Sunday, December 1, 2013
Every Single Week (due by section meeting Wed.)
According to Anna McCarthy, ABC’s president, Robert A Iger, said of Ellen that it “became a program about a character who was gay every single week, and… that was too much for people.” McCarthy describes this perspective as maintaining the “fantasy of queer identity as something that can be switched on for special occasions” along with a “fear of a quotidian, ongoing lesbian life on television.” Since Ellen’s coming out episode in 1997, a number of queer characters, generally secondary characters, have appeared on both broadcast and cable television. Choose a program with a queer character from the 2000s that you are familiar with and examine whether or not that character’s relationship to their sexuality is truly serialized or only focused on during “special occasions,” whether to play up a particular stance on sexual identity or for eroticizing reasons.
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I think some of the most obvious queer characters from the 2000s come from Modern Family on ABC with Cam and Mitchell. I think their sexuality is definitely serialized in that it is apparent in each and every episode. It is certainly not reserved for special occasions. The comment about it being “too much for people” does not necessarily apply to Cam and Mitchell, because they are part of a larger ensemble cast, whereas Ellen DeGeneres’s sitcom was centered on only her. If audiences take issue with queer themes on Modern Family, they are quickly shown a different scene with characters that are heterosexual, which effectively negates the problem.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Cam’s sexuality in particular is often played up for comedic effect. This is frequently the case with especially flamboyant characters like Cam. The characterization of Mitchell’s sexuality is more subdued, with it being approached with somewhat more subtlety. However, I don’t think the characters have a quality of being caricatural or stereotypical—the fact that they are gay is not the only dimension to their personalities. They deal with problems that are not constantly related to their sexuality. The jokes on the show regarding the two of them can often be completely unrelated to their sexuality. Overall, the writing and the characters themselves are very well rounded.
Kiera - I agree completely with what you have presented here. Cam and Mitchell are one of the most popular gay couples on television right now and this is clearly shown in the large following of the show and the weekly episodes that showcase the couple. Seeing as they are major, reoccurring characters, I would agree with you in saying that they are not "too much for people," but rather provide immense amounts of humor and entertainment that the show thrives on. Furthermore, their sexuality is most definitely serialized as each week Cam and Mitchell reference their sexuality or at least one of the other characters does, in a way that is both funny and reassuring of their acceptance in both their families and society at large. You make a very good point about the characters being very well rounded, which I think is very important in the portrayal of gays and lesbians in the media today.
DeleteIn the program How I Met Your Mother, Barney has a brother James who is gay. While James is not in every episode, essentially every episode that he is in, there is some sort of focus on him as a gay character. In one episode, Barney objects to James marrying his boyfriend Tom. It is initially set up in order to lead the audience to believe that Barney is against the idea of gay marriage specifically, but in the end it turns out that, in a fashion typical to Barney, he is not against gay marriage, but all forms of monogamous relationships in general. In the end, Barney approves of their relationship after finding out that he will be an uncle because James and Tom are intending to adopt a baby. This represents another "issue" with gay relationships held by many conservatives that the show showed support for by depicting Barney's happiness with the situation. In a later episode, it is revealed that James and Tom are getting a divorce, which causes Barney to have second thoughts about his own impending marriage at the time. This comparison between the two relationships normalizes gay marriage in this context.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the show does not always include a gay character, when it does the focus is almost solely on the character in terms of his sexuality. This doesn't exactly represent a serial depiction of homosexuality or a spectacular depiction. It falls somewhere in the middle ground of the two.
The show Glee has a few gay teen characters to promote a pro-gay rights platform, and also to inform America of what it is like to be a gay teen. Though there are many episodes that are lesbian and gay PSA episodes, there are also episodes in between that deal with other issues teens face; therefore the show derives "special occasion" episodes out of issues of religion and socioeconomic issues too. Additionally the gay characters in the show are vastly different from the other gay characters. Each episode still allows the audience to understand that these characters are gay, but only some episodes use their sexuality as the main plot.
ReplyDeleteIn many episodes we see characters such as Blaine and Kurt go on dates or be affectionate towards each other. In these episodes the audience sees them as a couple, not as a gay couple. In an episode where Blaine and Kurt are on a date Blaine talks about his love of college football, a conversation any male character would generally have in a show and therefore not making his character just a gay character but a regular character in the show just like every other character.
In the Prom episode, the idea of gay struggles in high school is the theme when Kurt is humiliated by being voted Prom Queen. It's in episodes like this that being gay is the source of the tension and drama of the episode. A stereotype about men being gay makes them feminine is used to evoke emotion, and is solved by the love and support of Kurt’s friends and his boyfriend Blaine.
