Final Article Draft

Allison Luthy

Arts Journalism

3/2/08

Gay Stereotypes in the Media

`“Whatever I don’t get, I just figure is gay,” Will’s Texan client, Harlan, comments when he sees Will and Grace make an inside joke on the hit sitcom, “Will and Grace.”

This is not a bad assumption to make on the sitcom featuring two gay men and their straight female counterparts. Premiering in 1998, “Will and Grace” marks a change in television history when NBC was able to create a show in which the stars play gay men and have it become a hit.

Shows like “Will and Grace” and 2003’s “Queer eye for the Straight Guy” brought a new awareness to the American public of the gay community. Television as never before represented people from all walks of life.

This new diversity of television gave the gay community a voice, but came at the expense of perpetuating gay stereotypes. The majority of the characters on these shows are portrayed as shrill, high-maintenance men who spend their time hitting on every other man they meet and rearranging throw pillows.

In one episode of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” one of the bystanders jokes to the man being made over, “If I were you, I’d tuck in that pocket before he does.”

This technique of presenting homosexuality with a quip at their expense effectively brought the issue into American popular culture, but failed to do more than provide the basis for more serious work to follow.

In 2005, Ang Lee’s film, “Brokeback Mountain,” the gay community is carried out of New York and San Francisco and placed in rural Wyoming. The film contrasts traditional gay stereotypes, making the main characters gay cowboys, who are anything but feminine, riding bucking broncos at rodeos and speaking in terse, single-word sentences.

Real issues of the gay community—ostracization and violence—are conveyed through the main characters’, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist’s, struggles to define their relationship in a homophobic society.

When Jack and Ennis return to Brokeback Mountain years after they met there, Jack gets frustrated with Ennis’ fear of being open about their relationship and yells, “Tell you what, we coulda had a good life together! Fuckin' real good life! Had us a place of our own. But you didn't want it, Ennis! So what we got now is Brokeback Mountain! Everything's built on that! That's all we got, boy, fuckin' all. So I hope you know that, even if you don't never know the rest!”

I am going to finish writing the body after I have my interview material.

Kicker: Perhaps someday soon there will be a sitcom featuring gay men who can be funny without being made a caricature of their sexual orientation.