LGBTQI representation- lack of diversity?

I think that one of the important things to remember is that the media in general is not the greatest at representing how diverse a group of people are. We have seen this with many minority groups, not just LGBTQI people.

As for the second part of this question, I think that the LGBTQI community is somewhat accepting, but not as much as it can be.

The first group that I think of is multisexuals. There is a lot of stereotypes and misinformation out there about multisexuals. These are your common "bisexual people are promiscuous" and other statements like that. You can see from the amount of threads that people have posted about these topics that these statements affect them a lot.

Transgender people also are highly affected with this mentality. I have had some people tell me that I should "be a butch lesbian" and that I was just "destroying myself". It can be worse for non-binary people, who are often told to "choose a gender" and to "get over themselves".

These are all things that I have heard (or my friends have heard) from the LGBTQI community. I wish that I could say that the community is more inclusive, but in some cases it really is not, and that is something that we have to be aware of.

 

I don't take any notice of how the TV sees life. They are more interested in making money than portraying the real world

 

Almost all straight male actors are fit and attractive too... Or at least made to be so.

 

A gay character can be either fit or not. Can be the girl's best friend or not. But one thing is sure: He will lack of sexual desires and a romantic partner when portrayed in mainstream media

 

I've noticed that they only really ever have queer characters foor one of 3 reasons: a)Token queer (pretend to be inclusive) b) for a storyline ABOUT being queer or c) the but of a joke. Either way they are going to be full of stereotypes like everyone who isn't straight white cisgendered able bodied neurotypical male because writers struggle to write people who aren't for some reason.

 

Just throwing these out, because I'm not sure if there is truth to what you are saying or not... havent really thought about it a lot.

I've only watched a few episodes of series like The L Word and got bored. The reason I found the L word annoying is that they seemed to cover only a certain segment of society, then again thats what most media does. I also see the "hot" representation in shows aimed at straight people, but I think it just depends on the show/characters and whats intended.

I just started watching (and became addicted to) Queer as Folk and all of the gay guys/women are definitely NOT hot.

In all honesty I see a lack of representation of people of color.

Anyhoo, I go back and forth with generalizations. Generalizations exist because the ideas tend to be generally true. In the LGBT community, however, so many people have been forced to hide that many have no idea regarding diversity of appearance.

What REALLY bugs me is the general notion that all lesbians are ugly, all femme lesbians are hot and desirable and all butch lesbians are ugly and undesirable... and overall the idea that ALLL lesbians fall into those two categories.

I've often mused that the media representation of groups reflects societies perception, so there you go.

 

It seems worse for transgendered individuals. I don't know the last time I actually saw a television character that is supposed to be trans or non-binary. I see gays and lesbians all the time, even if they are hotter than average people.

 

I have to say--and maybe it's just that I'm older so have more to compare it to--but I think media representations of gay people have improved so incredibly. The thing I particularly like is that more and more you see characters who are gay for no reason plot wise. There was a time when anyone who was gay you started to wonder why they chose to make that character gay, meaning how does that advance the plot. Now they're just there because they're there. I saw a show the other night--some sort of crime procedural drama. So a guy gets killed, because that's what happens in those shows, and there's a lot of interaction with the grieving husband. And so I immediately started second guessing how the fact that they are a gay couple fits into the case. It never did--dude could have been a woman and it wouldn't have really changed the plot at all. The couple had been written gay instead of straight in the same way they might have been written blond instead of brunette. I see that more and more and I think that's real progress.

As to the whole thing with them being attractive--a lot of people on TV are quite attractive (sometimes it's one of the things that's enjoyable about watching TV). As to the whole thing where they will never have a boyfriend/girlfriend/partner/spouse or show any real affection--I don't honestly think that's been the case for almost five years now. I think it's a real mark of progress that now we complain that the plentiful gay people in the media don't properly represent the breadth of the community--when I was growing up there weren't any, attractive or not. When I realized I might be gay I really thought I might be the only one--no one in the States with a TV will ever think that again...

 

I also think it's really improving.

I don't know if any of you watch Brooklyn 9-9, but captain Holt (Andre Braugher) is an incredibly positive portrayal of a gay man who doesn't fit nearly any of the stereotypes but is just a (hilariously deadpan) man that is very good at his job and just an all around decent person that happens to be gay.

Happy Endings was cancelled a couple years ago but it had Adam Pally playing a very non-stereotypical, slobby almost frat-boy kind of gay guy.

These are roles that I don't think were anywhere to be found 10-15 years ago. It may not be where it should be, but it is progress.

I'm sure there's ton's of other shows I dont' know about, those are just a couple examples that come to mind.

 

Yes, gay characters are there... for no reason whatsoever. They're sexless

 

What country are you in? I honestly don't feel like that is true at all on American TV--in fact I'd say a larger portion of the gay people I see on TV are coupled than I probably encounter in real life.

 

I agree a lot of TV characters are stereotypical, but I feel like it's improving a lot. And most people on TV are pretty attractive, it's not exclusive to LGBT characters.

 

I'm in total agreement. I've never really found any gay characers on TV I feel like I can relate to. They all feel fake; the show 'Queer as Folk' was particularly annoying. You never really see any punk/alternative sorts, they typically seem very fit, preppy, professional and well off, or else, really efffenite, or drag-queens living on the mean streets. I'd say it's still 99.9% stereotypes. I see hardly any diversity, and there is a very huge lack of young gay characters, and from what I've seen, an almost total lack of showing such characters dating and having fun and going out like 'normal' kids. If there's been much improvement, I've missed it...