We know these characters are gay on the show but that show does not revolve around what being gay is like. The homosexual and heterosexual relationships on Glee are very equal and there are many relationship themed episodes where the heterosexual couple and homosexual couple are facing the exact same issues. Being gay on this show has a middle ground between being a special occasion and a serialization. I suppose on the episodes where Kurt and Blaine aren't being antagonized on the basis of being gay, we see them as just a couple. The show often makes the statement about being gay without making a statement at all.
Modern Family’s Cameron and Mitchell are the first characters to come to mind. I feel the Modern Family’s purpose is in continuation to that of Ellen. Where Ellen used the queer concept as “special occasion,” a one time spectacular, Modern Family made it a norm to present queer content on its program. It presents an openly gay couple raising a child. Within this same context lays the comedy, but it helps speak of a topic that otherwise would be harder to speak of.
ReplyDeleteI would say that serialized, but at the same time it does specifically pick on the characters sexuality. There are certain episodes where it will play on Cameron’s lack of masculinity and place him in certain situations where he either proves his lack of masculinity or tries to assert his masculinity. In another episode, Cameron and Mitchell both try to warn Alex of her boyfriends sexuality even though the boy never reveals if he is gay or not.
I feel that the program is designed where the audience knows of the characters sexual orientation and therefore no comment has to be made. Yet, there are “special occasions” specifically highlight the characters sexual orientation in order to heighten the comedy in the program.
After reading this prompt the first television show that came to mind was Will and Grace. This show was a pioneer of its time, featuring multiple homosexual characters that freely express their sexuality in everyday situations without shame. While this show put a very positive spin on the potentially controversial topic of homosexuality on television it is still surprisingly flawed. The homosexuality of the two main male characters, Will and Jack, is frequently spoken about, though never expressed physically on screen. This restriction coupled with the masked heterosexuality present in Will’s relationship with his best friend Grace enforces an oppression of gay sexuality.
ReplyDeleteIt seems as though the show allows gossip of gay actions, or such sexual acts in theory, but never in practice. They try to play it safe by portraying the deepest, most loving, even remotely sexual relationship between Grace and Will. This is a heterosexual relationship like many that the American public has seen before. It is saving the real homosexuality not even for “special occasions”, but keeping it out of view forever. While this show may seem liberating, it may just be another form of oppression.
Happy Endings, a show about friends living in Chicago, had a gay character (Max Blum played by Adam Pally) who was a primary character. Max’s sexuality was not necessarily apparent in every episode depending on wholes storyline the show focused on that week but when an episode was focused on his character at least one line hinted at his sexuality. Most of the storylines of both gay and straight characters are focused on their relationships and love lives, however it was not the only topic that was addressed. Max’s character goes entirely against the stereotyped version of gay men because he enjoys sports, lives in a crappy apartment and is generally disgusting, he does not dress very well, and he is capable of having straight male friends without falling for them. Since the show is mostly concerned with puns and getting jokes off (joke that not everyone will get) the sexuality of characters like Max are not of utmost importance unless it assists in a joke or is part of the central storyline. If you were to watch all of the episodes of Happy Endings you would obviously know that Max is gay but if you to only watch one episode, depending on which one, you might only know that the character is gay if you “got” the joke. This way of hinting at homosexuality is present in many other shows as well. For example, in one episode of Game of Thrones a character mutters, “he’s a sword swallower through and through,” and while we do see the character that this quote is about exhibit his sexuality these things don’t necessarily occur back to back in the same episode so it is highlight throughout the series not on a single occasion.
ReplyDeleteAlexis - I love that you brought up the show Happy Endings, especially the character Max! I entirely agree with you that his sexuality is not apparent based on his looks, or any other characteristic but I do believe that his sexuality was at least hinted to or highlighted in one way or another in most of the episodes; in this way, Max's sexuality would appear to be serialized, however, there could be some dispute over this in that his characters is not outwardly homosexual in every episode. Overall, I found Max to be hilarious and a pivotal character in the show, which gave a nice contrast to the typical gay representations in the media today.
