Stereotypes are an necessary way of representing any gay character. They have been used in various forms throughout television history, both in a negative and positive instances. The portrayal of a characters sexuality can be characterised in typologies. Dyer gives examples of theses typologies as the ‘queen’, ‘dyke’ , ‘the young man’ and the ‘lesbian feminist ’. A notorious gay type is the ‘queen’ .Dyer defines this as “A characteristically gay way of handling values, images and products of the dominant culture through irony, exaggeration, trivialisation, theatricalisation”. (R.Dyer page 33)
This is evident in the character of Mr Humphreys in the 1970’s British situation comedy Are you being served? This gay type was popular as it represents parts of culture in a humorous and non threatening way to social norms and values. It occurs among television viewing due to its comical and irony elements. However, during the 70’s, one of the sole signifier of the gay community was John Inman. The fact that he was represented as the comical almost ‘ screaming queen’ decoded to the audience that this was a representation of the gay community. This ideologically may have reinforced negative stereotypes. However, the situation comedy Are You being served? Needed to show recognizable stereotypes to achieve audience recognition of the characters sexuality. Also, representations are always directed at the majority audience, middle class heterosexual, so the texts have to be morally accepting whilst being entertaining(Morris.P (1996).
Television has evolved over time, the traditional stereotypical roles of homosexuals characters have broadened in some respects. Generically there has been a shift from the gay character being positioned in comedy to other television formats. One of theses formats is the soap opera.
Soap operas are of extreme importance in society .One of their attracting features is to decode to the audience a realist scenario. This means that soap operas are important in tackling social issues and groups in society.
The homosexual in soap operas is becoming a more prevalent issue. The generic nature of soaps is that they are a serial so the individualism of characters can develop, there is not a need for a characters lifestyle to be made instantly identifiable (C.Geraghty 1994). This analysis will concentrate on female representations of lesbian soap characters to give a balanced gender argument.
BBC1’s flagship soap Eastenders first featured a lesbian couple Della and Binny. These characters were involved in the narrative constantly, their storylines had some interesting twists. There appearance was of elegance, glamour and individualism. This gave a positive image of lesbians breaking the boundaries of typology of the ‘butch feminist’ or ‘dyke’, cited by Dyer. However, there storylines still centred on the sexuality issue( A.Briggs etal ).
In January 1994 the radical channel 4 featured a plot concerning the character Beth Jordache and her lesbian lifestyle. ‘The lipstick snog ’ as it is sometimes known, gained wide media attention . Beth Jordache was a main character, she was pivotal in the ‘body under the patio’ storyline, she represented other themes apart from the stereotypical sexuality role. Now a iconic figure among the gay community, her will power and determination, gave lesbians a person they could positively identify with. Brooksides innovation spoke directly to the gay audience, and not the dominant ideology in society, as executive producer Mal young remarked . “Brooksides not about making people feel comfortable.”(www.nickihastie) However, it is interesting to note that Beth and Margarets’ kiss was not transmitted on the Saturday afternoon omnibus, due to the family audience. This again strengthens the taboo of sexuality in the media . (www.nickihastie).
A interesting point by a respondent on research of sexuality representation in television remarked. “I am fed up with homosexuals being on t.v. to address the issue of homosexuality, doctors are their because they have a doctor in the story”(Sexuality and Broadcasting 1992).This reiterates the point of sexuality not being normalized in society. The fact that it is represented as a issue, not a part of society. However, Eastenders and Brookside have gone some way to breaking stereotypes and redefining ideological sexuality boundaries in soap opera it remains to see whether Coronation St with its highly working class audience will represent homosexuals in the same light.
