Founder of Inland Magazine Britt Julious has pointed that within the next thirty or forty years, the United States will be a minority majority country, and despite this the television industry is currently dominated by white men (Julious). Although not every show on air is produced exclusively by white men, the majority of programming has derived from them. Depictions of minorities and women in the media have gone through a slow process of evolution to get where they are today. African-Americans have had to go through minstrel shows and black-face just to get a dignified secondary casting role. It took even longer to get a positively portrayed African-American leading role, and eventually America has had shows with a majority African-American
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In Abigail Graber's article “Television Encourages Viewers to Reject Homosexuals”, Graber faults media depictions of LGBT people as part of the reason gay people are discriminated against in places such as the workforce (Graber). Negative stereotypes in media depicting homosexuality as taboo and perverse have helped spread homophobia. Stereotyping LGBT people only furthers perceptions that being LGBT is abnormal, and thus treating them differently than heterosexuals is socially acceptable. Newsweek reporter Ramin Setoodeh notes that most gay men depicted in media are that of the effeminate flamboyant type that is widely regarded as a stereotype (Setoodeh). The idea that almost every gay male is effeminate and do stereotypical acts like “snapping a Facebook picture of Lady Gaga” (Setoodeh) is outdated and inaccurate. This widespread notion leads straight people to think that all gay men are freaks because they do not adhere to gender roles, making them different and thus bad. It also makes gay men who don't fall into such stereotypes feel less accepted within the gay community, or at least, the gay community as depicted in the media. This can lead to questioning over whether or not said person is gay enough, and constant sexuality questioning creates a sense of confusion and anger. Of course, whether or not these stereotypes should be considered offensive at all is a topic that divides the LGBT community, generally across an age gap (Setoodeh). Younger members of the gay community, who have faced less persecution for being gay and generally feel as if they are more accepted (Setoodeh) than older members of the LGBT community who were out before civil rights victories for LGBT people, feel as if the effeminate gay stereotype isn't harmful to the community, especially if they embody some characteristics of the stereotype. The failure of
In Abigail Graber's article “Television Encourages Viewers to Reject Homosexuals”, Graber faults media depictions of LGBT people as part of the reason gay people are discriminated against in places such as the workforce (Graber). Negative stereotypes in media depicting homosexuality as taboo and perverse have helped spread homophobia. Stereotyping LGBT people only furthers perceptions that being LGBT is abnormal, and thus treating them differently than heterosexuals is socially acceptable. Newsweek reporter Ramin Setoodeh notes that most gay men depicted in media are that of the effeminate flamboyant type that is widely regarded as a stereotype (Setoodeh). The idea that almost every gay male is effeminate and do stereotypical acts like “snapping a Facebook picture of Lady Gaga” (Setoodeh) is outdated and inaccurate. This widespread notion leads straight people to think that all gay men are freaks because they do not adhere to gender roles, making them different and thus bad. It also makes gay men who don't fall into such stereotypes feel less accepted within the gay community, or at least, the gay community as depicted in the media. This can lead to questioning over whether or not said person is gay enough, and constant sexuality questioning creates a sense of confusion and anger. Of course, whether or not these stereotypes should be considered offensive at all is a topic that divides the LGBT community, generally across an age gap (Setoodeh). Younger members of the gay community, who have faced less persecution for being gay and generally feel as if they are more accepted (Setoodeh) than older members of the LGBT community who were out before civil rights victories for LGBT people, feel as if the effeminate gay stereotype isn't harmful to the community, especially if they embody some characteristics of the stereotype. The failure of