Sexuality

• Craig


  Suggests there are 3 'media signifiers of gayness' common in the media.

  1. Camp - use or irony and exaggeration by characters that re regarded as extremely colourful and flamboyant figures of fun.
  2. Macho - relies on exaggerating traditional masculinity ie. police officers.
  3. Deviant - may be represented as deviant in TV to represent the guilt they feel about their sexuality. Plots tend to focus on heterosexual characters.
• Stonewall

  • The LGBT community is undergoing the process of symbolic annihilation.
  • LGBT are often assigned to roles for comedic relief, or something to mock and laugh at.
  • Lesbians are presented as over sexualised.
  • Stonewall discovered that out of 126hrs of programming, only 5hr 43 mins were focussed on LGBT related characters or issues, and only 46 minutes of this coverage portrayed it realistically and positively.
  • The majority of coverage portrayed gays as unhappy/distressed about their sexual orientation.
• The pick pound

  • This is the spending power of the LGBT community.
  • The power of the pink pound has been recognised by advertisers.
  • Companies have actively courted gay and lesbian consumers through gay-positive advertising.
  • Many gay people have a large disposable income due to lack of children which they can spend on media products.
  • This has led companies using gay positive advertising especially during pride month.
• Gauntlet

  • Argues LGBT are still underrepresented in much of mainstream media, but things are slowly changing for the better.
  • Tolerance of sexual diversity is slowly growing in society and images of diverse sexual identities with which audiences are unfamiliar may assist in making the population generally more comfortable with these alternative lifestyles.
  • TV drama is offering prime time audiences a chance to 'get to know' nice lesbian and gay characters in soap operas, drama series and sitcoms ie. coronation street.
• McRobbie

  • Highlights that in the 21st century, males were presented as sexual objects towards female audiences.
• Batchelor

  • When gay representations did appear in the media, they weren't integrated into plot lines, but rather gayness was part of their plot.
  • Being gay was seen as a source of anxiety or as a target of bullying.
  • Sexual health information has become more prevalent in the media.
  • Contraception was seen as a female responsibility.
  • Women talk about sex with their friends while men boast about it online.
  • The media present a lack of positive images of lesbian and gay teenagers and fail to represent sexual diversity.
• Philip Schofield

  • Came out as gay in 2020 and was supported by his wife and 2 children.
  • Many people claimed he was gay years before this, yet he was worried about the opinions of people and was scared to announce it.