Single Story-Hailey Weenig

The portrayal of LGBT in the Media 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2u8db7GCcs

The most prominent portrayal of the LGBT community in the media is common with most other stereotypes with the idea that they are all the same and that there are specific indicators that tell you if someone is gay or not. If one gay guy likes wearing sequins, then they must all like sequins. If a lesbian spends all of her free time going t bars and hooking up with random people, thats what all lesbians like to do. We confine them to this specific description so aggressively that if they don’t fit the qualifications that their desires aren’t valid. On the other hand, the media can make people feel like if they share some of these unrelated interests or characteristics that maybe they are gay, when in reality they are no where close. If you are a young boy and enjoy watching project runway, you are probably gay. If you are the only girl that wants to play football with the boys, you might be a lesbian. The confusion that comes from this stereotype can be extremely detrimental to younger generations. There is already so much to question and figure out as a teenager, and when our media also makes them question their sexuality, it can really inhibit their growth and confidence.

Just like heterosexual, there is a spectrum of both personality and sexuality for LGBT members. It was almost impossible to do research on LGBT members on the media because everything that came up was so degrading and vulgar that I couldn’t use it for examples. 

There are same sex couples that are much more sexual than gay couples, but we assume that with gay people that their desires are only physical and never emotional. I never really understood this until my aunt, who was married to a man for 15 years came to our family to announce she was gay. I was surprised to say the least. She was always really pretty, wore makeup, had great style and was a great mom to her two adopted children. My sixteen year old self couldn’t believe what was happening because she didn’t fit the exact mold that I thought a lesbian should. 

LGBT couples are becoming more prevalent in the media, with shows such as modern family, glee, and even the disney channel series Good Luck Charlie. Although their presence in the media is helping people to accept the Gay couples as being normal, they are still being portrayed to fit the stereotype. In Modern Family, Cam and Mitchell are made out to be a normal couple, but their lives still are centered around fashion, drama and their interests on the show  fit the stereotypes of a “classic gay couple”, don’t get me wrong, I love Modern Family and I love Cam and Mitchell, they are my favorite, but the more I step back and analyze the more I see that the writers of the show are feeding into the cliches. Another example is Kurt from Glee. Kurt is depicted to be this extremely melodramatic, sexual, flamboyant and theatrical character. He is truly the poster boy for gay stereotypes. Overall, we can’t take anything we see from the media too seriously, the media almost always feeds into our already skewed thinking. It’s just another reason we need to go to multiple sources to educate ourselves and try to step back and see things from multiple angles and lenses.