Sexuality - Media Representations

The big gay plotline - Bachelor et al

Gay representations did appear in the mainstream media - weren’t generally ‘integrated’ into plot lines: gayness was part of the plot, seen as a source of anxiety, or as target of teasing or bullying

• mainstream young people’s media, lesbianism was completely invisible

Stereotypical ‘Signs of Gayness’ - Dyer

Media construct stereotypical ‘signs of gayness’ such as vocal tics, facial expressions, stances, and clothing, to ‘make visible the invisible’

• consequently if a person demonstrates these signifiers during their everyday behaviour - labelled as ‘gay’ by their peers and subjected to prejudice and discriminated by others

Three Main Signifiers of Gayness - Dyer

• Camp - use of irony and exaggeration by characters that are generally regarded as extremely flamboyant figures of entertainment: negatively reinforces traditional ideas of masculinity

• Macho - exaggerating masculinity: openly sexual look, transforming practical male clothing such as safety helmets and police officer’s caps into erotic symbols

• Deviant - often stereotyped as deviants by media representations: rarely presented in a sympathetic matter

Other Common Stereotypes

Association with HIV/AIDS - focused strongly on gay community and furtherly supported a stereotype of gay men being particularly promiscuous

• AIDS were reported on in a less sympathetic way in relation to gay men than for other suffers - suggesting that they brought the disease upon themselves

Symbolic Annihilation - Stonewall

LGBTQ were disproportionately co-signed to the status of comedic relief - presented as something to laugh at

• especially found to be the case with representations of lesbianism, frequently presented as over-sexualised and exotic, for male’s viewing pleasure

Coverage: unhappy, distressed, bullied and rejected by their families & little reference to lesbians or trans people

Trans People in the Media - Mermaids

2012-2018 - coverage of stories about trans people over the last 6 years writing roughly three and a half times as many articles

The Pink Pound - aka Rainbow Washing

Pink economy has now been recognised by advertisers - many gay men and women are professional people with no dependants and large disposable income to spend on consumer goods

• companies have actively countered gay and lesbian consumers through gay-positive advertising and marketing campaigners

Representation of LGBTQ Community

Representations within the new media are most positive - much of content is user-generated

• LGBTQ organisations and individuals have constructed hundreds of sites that offer advice and support to LGBTQ people

Critics of mass-media representations of LGBTQ - increase in number of positive representations of LGBTQs in commercials, films and television shows but there is still a long way to go before such sexualities are portrayed in ways that are neither stereotypical nor judgemental