DeleteI think that Modern Family is one of the only recent shows featuring homosexual characters that did not feature those characters coming out. I think this is important to note, since many shows featuring homosexual secondary characters, such as Glee, devote entire episodes to their coming out. On Modern Family, Cam and Mitchell are homosexuals from the start of the show. This means that the focus is more on these characters operating as a couple from episode to episode as opposed to when episodes become less about a character coming out and more about every other character reacting to it. There is no point in Modern Family where each family member has to “deal with” Mitch and Cam coming out. In the beginning of the show there were some episodes where Jay would be intolerant towards his son however the show has moved on from that.
ReplyDeleteOf course Modern Family is not the ideal standard of homosexual portrayal in television. At times it seems that the inclusion of a gay couple on the show is representative of diversity purely for the sake of diversity. Claire and Phil’s family is more of the standard, while Gloria and Jay are the interracial couple and that leaves Cam and Mitch as the gay couple and the writing really plays to that, excessively so. Additionally, as I discussed in my research paper comparing Modern Family and Leave it to Beaver, while Mitch and Cam are not a traditional family, they still conform to the gender roles of a traditional family with Mitch working away from the home and Cam staying home with his adopted daughter. Also, their sexuality is usually the basis of their comedic material on the show. However, I do think that within the writing of the show, many times Mitch and Cam acknowledge that their actions may be “stereotypically gay” and some episodes do focus on them pushing against that stereotype or playing into it.
In the current season of the television medical drama series, Grey’s Anatomy, the characters, Callie Torres and Arizona Robbins, are in a romantic relationship. In the first few seasons, Torres was portrayed as a straight woman involved in multiple romantic relationships, including her marriage to George O’Malley and the birth of her baby with Mark Sloan. That being said, Torres was impregnated when she first started dating one of the hospital surgeons, Arizona Robbins. Although her relationship with Robbins has lasted until the current season, she was involved with another woman, Erica Hahn, the hospital chief, beforehand. Evidently, Torres was initially depicted as being bisexual as she jumped between relationships with both male and female characters. Throughout these seasons, her bisexual storyline was serialized as her relationships were a part of almost every episode, whether it was the focus or the periphery of the episode’s plot.
ReplyDeleteIn the most recent seasons, Torres has been portrayed as being lesbian, as her relationship with Robbins has flourished into them living in an apartment and raising Torres’ and Sloan’s baby together. Evidently, Torres’ sexual orientation has been juggled from being straight to bi to lesbian, however, it is important to notice the significance it holds throughout each of the seasons’ episodes. With that said, her varying relationships could be argued as being used only to add romantic spunk and drama to the show. On the other hand, it could be looked at as being truly serialized instead of being featured to simply add eroticism to particular scenes.
Personally, I believe Torres’ sexual orientation is a part of Grey’s storyline and receives tremendous focus, not just on “special occasions.” The episodes explore the ups and downs of her relationships and never portray Torres or Robbins as being uncomfortable with being lesbian. With that said, her relationships have been praised and condemned on the show; her colleagues and friends supported her when she came out, however, her father expressed high disappointment but eventually accepts her sexuality. Furthermore, Torres and Robbins’ marriage is featured in one of the episodes along with their sexual encounters with one another. Evidently, Grey’s portrays gays as being accepted and not anything of the extraordinary, but rather as a healthy, normal romantic relationship between two individuals. Additionally, the show does not seem to use the characters’ sexual orientation in order to add humor to the show like past shows have been seen to do. Overall, the fact that Torres is a lesbian appears to be another aspect of the plot rather than an occasional focus on Grey’s Anatomy.
The character that I am choosing not examine is David from Six Feet Under. I think that David is the most well-rounded gay character that I have seen on TV while still having a serialized plot line that revolved heavily around his sexuality.
ReplyDeleteDavid's sexuality is very serialized not only because it is often shown in every episode through his sexual or romantic interactions, but because it remains part of his character arch throughout the entire series. The first season for David revolves around his struggles with his sexuality. Not only does the season address issues of him coming out to his family, having a first romantic relationship with a man, and coming to a greater comfortability with himself and his past, but it also focuses on other conflicts such as work aspirations and family grieving that are interwoven with his sexuality.
Throughout the rest of the series, David's sexuality still remains very important for other seasons arcs. By the third season, the arc is about his struggle to maintain a relationship with his boyfriend. The later seasons are centered around his struggle to raise children in a gay household. While these story lines revolve around very human, relatable, and complex issues for gays or straights, his sexuality always plays a distinguishing part that makes his journey different from a heterosexual's journey. For instance, when he refuses to break up with his lover even though they fight constantly, straight people often ask him "why are you still together if you don't have kids?" Another example of how his sexuality makes his human growth different from straights is the obstacles he faces in gaining the approval of a teen he adopts that was raised with homophobic ideals.
