Month: April 2018

Conversion therapy for sexual orientation and gender identity should be considered a hate crime. The dictionary definition of “hate crime” is, “a crime motivated by racial, sexual, or other prejudice, typically one involving violence,” so why is conversion therapy an exception? In most of New York, and many states across the country, conversion therapy is legal to perform on minors, and often includes the use of drugs, mental abuse, and even violence, based on someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. There are only 8 full states out of the 50 in the United States that have outlawed conversion therapy, those being Vermont, Connecticut, California, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, New Mexico, and Nevada. Some states have regions that have outlawed that practice by city, while most of these 8 states have passed state-wide legislation.

I have a friend that went through conversion therapy when they were 16 years old because of their sexual orientation, and they were never the same afterwards. They have gone through so much trauma that they still can’t talk about it to this day, and people are still blind to this issue. This country voted for a presidential administration, Mike Pence specifically, who is in favor of conversion therapy. In favor of hurting our youth. In favor of putting a child through such misery that they would rather kill themselves than be who they truly are. Having a friend think this way is one of the most heartbreaking things I didn’t even have to go through. With only sheer empathy for them because of the discrimination, hatred, and violence I have faced for being a queer person only lets me see part of their trauma. Hate is raging on, but awareness might just save us from hurting more people.

Some examples of shows and movies that address the issues with conversion therapy can help to address this issue as well. The movie that has a whole plotline around conversion therapy is But I’m a Cheerleader, starring Natasha Lyonne as Megan Bloomfield released the year I was born, 1999. This movie used satire in order to prove a point about how ridiculous this type of thinking is. Some of the ways satire is used is assigning gender roles to those who wouldn’t normally fit these stereotypes; making all the girls wear pink, feminine clothing when most of their styles differ, making the boys wear blue and not allowed to accessorize or use makeup, making the woman learn how to change diapers/clean to get the “straight mentality” flowing in their minds, having the guys perform their strength even though many of them were scrawny and nonathletic. After going through the program, you would “graduate” with a marriage between one of the girls and one of the boys, that they barely know.

In Riverdale, Cheryl Blossom, played by Madelaine Petsch starts showing interest in Toni Topaz, played by Vanessa Morgan, and Cheryl’s mother Penelope doesn’t approve with the relationship. It isn’t the first time she disapproved of someone that Cheryl started to become interested in; Cheryl confesses that she did love another girl but her mother sent her away so she could be “normal,” but now she is trying another method by sending Cheryl to gay conversion therapy. When Toni asks about Cheryl, Penelope says that she was sent to an all-girls boarding school in Switzerland, and Season 2 Episode 17 is mostly about her and Veronica Lodge, played by Camila Mendes, getting Cheryl out.

 

Some similarities between them is both instances, people outside the program would help find ways to help other people escape, even without knowing the people they will be helping; the gay men who would sneak out the kids in their van in But I’m a Cheerleader never even met most of these people before, and the people who found routes to get out of the nunnery in Riverdale made sure to let other people in the community know about the tunnels. Both stories also discuss the “reasons” why the person in question might have “become” gay — expressing some reasons being: getting dressed in boys clothing, lack/poor fatherly figure role, going through stressful times, not meeting the right boy yet, etc. There was a point brought up by the people that were trying to help her “get better” that maybe Cheryl “thinks she’s gay” because her grandmother would accidentally dress her in her twin brother’s clothes (and vice versa), and it just shows that people think there is a cause to this “illness.” With the plot line that Cheryl is attracted to girls as well as boys, but her mother neglecting to love her because of her “deviance,” people can see why Cheryl can me so mean sometimes, since she can’t be herself in her own household. And even through another medium, the first musical that I have ever watched that even addressed the issue of conversion therapy was actually on Penn State campus.

