Sunday, April 6, 2014

Queer Youth Readings

Canada's Centre for Digital and Media Literacy

The main issue of this week's reading, is the portrayal of queer representation in the media.   In order to address this issue, one must look broadly at society and understand that as a society, we are very judgmental.   From our first glance at someone, we already have a per-conceived notion without actually meeting the person.  This is largely due to the stereotypes our society has developed.  These stereotypes vary from gender, age, race, and etc.  Social media in general can give inaccurate representations of anyone: the Latino man in a movie that is portrayed as a drug dealer, or a blonde, blue eyed girl portrayed as a "princess".  The representation of queer people is no different.  In the reading, "Cinderella Ate My Daughter", the Disney franchise markets the princess characters in a very stereotypical way.  These Disney Princesses are girls that are beautiful, slender, graceful, and all are waiting for the perfect man to sweep them off their feet.  Similar to the Disney Princess stereotypes, queers are also portrayed in a stereotype that is incorrect in reality.  Often times, the media is not concerned with displaying accurate representations of people, but are considered with getting people to their shows, or receive high ratings.  Focusing on the queer representation in the media, men are often portrayed as very feminine, where as women are portrayed as "butch". 

Here is a clip from the TV show "Modern Family" that portrays both a gay couple and lesbian couple.  What stereotypes can you see? 

I believe that on all levels, it is inappropriate to display stereotypes through the media that are offensive and negative.  There has been a change throughout media that shares positive queer representation, but the problem now is the stereotypes the media has chosen to use.  My question is how do you see incorrect queer representation being stopped?  Is there a yes or no answer?  



.


4 comments:

  1. Sadly, I agree that our society is extremely judgmental and who knows if the judgement will ever end.. This judgement can definitely be influenced by what one sees in the media. I think this was a great clip to share.. I deff. saw that episode!! The stereotype for the lesbians is that they are more masculine while the gay fathers are much more feminine and rather talk it out, and not fight like the moms. The moms have more of a "tough" attitude.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Focusing on the queer representation in the media, men are often portrayed as very feminine, where as women are portrayed as "butch". --- this is so true in most cases on television....and even talking to people on a daily basis in real life... I once told someone how i played softball my whole life, and they came back with "oh so you must have a lot of butch lesbo friends". (jaw dropped)

    ReplyDelete
  3. i really like that you talked about how you talked about the disney princess stereotype and related it to "queer" stereotype. Also, about how we make judgments about people within the first few seconds of seeing them. This is so bad but so true and i am very guilty of doings this and almost 100% of the time my thoughts are wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I thought of Modern Family while doing this assignment, too! Even though it is comical, it is still making it seem stereotypical.

    ReplyDelete