A part of my project: Sexuality in Media

This is a part of my senior year project. It's an article I wrote about how media portrays sexuality. I should add a part on Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty, but I don't have the energy, so I might do that tomorrow.

Sexuality Today: What do media tell us?

By: Frida Hellström

Today’s society, at least in the western world, is very technological, and this creates an entire new way of receiving information. From the TV we get impressions from all over the world, via the news but also through TV-series and movies. Listening to music has been available for centuries, but thanks to the Internet it is done fast and easily and everything can be found with just the stroke of a few keys. All these sources of information create places for influence. This mostly pertains to youths in today’s society but adults are affected too. This article deals with how sexuality is portrayed in a few media outlets today.

Starting off with movies it is easy to see that heterosexuality is still the focus of the majority of all movies, and few movies even feature any other kind of sexuality. However, homo- and bisexuality is making its way into the movie industry. Three Swedish movies in particular have received a lot of attention for this; Patrik 1,5, Kyss Mig and Fucking Åmål, the latter being close to 15 years old, was one of the first – if not the first – of its kind. Another movie in this category is the world-renowned Brokeback Mountain. Homosexuality has also been portrayed as a side-story in movies like Easy A, Valentine’s Day and Mamma Mia!. Even though the movies may be in minority, they are rising in numbers and they all make some kind of influence on their audiences.

As TV-series are much better at illustrating characters, and letting them grow, they are also better in portraying relationships than movies. TV-series are therefore thought by many to be a great influence on today’s society, and a great way to convey messages. There is a great deal of TV-series out there, but this article will deal with those of best knowledge to the author. Thinking of sexuality and TV-series an immediate leap to Glee is probably made. With it being a drama/comedy series about teenagers in high school, it contains a lot of relationship issues, and deals with really important issues surrounding coming to terms with one’s sexuality. In season one, the viewer got to know Kurt, who was then in his sophomore year and coming to terms with his sexuality, struggling with sharing his feelings with the world. A strong portrayal of the relationship between a homosexual boy and his father was made, with the work of Chris Colfer and Mike O’Malley. A brief mention of the character Rachel’s gay fathers was also made during this season. In the second season, however, a lot more focus was put on the issues with sexual orientation, and other relationships in the series. Some seem to think that Glee is only about gay kids – which it is not – but homosexuality, and bisexuality, was a major topic of the second season where Kurt found a boyfriend in Blaine, played by Darren Criss, and the bully Karofsky (Max Adler) came out of the closet. Another story line was that of Santana (Naya Rivera), falling in love with her best friend Brittany (Heather Morris) and realizing that she was lesbian. Another issue was raised at this point, when Brittany was in love with a boy in their show-choir, but in love with Santana as well, claiming to be “bi-curious”, portraying the difficulties of bisexuality. Glee does not only deal with coming to terms with one’s sexuality, but also with what it means to be different in today’s society. Kurt is bullied to the point of transferring schools – another reason that Santana wishes to stay in the closet – showing that it can be tough, but it gets better if you do not let yourself be pushed down.

Even though Glee is one of the leading stars in the area of TV-series portraying different sexualities there are several other well known series out there that deal with similar issues in one way or another. In the genre of medical-series the most known considering this subject is probably Grey’s Anatomy, which is a relationship drama series in every sense of the word. In it Sara Ramirez plays the bisexual surgeon Callie Torres, who falls in love with Dr. Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw). Callie also had an on-again-off-again with Mark Sloan (Eric Dane), marries George O’Malley (T.R. Knight) and has a brief relationship with Dr. Erica Hahn (Brooke Smith).  Robbins claims to be lesbian, or ‘exclusively homosexual’, showing two different sides of the topic, with both bisexuality and homosexuality. The series has not, as of yet, had any displays of a homosexual relationship between two men. A series in a similar category is Bones, where most relationships admittedly are heterosexual, though one of the characters, Angela (Michaela Conlin) had a brief relationship with a woman named Roxie (Nichole Hiltz) in season 4, before marrying Jack Hodgins (T.J. Thyne).

In the comedy genre we find a plethora of TV-series, two of which some people would call particularly brilliant; The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother.  Admittedly, no exact portrayal of same-sex relationships occur in The Big Bang Theory as the extent of relationship drama is between the heterosexual couples (and Raj’s (Kunal Nayyar) attempts to talk to women). Nonetheless, Amy (Mayim Bialik) seems to have some kind of sexual attraction to Penny (Kaley Cuoco). Additionally, Raj and Howard (Simon Helberg) are frequently assumed to be in a relationship with each other. In How I Met Your Mother it is also true that most relationships are heterosexual. However, the womanizer Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) has a brother (Wayne Brady) who is gay, and there is one episode where he gets married and adopts a kid.

Among more recent series one can find, for example, Revenge. Here, too, are heterosexual relationships the norm, even though the relationships are not the focus of the series. However, some plot is created around the character Nolan (Gabriel Mann) trying to blackmail and consequently ending up in bed with Tyler (Ashton Holmes). The actual sexualities of both of these characters are questionable, but thought to be heterosexual until aforementioned event. Without revealing too much of the plot it is latter revealed to be a plot from Tyler’s side and the entire thing is rather fishy.

One could definitely argue that it is not important that homo- or bisexuality to be the main issue in TV-series or movies. In all actuality, highlighting the fact that someone is of a different sexuality than the norm could backfire. Having an entire series focusing on the fact that some character is gay implies that they are different because they love someone of their own gender. To show that homosexuality is not wrong, homo- and bisexual characters should be included but not exclude all other characters in a series. Sure, they have to deal with issues other couples may not have to deal with, such as being accepted by society, but they are also normal. What sets them apart from the masses should not be who they love, but rather who they are as people, and therefore series such as Glee and Grey’s Anatomy, where only a few characters have other sexualities, and they are not always the centre of attention, are great in giving the message that “it does not matter who you love, what matters is who you are”.

Another influential part of media today is music, being an important part of many youths lives, as well as one can assume it is important for adults. Music is a great way of letting out emotions and all the great songs come from a place of pain, something that everyone can relate to. However, issues such as sexuality are much less obvious in songs, as they, if they concern love, often can be sung by both genders to both genders, one example being Songbird by Eva Cassidy. However, there is one song in particular that rather obviously concerns this issue and that is I Kissed a Girl by Katy Perry. The song is mostly just a catchy pop song but also deals with at least bi-curious feelings for the same gender, expressing an interesting view-point.

The song Born This Way by Lady Gaga has also been mentioned in similar contexts and has been referred to as the “gay community’s anthem”. It deals with accepting yourself for who you are, and is probably aimed towards minorities in general. Another song that comes to mind when writing about music in this context is the song My Best Friend by Hello Saferide. Like Katy Perry’s I Kissed a Girl it is very much just a catchy song but also deals with bi-curious feelings in some ways. A part of the lyrics is “I wish I was a lesbian and that you were too” actually rising the point on this issue of Gay Today’s front page. Why am I not gay? The song implies that is not a choice; she was born and there is nothing she can do about it. That is actually a popular message in today’s society, and a common belief; there is nothing we can do about who we love. We will find out if this is true later.

Looking western media today, and especially TV-series, one can see that our society is becoming more and more accepting of sexualities that do not necessarily belong to the norm. Hopefully this also helps with invoking better rights for the LGBT-community (Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans-community) as well as showing youths that “Gay is Okay” – and thus lessening bullying etc. for such reasons. One likes to think that we are moving forward with our level of acceptance and that the media world is helping us do so.