Queer Representation Of All Age Media Essay - 2321 Words

Queer Representation in All Age Media Growing up as a Catholic, Puerto Rican gay boy in the 90s and early 2000s, I struggled to discover my queer identity as well as queer representation in the media I consumed. Being gay was something that was never discussed. If it was brought up, it was usually in hushed tones (I remember being introduced to my uncle s close friend each holiday) or as something negative (I still remember the sting of being called a faggot in elementary school). This reflected exactly how homosexuality was portrayed in media at the time. Queer characters and homosexuality were at best portrayed in codified, blink-and-you ll-miss it labels and affectations, or at worst, something to laugh at, pity or even hate. As someone who still regularly reads comics, watches Saturday morning cartoons and play video games, it is so exciting to discover the lengths of progress that has been made in queer representation in all age media. In this paper I hope to detail th e highs and lows of LGBTQ representation in all age media and highlight the positive and negative impact of media representation. Before we can look forward, we must look back at queer representation of the past. The late film scholar Vito Russo painstakingly researched the evolution of queer representation in cinema in his landmark book The Celluloid Closet. In both the book and its documentary of the same name, Russo details the earliest portrayal of homosexuality inShow MoreRelatedQueer Representation Of All Ages Media Essay2163 Words   |  9 PagesQueer Representation in All Ages Media Growing up as a Catholic, Puerto Rican gay boy in the 90s and early 2000s, I struggled to discover my queer identity as well as queer representation in the media I consumed. Being gay was something that was never discussed. If it was brought up, it was usually in hushed tones (I remember being introduced to my uncle s close friend each holiday) or as something negative (I still remember the sting of being called a faggot in elementary school)Read MoreThe Media And Its Effect On Society1622 Words   |  7 Pagesicons of our day, many people in our technological and media influenced days look toward television, film, books and other forms of arts. However, representation is not always fair nor is it proper when it comes to certain groups of human society. Many people who struggle with discrimination in their daily life, struggle with finding proper and real representation in our mainstream media. 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Women are not always portrayed genuinely in mainstream media, many television shows place women on a sexualized pedestal, where they are subject to male gaze due to hegemonic femininity representation. Diane Ponterotto (2016) describes how male gaze can affect media, and social notions, â€Å"Through the male gaze, the female body becomes territory, a valuable resource to be