If soap operas combated the social and moral issues of homosexuality. Channel 4’s drama ‘ Queer As folk ‘ pushed boundaries beyond recognition. The series encapsulated the nation both in negative and positive sense. The program originally caused out rage by depicting scenes of anal, under age and toilet sex. This. was innovative television. (
The storyline featured three gay men pursuing life and tribulations, alongside the narrative of the Manchester club and ‘ gay scene’. The program represented the characters as successful well rounded individuals, comical but not patronising, with issues not primarily concerning sexuality. The feelings and motivations of characters were explored with the main characters being ever present in the narrative. Stewart a high flying businessman, a selfish arrogant good looking man, connoted attitude and power . It represented being gay in a positive light it wasn’t a heavily coded production. Diesel Ballam invokes , “It is queer television with a capital Q.”(www.galha.org) The program broke the boundaries of stereotyping. With conjunction of its ‘ explicit’ scenes it brought homosexuality to the forefront on prime time television. It did not proclaim to having a ‘ gay rights’ agenda, as this would not have catered for the majority audiences. However, it did facilitate debate, which is always a good thing. It also broke Dyers typology of sexuality and so is a radical example of the polar revolution of television representation and sexuality.
Journalism is a instrumental way the mass media shape public opinion. Here representation of reality can shape the ideologies, opinions and morals in society. A example of media hysteria is the AIDS epidemic in the 1980’s and early 90’s.This news story broke on a world wide basis and was politically prevalent in shaping societies prejudice and consequently representations of homosexuality.
The news values of this story, for example, the disease from nowhere, potential for rapid spread and to inflict on peoples lives would could mass appeal, so be a big news story (M.Jones. etal 1999).The media fuelled the speculation, The Sun dubbed AIDS ‘ The gay plague’. Which decoded connotations of pestilence and disease. Also the fact that it was a gay issue condemned it to minor media attention The story focussed on fear, anxiety and homophobia in the public, which is a moral problem alone, rather than courage in tackling one of the key issues of safe sex in the gay community. The right wing government and newspapers saw AIDS and homosexuality as a crisis of values and norms in society ensuing into a moral panic.A ‘moral panic’ first was first mentioned by Steven Cohen (1972)
“A condition episode, person or grouped of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interest… the moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right thinking people.” (T O’Sullivan etal 1997)
The ‘moral panic’ instigated by the media forced contempt for AIDS sufferers and homosexuality in society. It was partly urged by a history of ‘opinion leaders’ to safeguard the morality and the institution of ‘the family’(www.aber.ac.uk). The newspapers manned the ‘moral barricades’ As Digby Anderson remonstrated in The Times. “Homosexuality, relativism moral standards, male homosexuality is not only tolerated but regarded as just as normal as heterosexuality.”(T.O’ Sullivan etal 1997)
The AIDS epidemic was a catalyst to fuel homophobia in the media. The media targeted white heterosexuals, there is very little room for minorities in a homogenised public appeal. AIDS and homosexuality was a threat to social cohesion. As a group outside social norms and values the gay population were an easy target.
The press represented a negative image of AIDS, and consequently the explicitness of images and language in the tabloids effected the ‘labelling’ and stereotypes of homosexuals (A.Briggs etal 2001). A key feature of moral panic is its rapid and fleeting nature. However, the press media’s representation of AIDS has had sustaining effect on the publics image of sexuality.
Sexuality representation in the media has brought positive and negative factors. The involvement of lesbians and gays on popular television genres. Has made society aware of issues and diversified perspectives on homosexuality. However this can be seen as a negative, the stereotypical roles, issues and characterisation can be damaging to our understanding of what it is to be gay. The print media have mostly given a homophobic view, as shown by the AIDS epidemic, or no view at all. This is, mainly due to the white middle class heterosexual demographics of the news companies owners and editors. This representation is damaging as we can be sceptical of homosexuality without prior knowledge, all too often there is a taboo surrounding homosexuality that the print media endorse.
Bibliography
Morris.P etal (1996) Media Studies : A Reader Edinburgh University press ltd
Millwood.A(1992) Sex and Sexuality in Broadcasting Great Britain Whitstable Litho ltd
O’Sullivan.T etal (1997) Media Studies: a reader Great Britain Edward Arnold publishers ltd
Jones.M etal (1999) Mass Media London Macmillan Press ltd
Stewart.C (2001) Media and Meaning: a introduction London British.Film.Institute(B.F.I)
Geraghty.C (1991) Women and soap opera Polity press
Dyer.R(1993) The matter of images:Essays in Representations London Routledge
www://www.galha.org/glh/183/television.html
