The media industry holds the key to accurate representation, they just choose not to use it. While media has the power to influence societal standards for a greater good, they often lag behind what society wants.
Though there have been strides in including people of all genders and sexual orientations, more can be done.
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Shelley Birdsong said “media does not cultivate the good” when representing marginalized communities, as there is certainly an element of tokenism.
The token person of color or LGBTQIA member is often used to check off a box, putting up a facade that a broadcast or streaming service is “progressive.” Including token characters indicates a lack of understanding what representation really means. Instead, it assigns a single person the responsibility to stand in for an entire marginalized community.
Lack of representation goes beyond the screen, beginning with people who are in the writers’ room. Co-President of LGBTQIA student organization OUTreach Charlie Blim, ’20 said “the (TV shows) that are not doing a great job of representing LGBTQIA members are the ones attempting to tell the stories of people’s lives that they’ve never experienced before.”
Without members in the writers’ room who genuinely understand a concept or experience, minority groups are misrepresented. The lack of writers and directors leads to flat, one-dimensional characters we see in films like “Love, Simon,” “American Horror Story,” “Big Mouth” and so on.
Co-President of OUTreach Tori Borak, ’21, said that media is “progressive in the sheer quantity of LGBTQIA representation and more popularized content … but it’s not progressive in a lot of ways that shows use queerbaiting.” Queerbaiting is a means to attract a queer audience by featuring characters that hint at but are not explicitly queer.
From Betty and Veronica in “Riverdale” to Castiel and Dean in “Supernatural,” queerbaiting is a marketing tactic that hastily checks off loyalty from queer people.
“‘American Horror Story’ is often guilty of queerbaiting because they almost always hint at queer characters but never really have them, at least not for long,” said Borak.
While queerbaiting causes a stir and draws attention to a show, large franchises often exploit this type of behavior. “They don’t typically come from the standpoint, ‘We’re doing this for our queer audience,’ they come from the standpoint of, ‘We’re doing this to get a queer audience,’” said Borak.
The act of queerbaiting permits the media to remain complacent with one-dimensional characters that are defined by their queerness. This type of representation often lacks depth and creates flat characters within queer films, like “Love, Simon.” While the film is highly progressive in recognizing that there has not been a huge Blockbuster queer teen film, the film itself is stuck on the typical coming out plotline.
There is much more to the LGBTQIA journey than coming out. Commercializing the coming out stage is a sham that media uses to pretend it’s more inclusive of marginalized groups. Even within Simon’s coming out story, the producers fail to accurately portray this experience.
Borak said that Simon’s friend in the film gets mad about keeping this secret from her. “It’s highly dramatized.” Pointing to the fact that Simon’s personality trait is his gayness, which is often what media does to portray queer characters, even though queerness is not a personality trait.
“I think that music, movies, and TV almost always reinscribe negative views or whitewashed, one-dimensional characters and I think a lot more needs to be done to show that people are unique individuals and complex characters,” said Birdsong.
Even though LGBTQIA identities are multi-dimensional, society is stuck on the coming out stage. This is why the media must be held accountable to include more than just cisgender, straight people in the writers’ room. And sometimes, they do. There are a few pockets where the LGBTQIA community has shown through for its authenticity, in shows like “Pose,” “Steven Universe,” and “Queer Eye.”
The FX show “Pose” made history when it premiered this summer “with the largest number of transgender actors in series regular roles for a scripted series,” according to GLAAD, an American non-governmental media monitoring organization founded by LGBT people in the media. In fact, all five acting roles are played by transgender women of color.
Not only did the show receive applause from viewers, but from the industry itself. In the 2019 Emmys, actor Billy Porter took home his first Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. Porter made Emmy history, being the first openly gay black man to win this category.
In “Pose,” Porter plays Pray Tell, the charismatic emcee host on New York’s 1980s Ball Culture who struggles with an HIV diagnosis. The show itself broke grounds with producers, writers, directors and choreographers identifying as transgender, allowing the show to push past the routined “transition narrative.”
GLAAD recognizes “Pose” as a show that explores “the consequences of family rejection, poverty, and HIV, but also included stories of resilience, chosen family, and a romantic storyline through the relationship of Angel and Stan.”
Even within daytime kid shows, LGBTQIA representation is growing. Director Rebecca Sugar, who identifies as lesbian, created the show “Steven Universe” which is a GLAAD Media Award-nominee. The show held the first same-gender wedding on children’s television.
Following “Steven Universe,” Cartoon Networks’ “Adventure Time” wrapped up season 10 with a long-awaited marriage of Princess Bubblegum and Marceline the Vampire Queen.
Though LGBTQIA members in media is increasing in numbers, their representation needs to shift from flat and elementary storylines to multi-dimensional ones.
“I’m tired of [queerness]being made the center point of a character’s identity. I’m ready for main characters that are casually queer,” said Borak.
Characters who are casually queer like Rue (Zendaya) and Jules (Hunter Schafer) in HBO show “Euphoria” will exist. People who are fluid or asexual, like Todd Chavez in Netflix’s animated dark comedy “BoJack Horseman” will be featured. Superheroes like Anissa Pierce (Nafessa Williams) in “Black Lightning” will triumph. Viewers will no longer celebrate token queer characters as representation grows.
Let there be a day where it is not news to feature queerness in shows. “Where it’s just not exciting at all, it’s just normal, or typical,” said Birdsong.
