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Raven was born, on December 10^th 1985 as Raven-Symone Christina Pearman, and was signed with Ford Modelling Agency at the age of two. She is most noted for her acting, R&B singing talents, and song-writing.  Her most prominent roles as a youngster are perhaps as Olivia Kendall (step-daughter of Denise Huxtable) in The Cosby Show, and as Raven Baxter in her show called, ‘That’s so Raven.’ As a child, her talent was truly remarkable, which is why it was not surprising when she won an award of Exceptional Performance by a Young Actress for The Cosby Show.

What’s she up to now?

Recently, she’s been basking in the limelight quite a lot, having been nominated by the Nickelodeon’s  Kids Choice Award, for best TV Actress. She went on to win Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for Girl Get It.  In addition to this, Raven has made numerous TV appearances, has had a remarkably successful tour, and has had her voice immortalised on the animated series, Kim Possible. Raven plans to release her fifth album later this year, which is quite an impressive feat for someone who’s still only twenty-three years old.

Michael Jackson

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To introduce Michael Joseph Jackson is tantamount to explaining who Prince William is.  He was born in Indiana, on August 29^th 1958, the seventh of nine children. Michael starting singing at the age of five and has since received just about every singing award there is. I’ve read everything I could find on him, and still failed to come up with any new revelations, as Michael’s younger life was more or less lived under the strict scrutiny of the public. The only thing that I did not know, was that he supports thirty-nine charities, (more than any other celebrity) and that he gave the 1.5 million dollars settlement he received from Pepsi Cola, to a charity for burns victims (this is subsequent to the severe burns he received in public, while filming the Pepsi Cola advert).

What’s he up to now?

His adult life has been tightly wrapped in court battles and allegations of child abuse. After his not-guilty verdict, he temporarily moved to Bahrain and consequently fell off the face of paparazzi earth.

Last year, however, in what everyone expects to be a timely return for the king of pop, he re-released Thriller 25, which went on to become the best selling catalog album for 2008. In addition to this, he also launched an online game with Sony, in which players can complete with other players all over the world in an attempt to get the biggest amount of combination dance moves. In an interview on his fiftieth birthday last August, he said that he was busy writing and raising his three kids.

Recently back from Bahrain, he’s now reportedly renting a $100,000 a month house in Los Angeles. Everyone is waiting for his next move. Is this a ‘watch-this-space’ advent for the singer?

Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen

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They were born in California on the thirteenth of June, 1986, and began their acting careers a year later in the television series, Full House. They both played Michelle Tanner.

Where are they now?

Well, very alive and kicking.  They’ve got several television programs to their name, and even a few made-for-TV films. They’re involved in several commercial endorsements, and even a bout with anorexia (Mary-Kate), didn’t dull the public’s sparkling impression of the twins. It’s not surprising then, that they are worth an estimated 11 million dollars. They have been extremely popular with pre-teen girls and milked this market with all types of franchises in books, toys, dolls, magazines and more.

Their continuous film stints have not been very successful, but because of their involvement with fashion design, they have been constantly photographed in popular glossy magazines, which have kept them firmly placed in the public eye. The sisters now have a successful clothing range at Wal-Mart for little girls, and a separate couture fashion label, called The Row.

Brook Shields

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Brook Shields, a direct descendant from Italian royalty, began to work as a model when she was just a child. She progressed into a blossoming modeling career because of her natural and innocent beauty, and at the age of fourteen she became the youngest fashion model to appear on Vogue.

She secured her first major movie appearance in the controversial film Pretty Baby when she was twelve years old, and went on to make several other successful films and TV programs (remember Suddenly Susan? I loved that show). Through the years, she hasn’t really been out of the public eye, and her marriage to Andre Agassi (now divorced and re-married) secured her a place in the annals of celebrity lifestyle, regardless of the unfortunate event of suffering from post partum depression, and the slight dip in her acting career.

What is she doing now?

As sprightly as ever, her career has picked up again after her successful triumph over post partum depression. She has appeared in several prime time TV shows, including, Nip/Tuck, and has now got a main role in the US hit show Lipstick Jungle.

Macaulay Culkin

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Macaulay Culkin was born in New York on August 26^th 1980, and is the third of seven children from a working-class family. His most remembered role as a child is probably Home Alone, even though his first main part came at the age of four, when he appeared in a stage production of Bach Babies.

At the height of his career as a child, he was regarded as the most successful child-actor since Shirley Temple.

What is he doing now?

He’s made a few more films after Home Alone, but sadly, it appears that so far, this is/has been the height of his career. I’ve seen him in an episode of Will and Grace and was really impressed by his performance. His teenage life was plagued by furious custody battles between his now-separated parents, which resulted in him seeking (and receiving) emancipation at the age of fifteen. Subsequently, he had a run-in with the law for possession of marijuana.  He’s tipped for a few good roles this year, so we wait with bated breath.

Barry Williams

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Barry Williams was born, Barry William Blenkhorn, on September 30^th 1954. At the age of thirteen his made his first television appearance in an episode of Dragnet.  Two years later he was cast as Greg Brady (the eldest child) in the fabulous TV show, The Brady Bunch. After the end of the show, Barry failed to make it big in TV, but played various guest roles and eventually toured with musicals such as Grease and The Sound of Music.

What is he doing now?

In the early nineties, Barry finished his very successful autobiography, Growing Up Brady: I was a Teenage Greg. It spent three months on the New York Times bestseller list, which is kind of a surprise, considering its slightly cheesy title. Williams has spent ages trying to revive and market (and milk) the name ‘Greg Brady.’ He tried various shows, a pop quiz, online fan site, a reality show, and even a song entitled, The Real Greg Brady (after Eminem’s, The Real  Slim Shady), but so far, The Brady Bunch seems sadly, to have been the high point of his career.

