Narrow minds

"We live in a culture where you don't exist if you're not portrayed on television," says one expert in the documentary Further off the Straight and Narrow. But if television portrays a group only marginally--within a specific typecast, as a convenient plotline to boost ratings, or in a vaguereference in an advertisement--does this mean that they only partially exist?

In U.S. media, this seems to be the case. Homosexuals exist in the public eye, and thus in the minds of many Americans, as the commonly held stereotype. Gay men are flamboyant, stylish, upwardly mobile and emotional. Lesbian women have short, spiky hair and play softball. Anything outside this "norm" is causes confusion in a narrow mind. But it also means that any homosexual who falls outside this frame is symbolically annihilated from our culture.

But this is not a worldwide phenomena. European media paints a much broader image, and while this might not change prejudice and persectution, it does create a world in which there is a fuller, broader definition of this cultural group. On BBC America programs, for example, sexual orientation is often just one element of larger character definition--not THE defining trait--and rarely are these individuals painted in the broad brush of the stereotypical gay.

For instance, the leading man on one sci-fi show called "Torchwood" is rugged, handsome and very masculine. He's a tough-guy, dominant leader of the team that investigates alien activity on Earth. And he is equally attracted to men and women...and aliens (multisexual?). A scene might show him kissing another man, and being interrupted by another team member. But the awkwardness that follows is not because he was kissing a man, but more the natural embarrassment of walking in on your boss kissing anyone. An ongoing issue is his promiscuity, but not so much the gender of his partners.

By de-emphasizing the importance of a character's sexual orientation in this way, it serves to make it a more normal and acceptable part of a person's lifestyle--a part of who he is, but not ALL he is--without diminishing that part of the individual in the process. Until the American media reaches that awareness, homosexuals in our society will only partially exist as their true selves.