LGBT in the Media

1.M/S Chapter 6 discusses the movements for racial equality, women’s rights, and LGBT and how they have helped develop better portrayals of themselves in the media today. The increase in LGBT characters on television “reflects a cultural change in the way gay and lesbian people are seen in our society.” Women organizations and civil rights groups, as well as lesbian and gay organizations, were significant factors, in the form of collective human agency, in influencing the media industry to change the nature of the media content.(M/S,pg.221) However, The social world affects media producers and media products, but in turn, media content certainly influences our understanding of the social world. How is media content the cause or effect of the social change going on in our society today?

2.“Gays on TV- From National Freakout to Modern Family Fun” is about how the visibility of openly gay characters have changed in television over time. Not so long ago, any representation of gay, bisexual or transgender actors or actresses would result in a nation wide freak out. However, over the years producers have allowed more “visibility” of gays in their shows. We start to see young gay men and women and their relationships form on the screen. We then progress to shows like “Orange is the New Black” where more than half of the characters are gay, or “Modern Family” where the show is centered around a family that has a gay married couple. If shows like Glee, The New Normal, and Modern Family can change viewers opinions on gay marriage for the better, how can poor depictions of LGBT in the media represent and hurt viewers opinions on the LGBT community?

Pedro Zamora’s Real World of Counter Publicity- Summary
“Pedro Zamora’s Real World of Counter Publicity: Performing an Ethics of the Self” is about a Cuban-American named Pedro who had AIDS. Zamora was one of the few gay men appearing regular on television, was one of few Latinos shown on TV, and was one of the few people that was living with AIDS and on television. He used MTV as an opportunity to continue his work on educating people on HIV/AIDS, queer education, and being a human rights activist. “He used MTV more than it used him.” Pedro went against the unfair examples shown in the article like the “anti lesbian and gay measure” or “The 1992 Colorado proposition”, which proposed that lesbians and gay men be stripped of any basic rights that would acknowledge and protect their minority status. “Homophobia, racism, and xenophobia are being codified in legislation”, showing that these hate discourses have always been in laws that we follow every day.

Celebs react to Trump’s Transgender Ban (Outside Source -Youtube)

3. President Donald Trump directed the military not to move forward with an Obama-era plan that would have allowed transgender individuals to be recruited into the armed forces, following through on his intentions to ban transgender people from serving. He also banned the Department of Defense from using its resources to provide medical treatment for transgender individuals currently serving in the military. Like Magic Johnson, Pedro Zamora and his role on “The real World”, these celebrities expressed their views on the government’s decision through social media. They used the power of being a celebrity to make counterpublic interventions by way of using the mainstream media, a mode of publicity that is usually hostile to counterpublic politics.(PZ,pg.151) How does multiple celebrities joining forces and using their influence on the media impact society and therefore pressure the government, to make a real change with this military issue? Can they/ us as a society make a change? Or is social media an illusion of power?

4.The Times Square film is one that takes place in the 1980’s and is focused on two girls, Pamela Pearl and Nicky Marotta, who meet in the New York Neurological Hospital. Pamela comes from a wealthy family and whose father a commissioner running a campaign to clean up Times Square. She was brought to the psychiatric hospital by her father, after abruptly running out of his press conference for the campaign. On the other hand, Nicky Marotta is a “guitar-wielding girl” who has a history with bad behavior and law reinforcement. She is brought to the psychiatric hospital after vandalizing a car and having a large outburst with police officials, where she also staged a seizure. Nicky keeps with her at all times a radio where she plays punk music and forces police officials to bring it with there as she goes to the hospital. Once in the hospital, the two girls are placed in the same room. Nicky exerted outrageous behavior by blasting pump music, smoking cigarettes, eating flowers, and not working well with the doctors. On the other hand, Nicky was quiet and mostly just read and wrote in her notebook. One day, Pamela takes Nicky’s side when a doctor examines Nicky and later that night Nicky reads a page in Pamela’s diary that shows that she has more than just a friendly interest in Nicky. The next day Nicky blasts her punk music and in her escape out of the hospital, she runs into Pamela and both escape the hospital. The next scene that plays shows the punk rocker and Pamela’s outrageous drive through the city, where they crazily break through borders and drive down one way streets onto the highway. The film then continues to show the girls queer relationship grow and the crazy experiences in which they encounter. In talking about the film, the Punk Planet Article states, “So whereas this climactic denouement certainly models the possibility for identification with a pop star (or punk star) to become a kind of public agency, however temporary, what is also presages, and eerily so, is the corporating effects of decades of redevelopment on the meanings of public space in Times Square.” The author here is expressing how the urban redevelopment of Times Square has changed the public space. How is this shown in the first thirty minutes of the film?

5.On page five of the Punk Planet article it talks about how the city streets became a staging ground for the girls claiming public spaces in the film Times Square. In society today, we can see how people use public space to show their viewpoints, specifically political viewpoints. One example of this is the Pride Parade that takes place in many location such as Chicago and New York City. The Pride Parade celebrates lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and LGBT culture and pride and spreads the message of equality and legal rights, such as same sex marriage. This is a movement that’s main focus is on homonormativity, which is a word that addresses the problems of privilege that are seen in the queer community. Today we see that the view of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and LGBT individuals becoming more socially accepted. Why do you believe that claiming staging ground in public spaces is important in trying to influence a large group of people? What is so powerful and influential about public spaces?

6. In the Punk Planet article, it says that Times Square is a film about the political and ideological character of public space. It goes on to explain how Pamela’s father’s proposal was to “Reclaim Rebuild Restore” Times Square- to make it a safer place, specifically for children. However, as stated in the article “there’s also danger lurking within the imagined security of home and hearth.” Here, the author is talking about how this imagined “safe” public would deny certain social groups from the city, which is what Pamela’s father had hoped for. He wanted to make it seem as though he was rebuilding Times Square because of public safety, but in reality he was using that to cover up gentrification- the process of renovating and improving an area so it conforms to those of the middle class. However, this would cause a decline of social interaction between people of different classes. Knowing that this redevelopment of Times Square did occur, how do you think it affected the communication and relationship between those of the middle class, upper class, and lower class? In addition, after the rebirth of Times Square, many of the gay/lesbian and sex bars were completely gone because these bars were present in the pre-Disney Times Square area and were associated with low class “dangerous” people. The new Times Square was a society with high end bars, hotels, theaters and more, that attracted middle and upper class individuals. Because of this, gays and lesbians were seen with a new and negative perception, which changed the structure and agency of Times Square. How can structure/agency affect public space?