Snippets about: LGBTQ
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The Rules of Representing Gay Life on TV
Scholar Bonnie Dow identified persistent patterns in how gay characters were portrayed on American television from the 1970s through the 1990s:
- Gay characters are only peripheral in stories ostensibly about them. They are foils designed to teach the straight characters tolerance.
- Being gay is presented as the overwhelming problem in a gay character's life, often leading to misery and death.
- Gay characters appear in isolation, never in community with other gay people.
These tropes reinforced a dominant tragic narrative of homosexuality incompatible with fulfillment or social integration. Hit 1990s shows like Doing Time on Maple Drive centered a gay character's struggle, but still portrayed him as an anomaly, a Problem to be Solved. Such shows did little to undermine the assumption that heterosexuality was the necessary bedrock of family life.
Section: 3, Chapter: 8
Book: Revenge of the Tipping Point
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
"Will & Grace" Subverts Sitcom Tropes To Normalize Gay Characters
The hit 1998 sitcom "Will & Grace" featured gay lawyer Will and his straight female friend Grace as leads, with gay character Jack as a flamboyant sidekick. Though criticized by some as stereotypical, the show subverted common TV tropes by:
- Making gay characters central to the story
- Not treating gayness as a problem to be solved
- Showing gay characters with gay friends and community
While Will remained celibate, the show portrayed him as a successful, funny, relatable person who just happened to be gay - a radical step for 90s network TV.
Section: 3, Chapter: 8
Book: Revenge of the Tipping Point
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
The Long Arc of Changing Attitudes Toward Gay Rights
In the early 1980s, when Evan Wolfson wrote his law school thesis making the case for same-sex marriage, the idea was so far outside the mainstream that he couldn't find a professor willing to serve as his advisor. Popular culture, exemplified by the 1969 bestseller Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), portrayed gay men as promiscuous, maladjusted, and incapable of stable relationships.
The AIDS crisis further stigmatized gay life in the public imagination. In 2004, a majority of Americans supported amending the U.S. Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage.
Yet by 2012, the tide had dramatically turned, with a rapid cascade of states legalizing same-sex marriage and polls registering solid majority support. Once considered an impossibility, gay marriage became the norm in a historical blink of an eye. Understanding this dizzying transformation requires looking beyond politics to the realm of popular culture.
Section: 3, Chapter: 8
Book: Revenge of the Tipping Point
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
