Stereotypes and the Manbox

I think being gay is considered outside the man box because people do not think of it simply as being attracted to the same sex.  When people think of being gay they picture the stereotypical flamboyant gay person.  Someone with a high voice, who wears is really into fashion and wears flashy clothes.  This stereotypical image puts being gay outside the man box because people don;t see gay men as still being men, they start seeing them as being closer to women.  I think the media as well as outdated culture is hat caused this buy is slowly changing.  The media heavily portrayed the stereotypical get person as a means of comedy which made probably made things a bit worse because people may have stated viewing gay people as a joke.  However I think this is changing.  For example in “Modern Family’, one of my favorite shows, there is a gay couple.  While they do have many of the stereotypes, especially Cam, they have many traits that break that stereotype showing people gays are no different.  Cam dresses flamboyantly but he is also very good at football.  Mitchell is very sensitive, more sensitive than what we picture a normal man to be, but at the same time he is a very smart and serious lawyer.  I also think an old outdated culture has to do with why gay is outside the man box.  The older generations had an incredibly negaitve view of homosexuality; so much so a person had to keep it secret to avoid physical abuse.  This bag carried over and now our generation is still leaning how to deal with it.  Fortunately there has been progress and homosexuality is more open but people are still resistant to accept that being gay can be part of being a man.  I think it will still take awile before this changes.