Misrepresentation of LGBTQ+ Characters on American Television Shows
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Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Bc. Hana Halenárová Misrepresentation of LGBTQ+ Characters on American Television Shows. Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Jeffrey A. Vanderziel, B.A. 2018 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Acknowledgement I would like to thank to my supervisor Jeff Vanderziel, for his patience and support throughout the process of writing this thesis. Secondly, I would like to express my infinite gratitude to Veronika Bosáková for her enormous support and help with editing. Then I would like to thank to my family for their unconditional love and support. And last but not least, to Martin who had to endure my creative meltdowns, who stood by me all this time and who never doubted I would not finish this. Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................. 5 Television and Its Influence ......................................................................................... 8 Identification of an Individual on Television ......................................................... 12 Identification of Groups on Television .................................................................. 13 Representation of the LGBTQ+ Minority on Television ....................................... 14 History of LGBTQ+ Characters in Mass Media ........................................................ 19 Movies .................................................................................................................... 19 Television ............................................................................................................... 27 Stereotypes and Tropes Surrounding LGBTQ+ Characters ...................................... 31 Stereotypes ............................................................................................................. 31 Tropes ..................................................................................................................... 39 Contemporary Representation of LGBTQ+ Characters on Television ...................... 44 Contemporary Representation of Gay Men ........................................................... 51 Contemporary Representation of Lesbians ............................................................ 52 Contemporary Representation of Bisexuals ........................................................... 54 Contemporary Representation of Transgender Characters .................................... 57 Impacts of Misrepresentations on the Real Life ........................................................ 62 Discussion .................................................................................................................. 71 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 87 Bibliography ............................................................................................................... 91 English Resume ........................................................................................................ 101 České resumé ........................................................................................................... 102 Introduction Entertaining media has been a big part of our lives in the recent decades. Interest of audience in this kind of entertainment is reflected in statistics focused on viewer ratings of programs. High ratings then lead to increasing production of these programs. The audience thus unconsciously shows what genres and what sort of shows they prefer. According to cultural critics, people watch television or movies because they want to see themselves reflected on the screen. Not only does television reflect how the society looks, or how it could look, but it also shows what the audience may want the society to look like. However, in many cases, the reflection is neither flattering nor true and it can also be harmful. Part of an audience might not even notice that, but the members of LGBTQ+ group of viewers that is affected may find these reflections stereotypical, offensive and unfair. The goal of this thesis is to observe visibility and depiction of LGBTQ+ characters on the screen. We will follow the development of portrayal of queer characters throughout decades and we will focus on the stereotypical and harmful representations of these characters and their impact on the members of queer audience. The first chapter discusses an influence of television on its consumers in general and how various television outlets operate. Since television is widely available in the U.S. it has a great chance to spread ideas to vast majority of people. The chapter also studies how this medium influence people’s perception of the world, their opinions and how it shapes society as such. It shows how important it is for people to identify with often fictional content on television in order to shape people’s opinions. Television can shape the way people see themselves, but also the way they see other people or groups of people, thus it is important for television to strive to deliver as plausible portrayal of characters as possible. However, the way characters are portrayed on television often 5 depends on other factors that move the television industry forward. The writers and producers are often bound by financial issues; those mostly affect broadcasting television. This type of television is regulated by their advertisers who affect their revenue, thus the broadcast television needs good viewing ratings in order to keep their sponsors satisfied. This power relationship has an impact on the content that is broadcasted. On the other hand, paid cable television is more benevolent when dealing with controversial topic. And the most liberal of them all is the streaming or Internet television, which has been gaining popularity in recent years. Second chapter offers an overview of the history of representation of queer characters in movies and in television. It follows the earliest depictions of LGBTQ+ characters in movies, the way they were portrayed and how the television followed in a very similar fashion. This chapter shows that the representation of queer characters on both big and small screen was quite problematic in the past. These characters were mostly presented in a negative way as if to suggest that they are representations of something wrong or sinful. However, there is an element of continuity and this trend of negative portrayal of queer characters can be observed even in contemporary television shows. In the third chapter we discuss the terms stereotype and trope and how these relate to the portrayal of LGBTQ+ characters. The oversimplifying and often derogatory way of depiction of queer characters is still appearing on our screens. The characters portrayed in very similar way, lacking diversity and depth are often cases of representatives of queer minority on television. We observe the most popular stereotypes and tropes and we discuss their occurrence and possible impact on the viewers of television. Negative tropes and stereotypes employed in the portrayal of 6 fictional characters on television can evoke a powerful response in the real-world audience. The presence of queer characters on television is analyzed in the fourth chapter. This chapter studies the visibility of LGBTQ+ characters in current television broadcasting. With help of data collected by Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) there is compiled an analytical part of the chapter where the statistics about visibility of queer characters are accompanied by a graphic evidence. The fifth chapter is focused on the impact of representation of queer characters on viewers of television. It discusses opinions of various experts on how the fictional reality can influence reality of the television consumers. It also shows the way the audience can react to negative or unfavorable depictions of their social minority group. There are specific examples of consequences to negative portrayals. The sixth chapter is dedicated to analysis of representations of several queer characters in three contemporary television shows. Broadcast television is represented by The CW’s The 100, cable television represents BBC America’s Orphan Black and streaming television is represented by Netflix’s original series Orange is the New Black. Each of these series contains a number of queer characters and their representations on these shows are discussed in detail. The last chapter offers a comprehensive conclusion to the analysis of stereotypical representations of queer character on television, their history, occurrence and their impact on the consumers of popular television shows in the U.S. 7 Television and Its Influence Many scholars agree that self-identification is an important part of people’s life. The world around us offers an immense amount of external influences that help us construct our identities. The things we see, hear or experience, gradually contribute to creation of self that we often unintentionally build. Nowadays, a lot of external stimuli comes from the mass media. Since people in the U.S. spent on average almost five hours a day in front of television, this kind of media has considerable impact on its consumers (“Average Daily Television Viewing...”). As Tobiasz