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Increasing Shifts in Media towards a Gay-Friendly Outlook in Western Soaps

Turn the power button on to watch our favorite show along with dinner at night, don’t we? Your favorite English soap – F.R.I.E.N.D.S., Gossip Girl, Will & Grace, Boston Legal or Desperate Housewives. What do they have in common? A portrayal of a gay character and the challenges that surround him.

While contemporary media is catering to newer ideas of family and love, it also is targeting at the niche of gays and lesbians. Bringing a Gay character or a couple in the story, media today is representing the diversity in human cultures and orientations, just as various business schools in the USA have clubs for.

Whether its Eric in ‘Gossip Girl’, or Andrew Van de Kamp of ‘Desperate Housewives’, the soap directors have tried to hint at the challenges faced by the ‘gay son’ of coming out in the society, the undeserved humiliation and the stigma attached to it, the daily complications of their relationships and also the family’s reaction to it and how they handle the situation. It is also shown being gay is a matter of personal happiness, and if a family really loves their children they’ll accept their sons as they are. All the parents should teach their progeny is to be a good human being, a rightful being, and being gay doesn’t mean that the child’s moral character is flawed; rather, it can prove that they can be more sensitive to issues, and can grow to be responsible.

‘Will & Grace’ has the lead male protagonist Will as a gay man. The other character, Jack, is shown as a typically idiotic sensitive and slightly ‘funny gay’. Will is painted as a person who is more serious in life and his boyfriend has just left him, who was with him for past seven years, at the show premiere. The loneliness and how his female friend, Grace, cheers him up is sketched quite beautifully. Will and Grace are shown as best friends and a best friendship can only exist if one is non-judgmental and shows unconditional attachment and caring and acceptance.

‘Boston Legal’ has an episode where Alan Shore defends gay rights and makes the audiences search their soul about giving gays the basic right of humanity – the freedom of choice to be happy. It also points at having the respect towards each other as a fellow being, and first of all as a human being. Though towards the end, the ‘gay’ marriage between Alan Shore and Danny is shown, and they are not gay characters but two honest, die-hard friends, the directors have also subtly hinted at the various other aspects that people forget about a gay relationship. Sex is not the only part of the relationship that many people look down upon. A gay relationship is more than just gay sex; it can also mean caring for each other as partners, sharing the fears, and the dreams, the emotions, the success and the failures, the crushes and loves of their lives and their souls.

One of the best sketches of the gay relationship has been shown vividly in FRIENDS, i.e., the lesbian relationship of Carol, ex-wife of Ross, and Susan. They also raise the Carol and Ross’ baby boy, Ben, together. This has also challenged the society’s concept that a gay couple can’t raise a child successfully. It is shown that the child is raised as if he’s a normal child, and he does have his father also. Typically, in real life, this role could be performed by the grandfather or the legal male guardian for the child being raised by a lesbian couple. It thus, raises the flag of giving “gay rights” of right to marry, the right to adopt kids and the right to personal choice of finding happiness in a gay relationship. All the issues have been portrayed in a life-like manner, in realism, which, indicate that gay relationships can certainly contribute towards leading our society in a better direction, in a healthier emotional environment if the society becomes more open and has a broader perspective on a gay life partnership.

Media is often said to be the touchstone of fresh take on issues. It can also serve as providing us with milestones of the change in the course of history. Media can also be the change we want the society to be, and it is a very important predictor of the changes in mankind at large. Today, this cursor certainly points at the right to personal freedom of choice, the right to individual happiness, and towards giving the basic respect and rights that this fraction of society deserves and has been long deprived of it.