What is important to note is that David's sexuality is never spectacle. We do not laugh at or eroticize David's gay lifestyle, but rather follow how he tries to live his life with the obstacles his gayness has given him. David is seen as a brother, son, father, lover, and career man, but his sexuality is made visible at some point in all of these roles. His sexuality is not an event, but a characteristic deeply important to his psyche that is constantly distinguishing his life through obstacles, love, and family.
ABC's Modern Family, one of the most popular shows on air today, prominently features a homosexual couple, Cameron Tucker and Mitch Pritchett. I absolutely believe that the relationship these two have with their sexuality on the show is serialized, rather than only being something that plays up for special occasions. From the very beginning of the show, the two were a gay couple who were loved and accepted by most other cast members on the show, including the entirety of their respective families. So very many episodes of the show have some plot line with Cam and Mitch focused around something that's happening in their lives due to their being gay. Whether it be their feuding with lesbians, hosting a party, or trying to find a baby to adopt, the two face various situations on account of their sexuality. These plot lines on the show are given no preference over any other arcs, and don't really fall behind anything either; they just happen in the same way anything else on Modern Family happens, making the show not something about two gay characters every week, but rather just a show with gay characters intermingling with everyone else with no issues. In my opinion, Modern Family is absolutely not too much for people, as is evidenced by its stellar numbers thus far in its existence. Of course there are people who find themselves offended seeing gay characters in such prominent roles, or even at all, on television. However, these people simply don't watch the show, and as our society has become more progressive and accepting of the varying different religions, races, and ideas on sexuality present today, shows like Modern Family have been able to find greater and greater success as people less often complain about gay people on the television.
ReplyDeleteOf all of the queer characters to appear on television during the past decade, perhaps the most nuanced and complex has been that of veteran Los Angeles beat cop John Cooper (superbly portrayed by Michael Cudlitz), on the underappreciated police drama, Southland. Rather than play up or focus on his sexuality when relevant to a story arch, the program instead deliberately refrains from commenting upon – or even explicitly acknowledging – it at all. Instead, his personal story quietly unfolds in a starkly realistic manner.
ReplyDeleteHaving sustained a terrible back injury earlier in his career, he continues to silently struggle with a pain killer addiction. An intensely private man, he makes the conscious choice to keep his personal and professional life separate, thus remaining closeted within the highly chauvinistic environs of the police force. Indeed, the closest he ever comes to discussing these matters while on the job are in a conversation about a deceased man in which he casually mentions having seen him in a gay bar. Though one might expect this statement to elicit a response or lead to some greater revelation, the writers simply leave it at that – he neither offers a further explanation nor receives any questions – it just is.
Though not out to his coworkers, Cooper by no means denies his sexuality, which is depicted in his life outside of work in numerous ways. Rather than overemphasizing or directly commenting upon this, however, the showrunners boldly let the subtle imagery and situations speak for themselves: a man builds a wall in Cooper’s garden, in which we later see the two standing arm in arm, watching a Fourth of July fireworks display; he regularly frequents a gay bar, the only allusion to which is the absence of female patrons; he maintains a friendly, though obviously strained, relationship with his ex-wife, who clearly still loves him and is struggling to accept his sexuality. Thus, with these and many other scenarios, John Cooper lives a multifaceted onscreen life, one in which – like all people – he refuses to allow his sexual orientation to function as the sole characteristic of his identity.
ABC Family’s name is misleading. The channel’s appeal to “family” might lead some to peg it has having more conservative leanings, and yet, in my opinion, ABC Family is one of the best channels on television today in terms of representations of LGBTQ characters. The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Switched at Birth both have at least one gay secondary character. A newer shower, The Fosters, even bases its whole premise around the story of an interracial lesbian couple that is raising a large family of foster children. And on its very successful show Pretty Little Liars, one of the four main characters, Emily Fields, is a lesbian.
