Impacts of the representation
4.3 Impacts of the representation
“I love Kieren [a gay character in In the Flesh], and again I can parallel a lot with him, with
my family situation.” – Ken
Most of my participants assumed that there are impacts on straight audiences of those representations in TV series. They thought that because programmes show gay people in
a certain way (maybe a stereotypical way) then the audiences may expect gay men to behave like that. Or if people already have prejudice against gay people, and those
programmes show gay people in a stereotypical way, then this kind of representation will reinforce their prejudices. However, only one of my participants actually told me that he had suffered negative experiences as a result of stereotypical portrayals of gay men, such as the character Sean in Coronation Street . “Because I am camp, people always say that I am as camp as him [Sean]. I don’t like the comparison, because it’s a pinpoint to me, and pricking me into the stereotype which I dislike” said Eddy. He does not like people to put a label on him, especially when he considers it to be a wrong label. “I am not like him; he is a middle-class camp gay man. I belong to the cub gay community, which is totally different from him” he added. Therefore, he was calling for more representation of different sub- communities or sub-cultures within the gay community.
On the other hand, a few participants did not feel that the representation of gay males in TV series will affect people’s perception. Luke questioned: “If people’s minds are that easy to change, then there wouldn’t be any discrimination towards minorities”. John said “If the
straight population is influenced by these portrayals, or if they base their opinions on TV characters, then they must be really stupid”.
Whether or not the representation affects straight audiences, a few of the participants did mention that there are impacts of the gay male representation in TV series on their own lives. The representation of gay men in those programmes is not only their main sauce of information about gay identity, but also it actually influences their gay identity formation.
For example, as mentioned above, Stoner deliberately behaved camp and funny in the early time of his coming out period. Carr felt shocked when he first saw Queer as Folk (British Version), as he saw it as his first introduction to gay life. Therefore, at that time he assumed that his life would be like those of the characters in the series. However, in later years, he found out that the programme was just selling him a “highlighted stereotypical gay life” which was not true. Because of that show, he went to Manchester to see the gay scene, but he was surprised to find that it was not at all like what he had been led by the programme to expect. He said “Programmes like that promise so much, but you actually go out on the scene, and it delivers very little of what you expect”. Recently he was watching another TV series called Looking which focussed on the life of gay people. “Although it is set in America, I can understand it; I can relate to that a lot. It is more realistic. If I had seen the programme when I was young, I wouldn’t have expected that mu ch about gay life” he said.
Ken also told me that he shared a lot with those characters. Because he had gone through
a very difficult time coming out to his parents, when he saw Jonny in EastEnders having the same problems with coming out to his mother he felt a bit more relaxed. He also thought that there is a strong parallel between him and Mitchell in Modern Family because
he felt Mitchell’s dad was similar to his mum. “I love Kieren [a gay character in In the Flesh], and again I can parallel a lot with him, with my family situation” he told me. He felt he felt Mitchell’s dad was similar to his mum. “I love Kieren [a gay character in In the Flesh], and again I can parallel a lot with him, with my family situation” he told me. He felt
a good real life example who believes that the representation of gay males in TV series matters.