Promoting Intolerance?

In Helene Shugart's article "Reinventing Privilege," she talks about the gay man/heterosexual "couple" configuration and how it has evolved into its own genre. The author suggests that this has resulted in unprecedented mainstream visibility for the gay man. When Shugart analyzes the qualities that make this image acceptable and popular to heterosexuals, she concludes that it's because it changes homosexuality into something that actually supports heterosexual male privilege instead of challenging it. In addition, the way the characters are portrayed in the movies and shows mentioned in the article is very sexist towards women. After reading this article, one would think that gays should be portrayed as they really are, and not altered to satisfy the public. That is why I found the Newsweek article "King of Queens," by Ramin Setoodah, so interesting. In this article, the author says that gays on TV used to promote tolerance, but now they are jeopardizing their chance to be accepted by the heterosexual norm. In the past, mainstream television has portrayed gays in accordance to the storyline and to accomplish audience approval. Now there are television series like "Glee," that go in the other direction and portray gays in a much more overtly sexual manner. In addition, there are reality shows which now follow gays as themselves in their daily lives, with their real, bold personalities This new portrayal of gay people has had a negative effect on the viewers. The author concludes that this is actually the case because the people of Maine and California reversed existing laws that previously legalized gay marriage. Does this mean that we should return to exhibiting false images to the public just to keep them satisfied and increase their comfort level? I don't really think so; maybe the reason the public isn't responding as positively as one would hope, is because it has been exposed to these false images of gay people and to these artificially contrived situations on television and in films for too long.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/222467

http://video.newsweek.com/#?t=50016920001&l=49924225001