ReplyDeleteWhat is great about Emily’s storyline is that it is highly serialized in terms of her sexuality. The show doesn’t just play up her lesbianism when it wants to, it doesn’t give her a lesbian kiss around sweeps time in an attempt to increase ratings (as The OC did). Instead, Emily’s storyline is rich and nuanced, and her love life is treated just like the other girls’—the only difference being that Emily’s relationships just so happen to be with other girls. In the first season, Emily struggles with her sexuality but eventually comes out to her friends, who take it very positively. Later, they start to gently joke with her and tease her about her sexuality, pointing out girls she may like. But none of this joking is at Emily’s expense, and none of the jokes are born of ignorance or homophobia. Instead, it is the sort of teasing that is common for girls to do to each other about their crushes or love interests. Emily’s friends also stand up for her in instances where people are not so accepting of her sexuality, as evidenced by this gif set (gif 1: http://25.media.tumblr.com/db5d42a5529c1b2aacb396d072d689fb/tumblr_mk7e51ZiWM1r18uvso1_250.gif gif 2: http://24.media.tumblr.com/0dd01bcf613e3f24109d207363c03c6b/tumblr_mk7e51ZiWM1r18uvso2_250.gif). As the seasons progress, Emily’s sexuality is always a presence but never an issue. It is part of her, but never the only part of her. In short, her sexuality is just one facet of her characterization; she is not defined by it.
One problem I have with gay characters on television is that, often, their sexuality is this big issue, something that always needs to be addressed. Coming out is often a large part of their storyline. I would like to see television move more towards Emily’s representation in the later seasons of Pretty Little Liars, where her sexuality is no longer a source of drama but just a part of her character. Instead of the often long, drawn out storylines of coming out, we would just learn of gay character’s sexualities organically, through dialogue or action. I get that shows that portray characters coming out are trying to give audiences a sympathetic look at what it means to be gay now, but I think they could give audiences more credit and assume that they know about those difficulties already. I hope that future LGBTQ storylines on television are less about coming out and more about living “out.”
On ABC’s Modern Family, Cameron Tucker is a queer character. While his partner, Mitchell, is mild-mannered and uptight, Cameron contrasts him by being dramatic and flamboyant. Cam’s sexuality is played up on special occasions, but not in discriminatory or condescending fashion. For example, when the couple’s adopted daughter Lily is welcomed into the family, Cam insists on staging a quotation from Disney’s The Lion King (Hello, synergy.). His staging fuels the stereotype that queer characters are interested in the theatrical arts. And Eric Stonestreet, the actor who plays Cam, claims to model the character after his mother, thus contributing to the stereotype that queer characters are feminine. These stereotype affirmations are counteracted, however, by playing up moments in which Cam exhibits characteristics stereotypical of straight characters. For example, Cam’s growing up on a farm and starting as the center for the University of Illinois football team feed the stereotype that straight characters are masculine. Thus, though Cam fulfills stereotypes, he isn’t a stereotype. On a more macro-scale, by positioning Cam as a protagonist on the television sitcom beside a traditional family, the Dunphy’s, the television show forwards that queer characters are normal, are mundane. To disagree with ABC’s Modern Family is backwards.
ReplyDeleteOne of the first examples that I thought of when considering queer characters in a television program was Callie Torres on Grey’s Anatomy. I thought of her because, to me, she is one of the most realistic queer characters on television today and not only represents gay people today but also represents how gay characters will be represented on television in the future.
ReplyDeleteCallie’s sexuality has been a serialized plotline for the better part of 10 seasons. As Sarah discussed in her post, Callie’s character begins as a straight character, then is represented as a bisexual character, and is currently portrayed as a lesbian character. The thing that I think is so unique about Callie and her portrayal as a queer character compared to Ellen’s coming out is that it is portrayed just like every other relationship on the show. Granted, since she began as a straight character so there had to be an episode when she came out and how people reacted to that. However, it was present as one of multiple story lines in the episode and was carried over a couple episodes instead of being a special occasion. I believe that the transition from straight to bisexual to lesbian really helped serialize the storyline. Also, ever since then, Grey’s Anatomy has done a great job of showing Callie and her relationships as a normal part of society and on the same level as all of the other relationships. True, her relationship with Arizona is sometimes eroticized but so is every relationship on the show. There is also some comedy associated with it. For example, a straight female intern, Joe, wants better surgeries so she attempts to flirt with Callie. It is more important that they show her going through problems in her relationship that anyone could experience. For example, raising a child or dealing with the emotional repercussions of supporting a loved one who becomes an amputee. Callie is represented primarily as a doctor and a person, not as a lesbian.
Grey’s Anatomy also solidifies the normalcy of her sexuality using her own relationships in addition to other relationships on the show. The most prominent example is how both of her marriages effectively end or almost end. Her marriage to George ends because he has an affair with Izzy and her marriage to Arizona is put in turmoil because she cheats on Callie with a visiting doctor. It’s tragic, but the same thing happens to her regardless of her sexuality. That is why I feel Callie Torres is the most realistic and tempered portrayal of a queer character on television today.