Sexuality on the Outside Looking in

The Media and Homosexuality

Society seems not to like change and it doesn't embrace change or individuality. Society seems to like people who look the same, feel the same, and act the same as everyone else. In short, our society enjoys a ‘cookie cutter' environment and culture. One sticky topic to talk about in our society is sexuality, especially homosexuality. It seems that people love to talk about sex as long as it is heterosexuality. As soon as the discussion turns to homosexuality, it seems that either people say nothing or are very negative towards the topic of homosexuality.

The purpose of this paper is to show how society deals with homosexuals in terms of how they are treated in society. In addition, I will show how homosexuals are treated in the media and how they are marginally accepted in society. Finally, I will attempt to show how we can easily look at homosexuals and homosexuality in a positive way in our society through television.

According to Richard Mohr, two out every five men have sex with men and every second family in the world has a member in it that is homosexual. Therefore, who are homosexuals? It stands to reason than those homosexuals could include your family, friends, and the baker at the local bakery, your doctor, and your sibling. Homosexuals are in all walks of life yet they are not known. Therefore, society seems not to be knowledgeable about the lives and the experiences of gays. In addition, the social attitudes and actions of society towards gays have a greater negative impact on society than we think it does (Mohr 22).

Mohr also claims that just because people are ignorant about the lives and experiences of gays, it doesn't mean that it stops them from having very strong opinions about gays. Ignorance will be filled with stereotypes about gays. According to Mohr, Society holds two types of stereotypes regarding gays. The first stereotype involves an individual's gender identity: Lesbians are women who want to be, or at minimum, look and act like men. Lesbians might be called butch. Gay men are thought to want to at least look and act like women. Gay men are sometimes called queens and fairies (Mohr 22).