How Homosexuals Are Portrayed on Television

However, are these portrayals realistic, and do shows such as Will and Grace try to portray a gay character as a good character only by showing how he can look and act like a straight person? Let’s see.

1. Queer Eye For the Straight Guy

   

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   (Scout Productions. 1st episode 2003. Final episode aired October 2007)

   This reality based show puts forth a causal connection between gay men and fashion. There is an underlying assumption present in the show that gay men are more attractive than their heterosexual counterparts. Afterall, the theme of the show is fashion conscious gay men helping their fashionably challenged heterosexual male counterparts through style makeovers.

   In one particular episode, the Queer Eye gang of professionals sets out to rescue a widower named Jim, a physician who has three kids and lives in a disorganized home with his mother in-law. According to Jim, he wants to get out and move on but he is not sure how to do it.

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   According to the “Fab Five,” which is the nickname for the Queer Eye men, Jim has the following problems that are holding him back in terms of personal happiness: Jim has not cut his hair since his wife died; his home is cluttered; the closet looks like a fallout shelter; there is absolutely no organization in the kid’s room.

   In Queer Eye, any shame associated with being a gay male is completely obliterated. With their perfectly coifed, and colorfully dressed entourage, Queer Eye brings gay liberation to a new height that involves heterosexual liberation to become more gay, at least in terms of becoming more fashionable.

   Each of the Fab Five is picture perfect, and sensitive to boot. Their “queerness” even ads to their appeal by placing them in a position of unattainability for straight women. This is the crux of the assumption of a lot of women that there is a connotative meaning in regards to the concept that a great looking guy is probably gay. The word queer, with its denotative meaning of being “odd,” just doesn’t fit the Fab Five characters who have impeccable social graces and taste. The connotative meaning of being homosexual doesn’t even seem to be an issue since this show is not sexual in any way. It helps unite straight and gay men through a unifying interest of looking and feeling good.

   After the Fab Five gives not only Jim, but his kids, a complete fashion makeover in terms of clothes, hairstyles, and food and wine, Jim looks forward to his new, souped up life and comments that he will always remember his “gay fairy godfathers” who helped him enjoy life again.

   The phrase “gay fairy godfathers” contains a denotative meaning in respect to gay meaning happy and fairy as an effeminate, but magical being. Combine this with the word godfather, and you create the connotative cultural meaning of cheery, effeminite men who take on the traditional feminine trait of having a desire to take care of someone.

2. Will and Grace

   

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   (NBC. September 21, 1998 to May 18, 2006)

   This popular sitcom, which centered around a handsome, gay attorney rooming with a straight, recently single young woman, was an example of a gay television sitcom that was probably written to appeal to a straight audience, as was Queer Eye for the straight guy.

   Its gay character, Will, was a conservatively dressed attorney who found very little outlets for his sexuality and didn’t seem to adopt any of the traits of stereotypical gay culture. This could be an encoded message that straight viewers could decode as an attempt to show an integration of homosexuality into traditional, masculine identities. Conservative viewers might actually admire the character of Will, if they can separate Will’s image and personality from Will’s sexual orientation. “Today, if a gay male who is coming out turns to the gay media, most likely what he will find is that to be a homosexual in today’s society is to be a masculine young white male, with a well muscled body and handsome face, a good education and a professional job,” (Dines & Humez 2003 p. 219)

   The paradigmatic opposition between Will, and his gay friend Jack, who embodies the gay stereotype of effeminate characteristics and childlike silliness, could very will be an attempt to make homosexuality more palatable to a heterosexual audience that may need a stereotypical gay male character as a yardstick by which to measure the significance of Will’s professional, well mannered conservative persona. It’s as if the show wishes to dispel some of the myths about the gay lifestyle by showing the audience that there’s a difference between being homosexual and acting like one. (Dines, Humez 2003 p. 219).