Dustin Diamond

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Dustin Diamond is best known for his role as Screech, from Saved By The Bell (a show I spent quite a number of hours watching). He was born in California on January 7^th 1977. Despite being molested by a family member as a child, he managed to have a very successful career as an actor and played the character of ‘Screech’ Powers for more than twelve years.  Later, his work as a stand-up comedian and musician also received impressive reviews.

What is he doing now?

After several TV appearances (game shows, reality shows etc.,) Dustin released his own video, teaching the public to play Chess. After stints on celebrity reality game shows, Dustin proved that he was slightly out of control, by his obvious inability to get along with quite a number of other contestants. With later allegations of sex tapes and rumors of destitution, it doesn’t look like he’ll be able to revive his previous successful television career.

Gary Coleman

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Gary Coleman is best remembered for his role as Arnold Jackson in the sitcom Diff’rent Strokes. He was born on February 8^th 1968, in Illinois. At four foot, eight inches tall, it was possible for him to play young roles even when he was no longer a child, a feature which worked in his favour for a very long time. He’s also had memorable roles in The Facts of Life, Good Times and The Jeffersons.

What is he doing now?

At the height of his career, he was paid as much as $100.000 per episode, but only received about a quarter of it, after paying his adoptive parents, advisors and lawyers. He later sued his parents and manager for misappropriation of his $ 8.3 million trust fund and won a settlement of a little over a million dollars. However, six years later he filed for bankruptcy.   After a few court appearances for several minor offences, Coleman seems to have settled down into a life where he’s no longer the star of the show.

Being a child star is not always a good thing, as we’ve seen lately with quite a few public breakdowns in the news. Sure, there are many kids’ roles on TV and in films which require children actors to play them, but this early exposure can sometimes steal their childhood in the same way that abuse can.   My youngest daughter has said that she wants to become an actress, but apart from occasional photo shoots with me, I think I’m going to let her have her childhood first, know what real life is, then go into acting as a person who knows what having a normal life is all about. Sometimes it seems as though this is the very thing missing from the lives of these and other young stars.

What is the reason for this “gay moment” and how are gays and lesbians portrayed on prime time television in comparison to the straight characters and why? There are a number of answers for this, ranging from cultural and social issues to politics.

According to Doty (1993), the portrayals of gays and lesbians in popular culture rests on the belief that a homosexual person is consciously trying to mirror a traditional role played by the opposite sex. Doty contends that the term homosexuality isn’t relative and being a gay or lesbian is more about culture and personal taste than actual sexuality. More recent television shows with gay characters seem to focus more on the aspects of culture and personal taste without talking about what goes on in the bedroom. According to Andersen and Collins (2007), traditionally gays and lesbians, like other minority or oppressed groups, have had the hardship of trying to integrate themselves into a sometimes intolerant society, rather than society helping to integrate them. Trying to act straight, or not trying to act or look like a member of the opposite sex, is one way that gay characters are able to gain more acceptance when it comes to a mainstream television audience. The bottom line is, they must relate, in some way, to heterosexual characters on the show to appeal to a prime time viewing audience, rather than an exclusively gay television network.

Becker (2006) suggests that the increase in homosexual themes in prime time television could be a result of a conscious social and political movement to make mainstream society more comfortable with gays and lesbians. It’s the next step, basically, in gay liberation and making it harder for conservative and bigoted people to ignore them.

According to comedian and political satirist Jon Stewart, the popularity of gay characters in mainstream television in the 1990’s had a lot to do with the political climate in the 2000’s. In fact, according to Stewart, the popularity of television shows with homosexual themes, such as Will and Grace, may have actually stoked the flames of a new cultural war (Becker 2006).

Becker (2006), explains this further, by saying he believes that George W. Bush was re-elected as a result of conservatives who cared more about “values” than violence in the Middle East or the economy. According to post-election analysis, exit polls realized that a lot of people identified gays and lesbians as a threat to America’s moral center. With the pervasiveness of openly gay characters on American television, these conservatives were finding it even harder to avoid the gay and lesbian crowd.

To give examples of how gays and lesbians are portrayed on television in recent years vs. the past, and why, I am going analyze three of the most prominent and longest running primetime television shows with a homosexual theme, Queer Eye for The Straight Guy, Will and Grace, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This essay will examine these shows through a semiotic analysis to provide a conclusion as to how gays and lesbians are portrayed to the mainstream viewing public and will also expose the encoded messages behind these portrayals, and how it relates to a conscious effort by the media to make homosexuality an acceptable part of mainstream culture and integrate gay and lesbian characters with heterosexual characters.

After viewing any of these shows, it seems clear that a cultural shift has occurred in how gays and lesbians are portrayed. In the 80’s, in film and television, homosexuals were very often portrayed as victims, especially in terms of being victims of HIV. For example, in an episode of the popular series 21 Jump Street, a gay male teen was diagnosed with HIV/aids but his father lied to everyone saying his son contracted the virus through a blood transfusion out of shame in regards to his son’s homosexuality. However, the stigma of HIV being just a gay man’s disease has largely been reduced since HIV is now effecting all sexes, races, and sexual orientations. (Dines & Humez 2003).

Since the 1990s, not only are homosexuals portrayed as an acceptable part of mainstream society, but as having attributes for mainstream, or average people to aspire to. These shows are not shows written by gays and lesbians for gay people, but written by the kinds of writers that would be writing your traditional prime time sitcom or drama that would be enjoyable to a wide audience.

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.

   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.