In today’s ever evolving world, media and television play an influential role in our day-to-day lives. From pop culture to raving about the next season of a well-loved series, it reigns power, which when used to one’s advantage can spread awareness and shape others’ perceptions. But for the LGBTQIA+ community, media is more than just that. It’s a platform to show others, like them, who are well known and widely loved.
And it doesn’t end at that, it’s scientifically proven by surveys and experiments- A survey by GLADD and P&G in 2020 found that queer representation increased its representation by 45%. And complexities can be broken down too, seeing things normalizes it. Just like the way going to school each day has made it normal over time from your first day. Seeing queer characters on screen regularly, will normalize their presence and acceptance, thus taking a step towards destigmatizing the community.
With this, the LGBTQIA+ community will be seen and heard. But it’s also imperative to keep in mind the layered complexity of identities while trying to represent them. Including only white, well-off, gay men won’t make the cut. Curating a blend of different ethnicities, races, cultures, sizes, disabilities, and more is what will bring the true essence of representation, especially on media, where many minorities have been advocating for their presence. (Take a look at our previous blog on intersectionality to know more about the depth of a person’s identity)
However, how the queer community is represented on media also effects its perception. As for yourself, is the representation you are seeing on tv realistic, accurate, relatable, diverse? Let’s take a look at how queer representation looks like in media and its different types.
No Representation
More like the absence of representation, many shows show no queer people, or sometimes characters with no diversity at all. I don’t think you can find any LGBTQIA+ characters in franchises like Jurassic Park. In addition, many countries such as Singapore are notorious for censoring queer media.
Negative Representation
Negative representation usually revolves around stereotypes, prejudice, and preconceived notions. All this can hurst members of the community by succumbing to stereotypes. An example is the show “Orange is the New Black” where it is not directly mentioned but lines such as the character calling herself lesbian turner straight, implies that there is not a in between straight and gay, not considering bisexuality.
Positive Representation
Positive representation, openly accepts and realistically depicts queer characters, which audiences have come to know and love. It helps destigmatize the community and build awareness. Idealistic representation would be where a character’s problems do not revolve around queerness, although it’s not that widely seen.
This article only covers a few of the ways the community is represented in media. Other ways are queerbaiting, token representation, retroactive representation, and more and all of them have different impacts. It’s going to take time to fully master representation because identities are complex and self-explanatory, but while we wait its best to enjoy all the characteristics of individuals, queer or not. In the end, it is the steps taken to foster acceptance that can really help advocate for LGBTQIA+ representation on media, television, the big screen, or a small alleyway where everyone gathers to watch a show on their communal TV.