   The only problem, though, is that with Will’s friend Jack, who’s portrayed as having annoying gay characteristics, the show still contains an element of anti gay sentiment. Rather than embracing the homosexual culture, as Queer Eye did, Will and Grace seems to portray an ideal gay person as being ideal just because he takes on heterosexual traits. In fact, in the final episode, Grace ends up pregnant and Will adopts a baby under the premise that they will raise the baby together. Jack, on the other hand, has all the effeminate, flamboyant characteristics of a “flaming” homosexual.

   For people who are less conservative, Jack’s stereotypical behavior might not be seen as negative. In fact, Jack is a funnier, and wittier character than Will. If the character of Jack was a member of the Fab Five in Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, he probably would have fit right in.

3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

    (The WB Network. March 10, 1997 – May 27, 2003)

   

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   Just as Gay men have been portrayed as people trying to act like women, gay women have traditionally been portrayed as more masculine. One need only look at major television characters such as Ellen Degeneras and Rosie Oddonell to see that these women do not represent a stereotypical image of feminine attractiveness. The signifier is masculine behavior in women and what is signified is lesbianism. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, on the other hand,breaks the causal link between masculinity and lesbianism with a paradigm shift that links lesbianism with attractiveness and femininity.

   Perhaps the success of Buffy the Vampire Slayer can also be equated to the success of Will and Grace for its integration of homosexuals into stereotypical images of success and attractiveness. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you have the best of both worlds in the female characters – women with feminine characteristics who also have the moxie to battle vampires at the same time.

   The lesbian character Willow actually started out as straight, and then transformed into a lesbian. This was paralleled with her transformation from being a bookish character to being an aggressive, female warrior, as if becoming a lesbian could have a causal link to self-improvement and female liberation from traditional female roles.

   To contrast the character of Willow, Buffy the Vampire Slayer created Tara, who was very cute, shy and passive. This represented another attempt to dispel stereotypical myths about lesbians – to separate sexual preference from their personality. This made the show popular amongst lesbian viewers, probably because it showed that your sexual identity was not necessarily your entire identity.

   Buffy the Vampire Slayer also featured the first lesbian kiss on television, and the characters Tara and Willow had the longest running relationship in TV history (2.5 years).

   Perhaps the novelty of gay and lesbian characters on prime time television shows has warn off after the long running success of Will and Grace, Queer Eye, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This could be looked at as a positive and as evidence that there is more openness and acceptance. Now, it is almost as if you expect to have a gay character on a television show or know someone who is. Therefore, it may be time for some people to redefine their values. As evidenced in Will and Grace, homosexuals can even share the same values as strict, conservative heterosexuals when it comes to raising kids and marriage. At the same time, some of the stereotypical homosexual traits such as wit and cheerfulness can be portrayed as positive traits as well. Whether conservatives like it or not, gay characters in television and film will only become increasingly common. The more they do, the more integrated gays and lesbians will be in mainstream culture.

The analysis of these three television shows that there is definitely a concentrated effort to blend gay and lesbian lifestyles with mainstream society, as was evidenced in the literature analysis. At the same time, shows such as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy also shows that gay men can maintain some of their more effeminate traits without alienating your average straight guy. Perhaps if more people are able to lighten up about this subject, television shows in the future can portray gays and lesbians celebrating their culture and lifestyle along with their heterosexual counterparts without having to pretend that they’re “straight.” At the very least, the door has been opened for an increase in gay and lesbian themes on television. However, as long as there are religions who denounce homosexuality, there will probably always be some tension and controversy.

My recommendation would be to have more shows like Will and Grace since it portrays situations that both gay and straight people can relate to. It also shows them living together and sharing the same hopes and dreams. Hopefully this will help decrease discrimination against homosexuals and help them win more civil rights as well. After all, a lot of people probably pay more attention to popular culture than they do hard news. Therefore, if anything could help create more harmony amongst homosexuals and heterosexuals, it would be through prime time dramas and sitcoms, since many people may structure their personal identities, or an understanding of how people act, through watching TV.