Gay people have entered the mainstream media significantly in recent times, whether as television or radio presenters or characters in television and film. But something that has to be looked at, is how this representation is mainly of gay men.
When we see gay couples or a singular gay person in a film or on television, it is almost always gay men and very rarely a lesbian or lesbian couple. But why is this? Is the media and society in general more accepting of gay men that it is of gay women?
In recent times gay men have been shown in a particular light – we all know the stereotype of the fashion conscious, confident, out going, opinionated gay man who regularly springs up in TV programmes and films. When partnered with a straight woman, this coupling looks like a sure fire hit – just look at Carrie and Stanford in Sex and the City.
This cool trendy image of the gay man has also seeped into public consciousness as well, because as a gay man, how often have you bumped into someone on a night out or just with friends and heard the phrase, “I’ve always wanted a gay friend.” However you never hear someone say the same about having a lesbian friend, maybe because some people still have the image that lesbians are Dr Martins wearing, radical feminists in dungarees and checked shirts. It’s a stereotype that I can’t say I’ve actually come across in real life, and there aren’t many, if any, straight man and gay woman or straight woman and gay woman pairings in our regularly viewed entertainment.
But why is this? Is it because of the image that has been broadcast everywhere of gay men and the use of celebrities such as Graham Norton, Alan Carr and Gok Wan that have made gay men much more accessible and fashionable than women? We do have lesbian television presenters such as Sue Perkins, but let’s be honest, her time on television can’t really be compared to the constant presence of her gay male counterparts.
When it comes to gay men on television and film, there isn’t as much representation as there could be, especially in film, where lead gay characters are few and far between, but there are still significantly more gay men than there are lesbians.
Programmes such as Queer as Folk and Will & Grace helped bring gay men into the mainstream media and they have become staples ever since, but if Will was straight and Grace was a lesbian, would the programme have been as big as it was? The answer is probably no, because the stereotype conveyed in society of a gay man seems to add more comic value than that of a lesbian.
This continues throughout television where gay couples on British TV in Eastenders and Coronation Street have been major successes and have been given many major storylines (there have been lesbian storylines, but beyond the girl-on-girl kiss in Brookside, haven’t seeped into cultural consciousness in the same way). In film, Brokeback Mountain was a major Hollywood success both financially and personally for gay men, as they hadn’t had that type of exposure in a Hollywood movie ever, but there hasn’t been a major mainstream film based around lesbians.
Ok, there was The Kids are Alright in terms of movie representation, and there have been hit shows in the form of The L Word and Lip Service, but the majority of viewers for these programmes seem to be lesbians or people who already back the LGBT community, whereas programmes like Queer as Folk became a surprise hit with a large number of diverse viewers. The character of Sophie Webster has also played one of the bigger characters in Coronation Street recently, and being a lesbian the character is one of the most high profile in terms of lesbian representation, but why did it take them so long to introduce a lesbian character when they’d already had a few major gay themed storylines at that point?
We may never know the real answer, but hopefully the representation and acceptance of gay females on television and in film will improve, in the same way that it did for gay men. Sue Perkins is currently writing a new sitcom for BBC2 concentrating on a lesbian vet. How well it will do is another matter. But with representation increasing, hopefully we will see gay women and men on our television screens in a bigger quantity and more regularly. Who knows, the next big gay film in Hollywood may just centre around a lesbian. Here’s hoping.
This is a total mess of a theory. Gay men have more media presence than lesbians? On whose scale? I’ll grant that the TV season has seen a few prominent gay characters appear, but no one should argue that the portrayal of gay men is any more or less prominent than lesbians, who had a much easier entrance into the mainstream culture, if only because it was perceived as less threatening to men, if not alluring as well. Until Will & Grace, and mostly since, gay men were/are mincing side-characters to be sideshows than leads in shows. Meanwhile, lesbian characters have played prominent roles as couples in Grey’s Anatomy, Bound, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo films, a number of reality shows in the U.S., not to mention that Ellen is the one LGBT person with a daytime chat show beamed into millions of homes daily. Graham Norton and Stephen Fry are prominent in prime-time as much for their talents than for any connection to an LGBT audience. Even in America, Anderson Cooper gained his morning chat show after coming out, and there surely would have been discussion of whether he should have it if he had come out before it was green-lit, meanwhile Sara Gilbert from The Talk is out now too, who also happened to be on a show, Roseanne, that was an early supporter of gay storylines in prime-time – with multiple lesbian characters. The Kids Are Alright is being developed into a TV series, after earning multiple Oscar nominations, by a director who made a key LGBT hit, High Art, and a mainstream indie prior, who is now making Hollywood films. Same for Kim Peirce, director of Boys Don’t Cry, who is remaking Carrie. Desperate Housewives is one of the few TV series to show both gay men and women, and it was run by a gay man.
I would argue that if you think you’re seeing more gay men than lesbians on TV, it’s for two reasons, 1) there are more films about men in general than women, because there are more male writers and directors, which is an issue of sex, not sexuality, and the willingness to produce female-driven projects, and 2) from a critical standpoint, the films and TV programs with gay male characters have been perceived as higher quality. One need only look at Weekend, which won key awards at the end of last year, vs. any lesbian release last year. On the surface, gay film, in particular, has been quicker to make the turn into storylines that are less about being gay than just simply about life, which make it easier to reign in a broader audience. Gayness is still prevalent in the foreground in much lesbian-driven faire, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
By the way, didn’t you write this?
https://www.biggaypictureshow.com/bgps/2012/08/would-queer-as-folk-have-been-made-today/