I watched the Penn State production of Love in Hate Nation four times in the span of three days because I’ve never loved a musical so much. I already have such a passion for musical theatre in the first place, but there is usually at least one thing that I find wrong/could be better with the musicals I watch or am in. “Love in Hate Nation” is the exception, where I absolutely love the music, the choreography, the characters, the plot, the story, the use of the set – everything. And one of the issues they addressed in the story was shock therapy. There were so many great messages in the musical, but one of the conflicts was that in the detention center, the mother put her daughter through shock therapy to shock the gay away, and it was warned to the other characters that, “if Ms. Asp ever caught [them] doing anything… bad, she’d call Dr. Shockski.” Then they sang a song about “Doc Shock” and “that’s the best way to get the strange out.” This deeply troubles me to think about, especially since others are forcing their ideals onto you, and probably messing you up psychologically (even though they think they’re fixing you). I already feel like unsupportive parents are already hard enough to deal with mentally, but for them to go so far as to try change their way of thinking with pain and torture, that is simply cruel.

Hurting anyone is uncalled for, but especially when the basis of this hatred and torture is people trying to be who they really are, that’s when I truly see how heartless people can be. There are so many larger issues than who someone loves in the world that it shouldn’t even be talked about anymore, to be honest.

The third part of this three-part crisis is exactly why queer content is becoming more accepted in today’s media, and even some reasons why it still isn’t. The queer community is, in fact, a minority, so appealing to them would not be smart from an economic standpoint, correct? Trends have actually been showing that the LGBTQ+ fan base is a relatively powerful one, especially thinking about how small it is in comparison to others. The lack of representation in shows creates pockets of fandoms for shows that do have good representation. On platforms like Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram, many people have fan accounts to talk about shows, and even follow the writers/directors/showrunners/etc. on their social media platforms. There is even a joke in the queer community where when there is buzz starting to go around these platforms of a canon (confirmed, rather than non-canon which is more interpreted) relationship between a queer pairing, it’s called “the gay migration” because of the new influx of queer viewers that start watching the show, usually without even caring about the storyline to begin with.

Mistreating the queer characters that are written into the show/movie is one of the worst ways to cause a commotion among these viewers. If the characters write into the storyline are just there to use the queer community, play a role to serve the straight characters, etc., this will get the fans outraged, since the queer community has been mistreated for too long not to make sure it’s known. A few posts ago I wrote about how the character Lexa died on The 100, and sparked a huge uproar in the queer community, but I don’t think I really did the impact justice. Lexa died on March 3, 2016 on Season 3 Episode 7, titled “13,” and Jason Rothenberg dropped 14k followers within only a few days, and hashtags started trending worldwide almost immediately. They were at the top of the charts for weeks, even months, examples being #LGBTFansDeservedBetter, #WeDeservedBetter #LexaDeservedBetter, etc. Several newspaper (digital and print) outlets covered the story because of the large outcry, and even putting it on the front page on many accounts. The ratings of the show also plummeted after that episode. LGBT fans purposefully boycotted the show and advocated for others to do the same, causing the show to not even be as successful when it was in its first season (which never happens for shows, given that the fan base only grows for good shows that keep getting new seasons). This also inspired a Trevor Project initiative (to help LGBT youth) raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in Lexa’s name.

Forgetting about the LGBTQ+ perspective for a little, a lot of times in film, the storyline is changed to have a more heterosexual plotline in order to have a bigger audience and “test better” with how much people will like it, and this is outrageous and a purely economic approach to this decision. But many have used this to try and reach more of an audience than just the queer community; some shows have “adopted” lesbian characters because they are pleasurable to look at for men, and even women. Outside the topic of queer content, the male gaze is a serious issue in shows and movies, where women’s bodies are very sexualized; the camera angle pans across women’s’ breasts and butt, often in slow motion, to appeal to the audience who finds women sexy. A current example is how in the new Justice League movie portrayed the Amazonian woman in clothing that is not accurate to how they actually dressed, even compared to the Wonder Woman movie. Many of them in Justice League only wore what I can describe as a augmented bikini, and why would you logically fight in that? There is absolutely no protection of any vital parts of your body, and they are a group of warrior women. Their original outfits usually had them dressed in light armor from shoulder to somewhere above the knees to keep them light on their feet, but protected, because they were created to fight.

