Gay Characters in Prime Time Television: the Gay Angel
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Table of Contents Acknowledgments…………………………………………………….................. iii Thesis Abstract…………………………………………………………………... iv Introduction……………………………………………………………………… 1 Chapter One……………………………………………………………………… 10 Chapter Two……………………………………………………………………… 41 Chapter Three…………………………………………………………………….. 76 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………... 112 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………… 119 ii Acknowledgments Dr. Anne Lombard, I am truly honored to have had the opportunity to work with you as my thesis chair. Your support and friendship over the years have been invaluable to me. Dr. Jill Watts, you inspired my pursuit of history. Your guidance throughout my years as an undergraduate and graduate student helped make this thesis possible. Thank you for your continued support as a committee member. I am forever grateful to you. Dr. Katherine Hijar, thank you for allowing me the privilege of having you as a committee member. Your interest and insight at the beginning stages of my thesis helped me focus my research on television, and your continued efforts and suggestions added to the strength my thesis. Christine Parr, thank you for your encouragement to continue on with my education and the hours you spent reading and re-reading my thesis drafts. I appreciate all your efforts. Gary and Denise Hill, thank you for everything that you have done for me. You both are truly exceptional parents. To all of my fellow graduate students, I have greatly enjoyed all of our years together and the friendships we have made. Sunshine Staalenburg, thank you for your love and support during the last months of my graduate school. iii Thesis Abstract Unlike the members of other minority groups, homosexuals can hide or ―pass‖ in a straight-dominated world to avoid public hostility. Because of the reluctance of many gay individuals to publicize their status, visual media including film and television came to play an important role in shaping most Americans‘ views about gay people and gay identity during the twentieth century. It was the media that explored and communicated who homosexuals were and how they related to society. Since the 1960s, television has been the main medium through which the American public learned about this minority group. Because television shows are the products of so many forces, historical shifts and fluctuations in their content and themes provide important indicators of shifts and fluctuations in American society and culture. This thesis will examine the representation of gay male characters, same-sex relationships, and gay themes in three of these American television series: Soap, which ran from 1977 to 1981, Dynasty, which lasted from 1981 until 1989 (with a reunion miniseries in 1991), and Dawson‟s Creek, airing from 1998 to 2003. This thesis will argue that these representations shifted over time from a heterocentric understanding of homosexuality to a more homocentric view of the gay identity and the mores of the gay community. Key words: Gay, Angel, Homosexuality, Television, Media, Stereotypes iv Introduction Homosexuals in the United States are an enigma as a minority, invisible unless they choose to openly announce to society that they are gay, known as ―coming out.‖ At least since the 1930s, they have been subject to personal attacks and prejudice, facing a hostility that reached its height during the post-war period.1 Yet unlike the members of other minority groups, homosexuals can hide or ―pass‖ in a straight-dominated world to avoid public hostility. The social stigma and overt negative reactions many gay people face when they are honest about themselves makes it risky and sometimes dangerous for them to come out. Because of the reluctance of many gay individuals to publicize their status, visual media including film and television came to play an important role in shaping most Americans‘ views about gay people and gay identity during the twentieth century. It was the media that explored and communicated who homosexuals were and how they related to society. Since the 1960s, television has been the main medium through which the American public learned about this minority group. For the past half century or more, television shows have permeated Americans‘ lives, providing entertainment as well as social and cultural 1 George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994), 331-334; John D‘Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United Sates, 1940-1970, 2d ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), 91; Estelle Freedman, ―‘Uncontrolled Desires:‘ The Response to the Sexual Psychopath, 1920-1950,‖ Journal of American History, Vol. 74, No.1 (June 1987), 199- 201. 1 commentaries. They are not simply static representations of the creators‘ societal views but result from an array of influential variables including censorship rules, advertising, audience responses, writers' creative and political commitments, and networks‘ ideas about what topics will draw a viewership.2 Because television shows are the products of so many forces, historical shifts and fluctuations in their content and themes provide important indicators of shifts and fluctuations in American society and culture. During the early decades of television, the depiction of homosexual characters built upon stereotypes that had existed in film since about 1930, in which homosexuality was portrayed as a dangerous menace to society. Although censors prohibited positive depictions of gay men and women, they permitted shows and scripts with obviously negative gay characters.3 However, a loosening of censorship rules in the 1970s and 1980s coincided with various cultural shifts, and television writers gradually became committed to presenting issues of human sexuality in a more honest and forthright way in their work.4 Between 1970 and the early 2000s, a number of long running shows were produced featuring openly gay characters involved in loving same-sex relationships. What is most interesting about these shows, in terms of their influence on Americans‘ understanding of gay people and 2 David S. Silverman, “You Can‟t Air That”: Four Cases of Controversy and Censorship in American Television Programming (New York: Syracuse University Press, 2007), Kindle edition. 3 Vito Russo, The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies, revised ed. (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987), 48-59. 4 Stephen Tropiano, The Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on TV (New York: Applause Theatre & Cinema, 2002), 12-13, 109. 2 their experiences, was the gradual shift away from the negative stereotypes that had long dominated the characterization of gay people in film and television, towards a more sympathetic portrayal of gay characters as loving, responsible members of their families and communities. This thesis will examine the representation of gay male characters, same-sex relationships, and gay themes in three of these American television series: Soap, which ran from 1977 to 1981, Dynasty, which lasted from 1981 until 1989 (with a reunion miniseries in 1991), and Dawson‟s Creek, airing from 1998 to 2003.5 All three prime time shows contained major gay male characters and were popular. Soap was one of the first successful shows to feature a homosexual man as a main character, Dynasty lasted throughout the 1980s, and Dawson‟s Creek was one of the first shows geared towards a teenaged audience with a major gay character. Because each of these shows represented a major shift in the content presented to American television audiences, they provide valuable primary sources for understanding changes in cultural representations of homosexuality in late twentieth century America. This thesis will argue that these representations shifted over time from a heterocentric understanding of homosexuality to a more homocentric view of the gay identity and the mores of the gay community.6 5 Representations of openly lesbian main characters emerged later and had different implications which will not be addressed in this thesis. 6 I define heterocentric as a way to view homosexuality through a heterosexual understanding, versus homocentric which instead looks at homosexuality through a homosexual understanding and experience. 3 The history of homosexuality is still fairly new territory for American historians, having first become a topic for serious scholarly attention only in the 1970s. Historians who have looked at the history of homosexuality have generally examined the treatment and experiences of homosexual men and women, particularly before the emergence of the modern Gay Rights Movement. Some scholars, like Estelle Freedman and John D'Emilio, have focused on the various ways in which American government and society actively worked to control ideas about sexuality overall and to stigmatize homosexuality specifically, especially between 1930 and 1960. Both argue that sexual nonconformity during the Cold War signaled a ―need‖ to return to ―traditional‖ gender roles in an effort to promote stability and conformity for the purpose of national security.7 Others, like Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, Lillian Faderman, and George Chauncey, have found that historically variable ideas about sexuality and sexual identity made the experiences of gay men and women during the 19th and early 20th centuries differ greatly from those in the middle of the 20th century.8 Smith-Rosenberg argues that 19th century female same-sex relationships were socially and culturally acceptable as