I really did enjoy the activities, readings, and classes this week. The main theme we covered in class this week was all the different homosexual television shows, movies, and when we had our speaker come in last week we discussed some homosexual theatre and plays. The reason why I thought this week was so interesting is because a lot of the shows that we discussed are shows that I am thoroughly interested in and have watched in the past. It helps a lot when we use examples of things that I can relate to. For Tuesday's class we had to bring a one page paper of us describing the character, plot, and setting of a television show that involved a gay character. Some of the TV shows that we discussed were Will and Grace, Desperate Housewives, Grays Anatomy and many more popular daytime television shows. We discussed all the homosexual characters in each of these shows and how they were all viewed and how in pretty much every single television show there was a stereotypical gay person. We had an interesting discussion about the fact that societies views most homosexual people the same way they are portrayed in these shows. Jack, on Will and Grace is probably the most stereotypical gay male. Jack's character is a feminine, outgoing, flamboyant gay male who most of the Will and Grace viewers absolutely adore. Since his character is so popular most of society expects that when they meet a gay male that person will be mirrored to Jack's character or at least have some of the same personality traits.
In Thursday's class we viewed some different American movies that included homosexual characters and an Indian film that included a lesbian couple. We were able to see a lot of different examples with the American films that there was usually a butch woman in most of the lesbian couples. In the Indian film we saw two very feminine looking women lying in the water caressing each other.
In one of our assignments we had an article to read titled Articulating "Indianess (page 60)" it discusses the movie Fire that we watched a clip from on Thursday's class. In this section it discusses how 'right -wing groups that have been protesting this movie claim that lesbianism does not exist.' This startles me because I can't imagine how someone can truthfully believe that there are no lesbians in their country just because they don't accept that type of lifestyle or behavior. In another section of this reading it illustrates between Radha and Sita's character how they may not be lesbians because of they have husbands. They try to justify this by explaining how may females in their culture show a lot of affection for each other without anything going on between them.
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The Indian movie Fire made me step back because I thought the consequences of acting on lesbians thoughts would be a lot worse than what was shown in the clips we saw. I thought if the consequences were horrible, no one would want to be an out lesbian and act on their thoughts...so it was a bit of a shocker to me, even tho I know there are lesbians and gays in any country.
ReplyDeleteFor the "Articulating Indianess," I think that the RSS (right-wing conservative group) was arguing that lesbianism is a western value and that the "ideal Indian" citizen does not prescribe to western values.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of American lesbian films that feature feminine couples, I just didn't choose those clips.
With Will and Grace, like I talked about in class, I see it as a curse and a blessing. On the one hand, Jack is very flamboyant and continues the typecasting that femme men are the crazy over the top gay character. Yet, it was also great to show gay characters who are leading "normal" lives.
I'm curious, Keli, why you chose "homosexual television" to describe the week's focus--one, because we've talked about a number of reasons why people prefer alternative terms to "homosexual," and two, because most of the TV and movies you discuss are not themselves homosexual or queer, but they depict queer characters or topics. Very few TV shows and movies are by, for, and about LGBT folks--except some on the subscription cable channels. Always you'll want to ask whose notions of queer are being produced (for whom) in these media, which is what the authors were doing in discussing The L Word and Fire.
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