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发帖数: 29846 | 1 May 12, 2012
In one of the most talked-about moments from the hit TV show Glee, Blaine
declared his love for Kurt and then — they kissed.
Glee is just one of many popular shows on television right now that feature
gay characters. Those characters aren't just entertaining us, they're
changing Americans' attitudes toward homosexuality.
In five separate studies, professor Edward Schiappa and his colleagues at
the University of Minnesota have found that the presence of gay characters
on television programs decreases prejudices among viewers.
"These attitude changes are not huge," he says. "They don't change bigots
into saints. But they can snowball."
Schiappa tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz that indeed,
as Vice President Joe Biden said last Sunday, the hit TV show Will and Grace
really did help America get to know gay people.
"With the emergence of the extraordinary Will and Grace show, more and more
Americans, sort of from the safety of their armchair, could learn a bit
about gay people who they might not otherwise have learned from in real life
," Schiappa says.
That was a turning point, he says, even though there were gay characters on
TV before Will and Grace premiered in 1998.
"I think that was a turning point simply because of two factors: One is it
was enormously popular, so the popularity of that show and the fact that
there were two major gay male characters who were very different, allowed
the show to do what I call important 'category work' " Schiappa says.
"What I mean by that is there were some critics who said, 'Well, Will isn't
gay enough, and Jack's too gay.' Well, actually that's great, because you
learn that there's diversity within that category that you had in your head
before of gay men," he says.
Viewers met straight-laced Will, an attorney, and his friend, the flamboyant
Jack — characters who were likable and could even be identified with in
some way, no matter if viewers weren't gay or didn't know gay people.
Schiappa says his research found two key ingredients can lead to attitude
change.
"Are they likeable? Or are they trustworthy? Are they attractive — there's
research that says if they're attractive it can influence your attitudes,"
he says.
"The other part of the mix is are you learning things through their
behaviors and observing them that you didn't know about that category
beforehand?" he says. "If so, then the more complicated your category of
whatever it is — lesbians, gay men — the less likely you are to reduce
them down to a stereotype."
Modern Family is now the most popular TV show in the U.S. There's not only a
gay couple, but this couple is in the process of adopting a second child.
Schiappa says the idea of a gay couple with children is much more mainstream
now.
It must be: Modern Family has won awards from Catholic organizations and
even Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said he likes the
show.
"There's no question that that the show is doing what I just described
before as category work," Schiappa says. "It's changing our understanding of
what gay men are like, particularly as parents."
More and more gay married couples are showing up on TV these days — like
Grey's Anatomy, for example — making something of a trend. NBC plans to
roll out more programs with gay married couples next season. Whether these
shows continue to build a positive image of gay people depends on how they'
ll be portrayed, Schiappa says.
"If they continue to be sympathetic, [it] will only contribute to that
larger sea change that we see — across society, really — in terms of the
attitudes toward gay marriage," he says. |
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