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Figure 1

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LGBTQ+ representation is an incredibly important thing to get right in todays media heavy society. Tv, movies, games these are just a few of the different places that a queer person can use to try and understand who they are in the world the same way most people do. You see a character and you can identify with them their struggles, their hopes, their dreams. With a lack of LGBT+ representation in the media it puts you at the power of those who do chose to provide it, these people often depict to stereotypes, gay men being fabulous and fashionable yet vapid, the strong ‘manly’ lesbian, the greedy monogamous bisexual, predatory trans women and non-existent trans men.

 

At the moment that is the main sway of the LGBT representation in media nowadays, side/background characters not provided with much depth or personality making it hard to identify with them. You cannot expect every queer character to be able to represent an entire demographic but when there is so little of it that is exactly what happens stereotypes as many writers tend to stick to what they know works for the majority of the consumers leaving the minority group unrepresented. Why try to create a new complex original character when there are easy templates and roles for gay characters to fill?

 

The problem with being an unrepresented group is that young queer people can struggle to come to terms with who they are or even feel ashamed about it, picture if you may a young trans child in the world as of now most they will here in the media about what they may identify as are debates about whether or not they should get to use a particular bathroom or talks about how valid their existence is. Imagine the detrimental affects that could have to a young developing mind, only seeing their identity as a debate or something to be ashamed of. This can lead to many young queer children being ashamed of who they are as all they ever get exposed to is those debates about them being a sin or an issue.

 

The lack of representation doesn’t just lead to queer people being a tad annoyed that they can’t get a character to identify to it means that they don’t know who they are, it further makes them seem different unnatural so even in the real world free from media queer people get mocked bullied killed in the real world.

 

A study done by the American Academy of Pediatrics shows alarming levels of attempted suicide among transgender youth with the highest rates among transgender boys and non-binary youth. In this study of the teens who participated it shows more than half of transgender males have attempted suicide in their lifetime, this follows with 41.8% among non-binary young people and 29.9% of transgender females having stated they have attempted their own life at some point.

This is a terrifying statistic to look at, but the higher rates of depression and suicide follow along all queer people compare to cisgender strait people.

 

You often hear statements used that there didn’t seem to be as many gay people in the past or they just were not around. Queer people have always been around but its not till relatively recently that the talk about LGBT people became less of something to shun or avoid the topic.

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Figure 2

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Even with the representation of queer people growing in the recent years you still see many things like Bi erasure in media as writers often prefer to tick the gay or straight box just to fill in the diversity category, take the 90s early 2000s show buffy the vampire slayer it is regarded as having one of the first prominent lesbian characters in mainstream tv history however when you watch the show the character Willow played by Alyson Hannigan is clearly written to be attracted to both men and women however since she was in a committed relationship with a women the character couldn’t have possibly been a bisexual.

 

There are so many more reasons than the few we have spoken about why it is important for the LGBTQ+ community to get proper representation in media, more than just side characters just to tick off a diversity box or to use as a joke character whose whole personality is based around the fact that they are queer, it is important that queer people get fair and equal representation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

HRC Staff, 2018. Study Shows Shocking Rates of Attempted Suicide Among Trans Teens. [online] HRC. Available at: <https://www.hrc.org/news/new-study-reveals-shocking-rates-of-attempted-suicide-among-trans-adolescen> [Accessed 11 March 2021].

 

List, C., Transgender Boys More Likely to Attempt Suicide, S. and Transgender Boys More Likely to Attempt Suicide, S., 2018. Transgender Boys More Likely to Attempt Suicide, Study Shows. [online] #Boom Magazine. Available at: <http://boom.lgbt/index.php/category-list/129-wellness/1363-transgender-boys-more-likely-to-attempt-suicide-study-shows> [Accessed 11 March 2021].

 

MALLETT, H., 2019. Why LGBT+ Representation In Theatre, Film & TV Is Still so Important. [online] BACKSTAGE. Available at: <https://www.backstage.com/uk/magazine/article/why-lgbt-representation-in-theatre-film-tv-is-still-so-important-68498/> [Accessed 11 March 2021].

 

Mozzachio, H., 2019. Opinion: The Importance of LGBTQ Representation in Media, School of Liberal Arts at Tulane University. [online] School of Liberal Arts at Tulane University. Available at: <https://liberalarts.tulane.edu/newsletter/importance-lgbtq-representation-media> [Accessed 11 March 2021].

 

O’Brien, J., 2017. Why Visibility Matters. [online] Psychology Today. Available at: <https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/all-things-lgbtq/201711/why-visibility-matters> [Accessed 11 March 2021].

 

Toomey, R., Syvertsen, A. and Shramko, M., 2021. Transgender Adolescent Suicide Behavior. [online] AAP News & Journals Gateway. Available at: <https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/142/4/e20174218> [Accessed 11 March 2021].

 

Pictures

Fig 1

Pearce, T. 2020. LGBT representation on TV through the ages – from EastEnders’ first gay kiss to transgender superheroes. [online] available from: https://metro.co.uk/2020/06/24/lgbt-representation-tv-major-moments-12894718/

 

Fig 2

Palmer, K. 2020. Willow from Buffy: Tara meant the world to Willow. [online] available from: https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/1372739/willow-from-buffy-tara-relationship-alyson-hannigan-amber-benson-evg