How this applies to stories, and even real life, is that lesbians are “easier” to accept in the minds of people because of the sexual appeal. Even straight woman I know have said they’d rather see lesbian sex than gay male sex, since gay male sex is usually portrayed as hard, rough, dirty, etc. while lesbian sex is usually soft, playful, sensual, beautiful, etc. Some arguments I have even heard for having lesbians as more “acceptable” than gay men being that women already have such a close relationship with each other, be it friendship or not, that it’s relatively easier to translate that to a romantic relationship, rather than the toxic masculinity that circulates around groups of guy friends. “No homo” is even something guys say when they do something that can be seen as relatively intimate.

Hopefully these past three posts help you understand why representation of the queer community is needed, wrong, used, and/or not good enough. Everyone deserves better, and all communities should be able to see themselves represented in media in a positive way.

 

The first step of representation is to actually have these characters in media, no matter where you can get it. But what does matter no matter if the representation is pertaining to a movie, a television show, etc., the accuracy of the representation is arguably even more important. This also ties into what audiences see in theaters and on television today because they appreciate when they can see themselves in the characters, but not in a detrimental way. We, as a culture, have both succeeded and failed in aspect is where we learn and grow through many different forms of expression. Our growth and accuracy of representation in media is an important part of how we depict minorities in ways that is especially reflected in today’s popular media.

One of the main problems that is tied into lack of accurate representation is whitewashing. When white actors are used to portray characters of color, those characters are not authentic. Not only may they physically not resemble the characters they are portraying, but race is part of identity; if you haven’t experienced what it means to be a part of that identity, it is next to impossible to accurately represent the character. This has been brought to attention by the media more recently because big films and television shows are casting stars for roles of characters that do not match their race, particularly when white people portray people of color. For example, Scarlett Johansson was cast as the lead role, Major, in the 2017 film adaptation of Ghost in the Shell, even though Scarlett is white, while the movie is set in Japan and most of the characters are Japanese. In 2010, the lead actors of the film The Last Airbender were all white with no Native American or Asian heritage, even though all the characters were of Asian and Native American descent. This problem goes back even farther to popular films like West Side Story (1961), where many main characters are Puerto Rican, are portrayed by mostly non-Latina actors. The main character, Maria, was played by Natalie Wood, is an actress of Russian descent, not Latina. I have never lived life as a black woman, so there is no way for me to present or know how to act as a black woman. Why is it okay for films to do it?

Having inaccurate representation also makes it harder to connect with certain audiences, even the intended one. In watching a film, if the viewer sees themselves represented physically, mentally, or culturally, it allows them to connect with the characters on a deeper level, and makes them feel valid. This can translate today through not only having LGBTQ+ representation in media, but also having queer actors playing LGBTQ+ characters on television and film. A film that had a huge fan base from the beginning was The Carmilla Movie. This is because the story started out as a YouTube series and only was able to continue with new seasons, and eventually the movie, was that the fans supported the accurate and positive representation of queer characters. The series is loosely based off the 1872 novella written by Sheridan Le Fanu about a lesbian vampire named Carmilla, staged the perspective of Laura’s vlog camera that is stationary for the entire season. The cast and crew is almost entirely female, empowering women in a profession that is male dominated. Many of the characters identify as queer, and there is even one character who identifies as non-binary, who is played by a non-binary actress. More specifically, the two main characters Carmilla Karnstein and Laura Hollis are two queer women who develop a relationship with each other, and they are played by actresses Natasha Negovanlis and Elise Bauman, who identify as queer and bisexual, respectively. These two women know how it feels to be in the LGBTQ+ community, so it translates to more authentic portrayal of the characters they are playing. There is also the fact that spontaneous gesture has a special value on the screen, and this fact especially reminded me of this series and film, because a lot of the smaller moments that the two characters share aren’t scripted. Elise and Natasha had the freedom to react authentically to different situations in the characters’ relationship, which resulted in an extra second holding the other’s hands, adding a snide remark in one of their fights, and the fan favorite, adding a kiss in more tender moments. In interviews, Elise and Natasha have discussed how they know that there are at least 4 kisses throughout the series and movie that were never scripted, but to the actors, in the moment it felt right. These moments end up being the best because of how real they feel. A straight actress might have been very apprehensive in acting the way they feel appropriate or might not know how to react, mainly because she has never been in a relationship with a woman.

