Homosexual TV

I'm feeling better today so I went into uni. I needed to go in anyway and really wanted to go in as we are dealing with Homosexuality in British TV, and being a fellow homo myself I thought it would be interesting to look at how gay men and women are represented on TV.

It all started in the 70's with shows like Are You Being Served with the character of Mr. Humphries.

Mr. Humphries, played by John Inman, was a very flamboyant and camp character who was obviously a Homosexual, yet it was never explicitly mentioned except for a few subtle innuendos.

Gay characters, mainly gay male characters, were represented as being very camp and mince a lot.

Being the 1970's Homosexuality was not accepted in society as well as it is today. Shame they are taking so bloody long but what can you do. It was considered a taboo area and was never fully explored or mentioned in positive light.

Many programmes have been made since involving gay characters and plots. Take Tipping the Velvet for example. This is an adaption of a novel and centers around Nancy, who falls in love with actress Kitty.

It deals with the struggle of living as a homosexual female in victorian times, however it shows the darker side of Lesbian activity where the mistress claims ownership of Nan after her breakup with Kitty. For a BBC2 drama, it is rather graphic in it's sex scenes involving a leather dildo...rather disturbing if you ask me.

It's reviews were positive and no one mentioned the fact that the characters were lesbian probably because it was still taboo back in 2000.

Next came the highly controversial, but excellent drama in 1999, Queer as Folk. Now this is the original British drama, not the American version which, from what I understand, has been toned down a lot.
Queer as Folk deals with 3 main characters, Stuart, a man whore, Vince, the best friend who does anything for Stewart, and Nathan, the 15 year old one night stand that won't go away.

It doesn't deal with the issue of being gay, but rather just explores the life of these 3 guys who just happen to be homosexual.

You can look at it as just a real life drama rather than a gay drama. It depicts scenes of explicit man on man sex which for the time caused a lot of controversy! But then this is what Channel 4 is best known for. Diverse and different programming.

As the 00's went on, Homosexual representation on TV has become much more acceptable and less stereotyping. Soaps feature more homosexual characters and stories, yet they show them as being complicated and secretive rather than open and out there, with the exception of Sean from Coronation Street (Who also appeared in Queer as Folk).

Anyway, leaving this subject for now, Gay representation on Tv has come a long way, and it is not going to go away. It is becoming more acceptable in society to be gay now which is great...soon two guys will be able to hold hands without being shouted at....

I hope anyway....