Are Gay Men Considered More Acceptable On Screen Than Lesbians?

Originally posted on www.biggaypictureshow.com

Gay people have entered the mainstream media significantly in recent times, whether as television or radio presenters or characters in television and film. But something that has to be looked at, is how this representation is mainly of gay men.

When we see gay couples or a singular gay person in a film or on television, it is almost always gay men and very rarely a lesbian or lesbian couple. But why is this? Is the media and society in general more accepting of gay men that it is of gay women?

In recent times gay men have been shown in a particular light – we all know the stereotype of the fashion conscious, confident, out going, opinionated gay man who regularly springs up in TV programmes and films. When partnered with a straight woman, this coupling looks like a sure fire hit – just look at Carrie and Stanford in Sex and the City.

This cool trendy image of the gay man has also seeped into public consciousness as well, because as a gay man, how often have you bumped into someone on a night out or just with friends and heard the phrase, “I’ve always wanted a gay friend.” However you never hear someone say the same about having a lesbian friend, maybe because some people still have the image that lesbians are Dr Martins wearing, radical feminists in dungarees and checked shirts. It’s a stereotype that I can’t say I’ve actually come across in real life, and there aren’t many, if any, straight man and gay woman or straight woman and gay woman pairings in our regularly viewed entertainment.

But why is this? Is it because of the image that has been broadcast everywhere of gay men and the use of celebrities such as Graham Norton, Alan Carr and Gok Wan that have made gay men much more accessible and fashionable than women? We do have lesbian television presenters such as Sue Perkins, but let’s be honest, her time on television can’t really be compared to the constant presence of her gay male counterparts.

When it comes to gay men on television and film, there isn’t as much representation as there could be, especially in film, where lead gay characters are few and far between, but there are still significantly more gay men than there are lesbians.

Programmes such as Queer as Folk and Will & Grace helped bring gay men into the mainstream media and they have become staples ever since, but if Will was straight and Grace was a lesbian, would the programme have been as big as it was? The answer is probably no, because the stereotype conveyed in society of a gay man seems to add more comic value than that of a lesbian.

This continues throughout television where gay couples on British TV in Eastenders and Coronation Street have been major successes and have been given many major storylines (there have been lesbian storylines, but beyond the girl-on-girl kiss in Brookside, haven’t seeped into cultural consciousness in the same way). In film, Brokeback Mountain was a major Hollywood success both financially and personally for gay men, as they hadn’t had that type of exposure in a Hollywood movie ever, but there hasn’t been a major mainstream film based around lesbians.

Ok, there was The Kids are Alright in terms of movie representation, and there have been hit shows in the form of The L Word and Lip Service, but the majority of viewers for these programmes seem to be lesbians or people who already back the LGBT community, whereas programmes like Queer as Folk became a surprise hit with a large number of diverse viewers. The character of Sophie Webster has also played one of the bigger characters in Coronation Street recently, and being a lesbian the character is one of the most high profile in terms of lesbian representation, but why did it take them so long to introduce a lesbian character when they’d already had a few major gay themed storylines at that point?

We may never know the real answer, but hopefully the representation and acceptance of gay females on television and in film will improve, in the same way that it did for gay men. Sue Perkins is currently writing a new sitcom for BBC2 concentrating on a lesbian vet. How well it will do is another matter. But with representation increasing, hopefully we will see gay women and men on our television screens in a bigger quantity and more regularly. Who knows, the next big gay film in Hollywood may just centre around a lesbian. Here’s hoping.

Would Queer as Folk Have Been Made Today?

Originally published on www.biggaypictureshow.com

In 1999 a Channel 4 series not only changed the landscape for homosexuality on television but television in general. Queer as Folk introduced viewing audiences to the lives of a group of gay men living in Manchester that regularly frequented the infamous Canal Street.

But after making such an impact on audiences the world over, and after all the series was re-made for an American audience (which ran for five seasons), it makes you wonder whether this type of programme would get commissioned now.

It’s been more than 10 years since we last saw Stuart, Vince, and Nathan and all the other characters popping up on our screens, but the impact they left is phenomenal. Before the show gay men had representation on television – after all Dale Winton and Julian Clary were extremely popular – but this was the first time a group of gay characters were central to an entire series, and not just a few extra characters added on at the end.

Since the show left the airwaves it paved the way for multiple gay characters and storylines in a whole variety of different shows. It isn’t unusual these days to turn on any soap opera and see several gay characters, something that wasn’t really seen before the turn of the new millennium, which was just after Queer as Folk. Gay men and women now had a significant part in soaps, dramas and comedy shows, allowing the public to see that gay people are everywhere and that we’re just normal people.

However, whereas we do get multiple gay characters frequenting the Rovers Return or the Queen Vic, gay specific shows seem to be very few and far between. There was Sugar Rush on Channel 4 that came around in 2004, and now we have Lip Service, which was first introduced in 2010, but that means that in the 11 years between Queer as Folk and Lip Service there was only one other UK television show that focused primarily on gay characters.

Maybe it’s because there just aren’t people out there writing these kinds of programmes now or maybe they feel that after Queer as Folk there wasn’t much more to be done – I mean who would want to take on the amazing Russell T Davies? But it could also have something to do with attitudes. In the last few years there have been multiple complaints made to Ofcom regarding gay people on screen in shows such as Coronation Street, Eastenders and Torchwood, but why is this? Surely attitudes have become more diverse in the last 10 years since Queer as Folk came out, or maybe due to the lack of gay central shows people are forgetting about the impact that was made a decade ago, or maybe it’s as simple as people were a little bit more open and curious back in the 90s.

It does appear that given the length of time between these gay central shows and the complaints received about soap operas, that if Queer as Folk were to be pitched today and not 10 years ago, then it wouldn’t have been made. Then again if it had never been made in the first place I doubt there would be many gay people in soaps today.

It’s not all doom and gloom though, just recently it was announced that comedian Sue Perkins will be staring in a comedy series for BBC2 called Heading Out, which will see Perkins play a vet who is afraid to come out to her parents.

So maybe we are about to turn a corner and see more LGBT focused programmes again where gay people play the leads, but whether something like Queer As Folk will come along again is a different matter all together.