The audience can tell what feels real or not. In The L Word, the only out lesbian actress to play the main cast of lesbian/bisexual women was Leisha Hailey, who was cast as Alice Pieszecki. In the show about women who love woman, only a select few have ever even dated a woman, let alone had sex with them. The fans expressed complaints that many of the kisses and sex scenes feel forced and not genuine, taking away from the authenticity of the show. Despite the positive representation of queer characters, the fact that the actresses have not been through these experiences is off-putting to the audience.

The truth is what we strive to achieve in representation. This translates to accurate depictions in media because how can shows and films accurately portray these characters with actors who haven’t lived their life as that identity?

Queer representation is a highly debated topic in media today. There are so many arguments against having representation, in all forms of media, but there are times where the positives are so great that it’s hard to logically argue otherwise. There are many ways that representation has improved, like in television, but in others where there hasn’t been much growth, like in Hollywood. Tackling the problems in the amount of representation in media, and then why this might be the case in a future blog post.

The representation in television has improved drastically in many of the parts of the LGBT spectrum. Today there is the highest number of gay and lesbian characters who are regulars on TV that reports have found, by a small percentage compared to other years. Out of 901 series regulars in 2017-2018, there were 58 characters who were LGBT. while in 2016-2017, the number of transgender characters on television has more than doubled from previous years (even though it just went from 7 to 16, then to 17 in 2017-2018). Even though all these little steps are important and we have more representation in media than ever before, heteronormativity is still alive and well, in both real life and in our entertainment.

Some things that can also be discussed are the tropes that play into shows. Tropes are usually negative themes that occur in television and movies that sometimes perpetuates a stereotype, and one of the worst ones that is played into is the Bury Your Gays Trope. This trope uses the deaths of gay characters to only further the plot line of straight characters. It has been used in shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Vampire Diaries. One show that I have watched that played into this trope was The 100, where the queer community fan-favorite Lexa, was a lesbian killed only to allow for the plot of “the commander” and “nightbloods” to continue. People were furious because not only did she solidify her relationship with another female character the scene right before this one, but she was shot because of the gay relationship itself. This made fans feel like the writers were trying to portray the storyline as showing gay people as unworthy of love, and they reacted in great protest.

Heteronormativity is also very evident in movies, especially in Hollywood. Representation has barely increased since 2015 in films, and even the representation that is in the films is 83% gay men. That’s only one small part of the queer community, but still encompasses a huge percentage. Many of the movies that are blockbuster hits have one main straight relationship, even some secondary straight relationships, and almost never a gay relationship. There is not one Hollywood blockbuster that portrays a healthy gay relationship as the main romantic interest.

Music is another place where representation has improved only slightly. Especially in today’s more popular music, like those who reach the top charts, are almost always straight artists. Artists like Adam Lambert, Tegan and Sarah, and Frank Ocean have made songs in the past about their queer identities, but haven’t released new music in a while. More modern artists like Kehlani, Sam Smith, Halsey, Hayley Kiyoko, SZA, Troye Sivan, Tinashe, Janelle Monaé, etc. all having popular songs make it to the Top Charts, but Hayley Kiyoko is the only gay woman to release an entire album about relationships and have only references to female partners; most of the others are either bisexual or gay men/non-binary people. The amount of time it took for me to come up with 10 names of artists who are in the queer community, especially that have at least one song referencing a same-sex partner, is baffling. It took me forever to think of just a few gay artists, while you can list off dozens of names of straight popular artists in mere seconds. Does this have to do with the audiences or the marketing? Or is there another reason for the lack of queer content across the board?