By Alyssa Loughman
Diversity in the media has increased in recent years, with GLAAD finding that almost 18.4% (23 out of 126) characters identifying as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer which has increased from previous years. This is as well as Netflix having the highest number of LGBTQIA+ characters in 2018. The Sydney Mardi Gras was also streamed on SBS, and therefore available on national television, in 2020. However, there are still underlying problems with the representation of this community in the media.
Marginalised groups:
As mentioned before, our representation is improving, but only for one type of person in the community. When you think of a TV series or movies that highlight people who are not heterosexual, a few well-known series come to mind; Love Simon, Modern family, Riverdale, even Glee. What is one thing these all have in common? The characters that are queer are almost all Caucasian. One problem with this modern representation is the fact that minorities that fit under the umbrella of LGBTQIA+ are not shown in the media, making people more likely to accept Caucasians that are part of LGBTQIA+ community, but less likely to accept people of colour.
Forced representation:
Another problem with LGBTQIA+ representation in the media is that authors, directors, and TV show producers often force queer representation. Forced representation is when a creator only creates a LGBTQIA+ character or relationship to get recognition, or just to fit more categories. While this is a form of representation, it is forced, meaning details are blurred, or unrealistic stereotypes are presented and created. Forced representation can be detrimental to the overall portrayal of the queer community. The fact that creators are trying to shallowly represent this group, without engaging anyone from the LGBTQIA+ community, means that they are disregarding the importance and story of this community. If the media continues to force this representation, we will start to accept the same ideals of having to be diverse for the sake of tokenism. If those ideals become part of reality, our society may all start to disregard representation and we will lose everything we’ve worked for.
Queer baiting:
Finally, the last reason LGBTQIA+ representation in the media is flawed is that queer baiting is still frequently occurring. Queer baiting is when two characters are hinted towards showing homosexual traits and feelings, to maintain a queer audience. This can also occur when a show uses someone's sexuality to channel homophobia, to attack that character. For example, two female characters kiss, and then play it off as thought it was nothing, and then go on to pursue a heterosexual relationship - the producers/writers never go over the topic again, unless it can be used to insult the character. This has profound effects on the queer community. It manipulates the audience into believing that queer relationships are not important enough to be serious, or that they don't deserve a fulfilling story line.
These issues can really make an impact. As our society becomes more technologically advanced, the media becomes more readily available, making these representation issues become more prevalent. If the younger generations become exposed to these issues, they may grow up thinking that the way the LGBTQIA+ community is represented in the media is correct. This problem will take a long time to fix, but if we recognise these problems, we can educate and prevent this from happening sooner.
Along with all of these forms of media which showcase bad representation, there are a few pieces of work which get intersectional LGBTQIA+ representation correct:
Books:
- RubyFruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
- The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
- Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
Films:
- Paris is Burning
- Moonlight
- Watermelon Woman
- Kapoor & Sons
If you want to read more on this topic, you can visit Media Smarts.