Stereotypes

The LGBT civil rights movement was just as powerful as that of the African American community, but it is still evident that the war for equality is still going on today with little signs of slowing down. Although not every American paid as much attention to the LGBT movement as they did with the African-American movement, television and movies have gradually provided a place for homosexuals and soon America seemed to get a little bit more used to homosexuality both positively and negatively. Although homosexuality has existed for a long time, the All-American and holy culture that America has adopted has been neglecting of any way of life that doesn’t associate with that of the upper/middle-class heterosexual white male who has been the ultimate image of what an American should be like. Homosexuality was frowned upon back in the early to mid-twentieth century; so much that articles were written about how being gay meant having a mental illness, according to the American Psychiatric Association, or being mentally disturbed (McGovern 2011). So now that Americans have these negative opinions about homosexuality, they were also terrified after finding out that homosexuality was a choice and that anyone could choose that lifestyle. It has been false facts like these that have led curious adolescents to feel like there is something wrong with them. There weren’t many homosexual portrayals on television (some in movies) until the mid-1990s when there was an explosion of gay representation on TV. Some movies existed in the 80’s/ early 90’s era that covered homosexuality and the AIDS virus, which was a serious matter. Since then, the AIDS virus has been a stereotype and a negative part of the homosexual culture. Integrating homosexuality on network television has slowly made it more “normal” to society and reassured people that there was such thing as a gay community. In other words, the mid-90’s brought in homosexuality on regular television in order to mirror the real world with TV (Sender 2006). As the fight for equality was still in full effect, homosexuals were always the victim of ridicule and in the background of the story. Lately though, homosexuals have been given more complex roles and lead roles. But what has always caught my attention was that most of the homosexual males on TV were portrayed as being feminine, submissive and flamboyant (all of the traits of a woman) while it was hard to tell if a woman on television was lesbian or not. Lesbian or bisexual women are often portrayed as highly sexual, adulterous and often more masculine than men. And all gays in general would soon face a sad fate. This is a problem because not only are these stereotypes shown too much, but because they influence viewers on thinking that this is how homosexuals really are. This is also misleading to adolescents who have questions about their own sexuality for these stereotypes might make bi-curious teens to think that they are supposed to inherit the traits of the homosexuals that are on TV. About 40% of Americans gain their beliefs of homosexuality right from various forms of media (McGovern 2011).

This video below shows examples from movies and TV shows how heterosexuals are expected to react whenever there's homosexuality around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bB6KvdKdKw

And this is a video showing how gays are most commonly used in the media.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJyV85J1VhM