Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Is TV Gay Enough? Update...

(A follow-on to my previous post Is TV Gay Enough?)

GLAAD is at it again. Their accounting of the new TV season shows a decline in the number of regular GLBT characters on network television series (from 1.3 percent to 1.1 percent), although an increase for cable shows according to this article in The Washington Post. In addition, GLAAD reviewed the representation of women and minorities on television finding:

"Whites make up 77 percent of network series regular characters, up 2 percent from last year. Blacks remained steady at 12 percent and Asian-Pacific Islanders at 3 percent, while Latinos dropped from 7 percent to 6 percent.

Male characters outweighed females 58 percent to 42 percent on network shows."

That dropped in Latino characters most likely due to the cancellation of The George Lopez Show...

I still feel it would be more prudent for GLAAD to examine "how" rather than "how many." Quality vs. quantity. Personally, I feel the end of Will & Grace was no great loss to the gay community. It's no coup to have gays portrayed in a stereotypical fashion as preening queens and fussbudgets.

Another article on the same subject claims that "Gay people are becoming an endangered species on network television." Wow. If you think gays are endangered on TV, try traveling to the Middle East. Apparently they have no homosexuals at all in Iran...

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