of whom are searching for the right person to settle down with. The show was low-rated, won no major awards, and did not do well. 

 

The problem I had with the show is that it wasn't dramatic enough, the stories were so true-to-life that they lacked a lot of passion and conflict, and they were... well... boring. My idea of a far more entertaining show was Queer as Folk, which (though it was on 15 years ago) had a lot more drama and held my interest a lot more thoroughly. No question, QAF was occasionally over-the-top and nutty, but by god, it was never boring. 

 

I don't dispute that the types of gay characters depicted on Looking are more like the people I know in real life, but they weren't telling me the kinds of stories I want to see as entertainment. So the gay characters were fine... the plots and stories, not so much. 

[Headstall]

So keeping in mind portraying gay characters as normal regular people, like the example of the police captain in the Flash, does anyone else feel like sometimes these shows shoehorn in a gay couple to try to appear "hip" or "edgey" or "inclusive"? Not a character who's part of the cast who just happens to be gay, and might date somebody of sleep with them, as just naturally of occurring, but instead somebody thrown in there. "Hey look we have a homosexual. Look we included this, we're relevant and inclusive and we checked the box off."

Yeah, I think you're spot on in this spikey, but I think it's not necessarily a bad thing given where we started. Not an ideal reason for inclusion, though.

 

I want to give a shout out to the creators of "Orphan Black." Sarah's brother, Felix, is such an in-your-face, strong, resourceful, principled and intricate gay character to be considered intrinsic in a powerful TV drama. I don't believe I've ever seen such a well-rounded gay character portrayed on television before. He makes the show work, and his dedication to those he loves is a thing of beauty... Kudos to whoever created him, and to Jordan Gavaris for bringing him to life... just saying....

[Graeme]

Just on The Flash, before it was revealed that the captain was gay, one of the villains was shown to be gay. Interestingly, the way it was described, he became a villain because he was gay and his family had rejected him. He was after revenge. When I first saw that episode, I was annoyed at what the writers had done. In hindsight, though, I think it worked, especially with the captain showing that being gay doesn't make the character a villain. If you like, the captain being gay is to balance out the gay villain. He's not gay to tick a box.