The Verge: GLAAD released its annual study of LGBTQ representation on television this week, and for the most part, the findings are positive. The study found that 2017 was the best year ever for LGBTQ characters on television, with 6.4 percent of characters on broadcast prime-time TV identifying as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or queer.
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/57537097/Screen_Shot_2017_11_09_at_11.52.46_AM.0.png)
6 comments:
With how the world has been lately, it is great to hear that in our television, more and more diversity is being represented. It is great to hear about all of the improving statistics and exactly what kind of television represented what kind of diversity. I would be interested to see how each show chose to portray these characters. I was having an interesting conversation the other day on a show called The Bold Type, which features a lesbian main character. We were talking about how we loved how it was just part of the characters identity and not everything we knew about that character. I hope that with the more visible representation comes a better representation as well. I also really like how the article included the comparison of race and ethnicity and how those things still lack in representation. This is interesting to me. Hopefully we see this improving soon as well.
Okay well there are a lot of good things about this article but I am really excited that it mentions The Bold Type because I think it's one of the best shows about women on television and I hope that it gets the recognition it deserves. i am happy that we are starting to see numerical evidence of the work that is happening in the country for greater representation of LGBTQ+ in every industry. I think Vanessa is totally right that the net step for us is to make the fact that people are gay not their only defining factor. What is so amazing about the gay characters I am starting to see in television is that they are actual people. Saying that sound so silly but it is true that under represented groups on TV often become caricatures of themselves. It happens with women and minorities all of the time. So part of how we fix this problem is by introducing more writers that are from under represented groups. The Bold Type has a very diverse staff and is very public about their quest to make that a reality and how unique they are. I hope that as we move forward we get rid of more of those white men on and off of the screen.
This is fantastic news. I cannot express how important representation of LGBTQIA people is in mass media such as television. When indulging in any kind of entertainment, sometimes people like to go to whats comfortable to them. There needs to be some way for the audience member to connect the content that they are watching with themselves. This directly translates to the representation of LGBTQIA people on TV. The reality is that LGBTQIA people seek out content that is more representative of their thoughts and ideas, just as cisgendered and heterosexual people do. It's nice to see companies capitalize on non-hetero people, as it means that they have to provide characters that aren't standard TV tropes. Including LGBTQIA people in tv leads to more creative, realistic, and intriguing content. I hope that in the coming year these numbers continue to grow, as networks continue to realize that there is a massive market of people looking for content that represents them and their ideals.
I am very thankful that the industry is changing. It is incredible to me that virtually every show you watch now, either on cable or on streaming services, has at least one LGBTQ character on it. It has gotten to the point where it is becoming a glaring omission if there is not such a character present. However, there are still other glaring omissions present in the media. Though the article notes it, I have yet to see a show that stars a trans man. Depiction of asexual characters, though it is growing, is often deeply flawed. Bisexual characters are rarely depicted out of a stereotypical mindset and pansexual characters simply do not exist. This problem also intersects with the existing problem of institutional racism in the industry which results in a very white view of LGBTQ when we do get it. I think it's beautiful that we are continuing as an industry to make strides but as the song goes: "I know we've come so far, but we've got so far to go."
I am not surprised at all by this. With how much emphasis their is on people being open on who they are, I would hope by that TV shows are finally representing people as they are. I do wish this article had a way to compare the statistics over time. I hope and do I think it is highly likely that the percentage and amount of representation of the queer community will continue to grow in the film industry. I rarely watch any TV or stream episodes, but I do hope that the characters they are talking about are fully developed and multi dimensional. I could easily see writers adding in a special one episode appear of someone who is trans or queer and leave it there. I think what is most important is that they not only show people who are no straight but also show their ideas and the community they are a part of.
One of my favorite sayings is "the only way to make an exclusive group os by excluding some people" and I couldn't agree more. The representation of LGBT people in the media is limited and defined by that, In order to create a group, the LGBT+ community has excluded black people, fat people, non binary people and so many more. Basically if mainstream America doesn't like it, neither do white cis gay people.
And in some ways that makes sense for tv. It is hard to understand a character with so many intersections when you don't have those intersections. But as was said in the article, it is extremely important that tv keeps making the same strides towards racial diversity as it makes strides to represent LGBT people.
I hope that as predatory men get exposed and kicked out of Hollywood, the new creatives that are brought in will be richly diverse and full of new interesting stories to tell.
Post a Comment