Youth Television Accused Of Ignoring Gay Community And Treating Them As Jokes
New Stonewall research, Unseen on Screen, published today has discovered that ordinary gay people are almost invisible from the top 20 television programmes watched by Britain’s youth. Amounting up to to only 46 minutes out of 126 hours of television that represented the gay community in a positive and realistic way, the biggest percentage of representation of gays was shared between four ITV1 and C4 programmes - I’m a Celebrity… , Hollyoaks, Emmerdale and How to Look Good Naked. BBC1 that is funded by the television license fee we all pay transmitted only 44 seconds of positive and realistic portrayal of gay people in more than 39 hours of output.
Also interviewing young people in Britain on how they felt gay people were represented in television, the overwhelming response was they felt they were largely stereotyped, leading unhappy lives, bullied and rejected by their families.
Speaking about the findings, Ben Summerskill, Stonewall Chief Executive, said:
‘Of course it’s welcome that some of the most obnoxiousness unpleasantness of people such as Jeremy Clarkson is now being edited out before transmission. However, it’s hardly surprising that there’s still almost endemic homophobic bullying in Britain’s secondary schools when, even if gay people do appear on TV shows watched by young people, they’re depicted in a derogatory or demeaning way. It’s tragic that in 2010 broadcasters are still underserving young people in this way, particularly when young people themselves say they want to see real gay people’s lives on TV.’
Disappointing in terms of equality, the lack of positive representation of gays has serious consequences concering attitudes with 71% of secondary school teachers polled by YouGov (Teacher’s Report, 2009) saying that anti-gay language in the broadcast media affects the levels of homophobic bullying in schools.
On top of finding that half of all portrayals of the LGB community was stereotypical and often saw gay people depicted as figures of fun, predatory or promiscuous, Unseen on Screen also highlighted that three fifths of homophobia went unchallenged, with one 16 year old interviewed saying:
‘TV gives the wrong view of gay people because every storyline is about them being beaten up and discriminated against. They are never accepted by their family. In real life they just want to fit in.’
Recommendations included in the report range from developing guidelines to ensure more positive portrayals of gay characters, that programme makers should share good practice on how to develop authentic lesbian, gay and bisexual characters in continuing dramas and broadcasters should also monitor their output to ensure lesbian, gay and bisexual representation, with Summerskill expanding on this saying:
‘Rather than review output which broadcasters claim to be targeted at young people, we wanted to review the programmes they actually watch,’
‘Tomorrow’s generation of TV viewers clearly want programmes which portray modern Britain the way it actually is. Broadcasters who fail to recognise this risk commercial failure and will certainly not be able to justify a universal licence fee in the decades ahead.’
You can download Unseen on Screen from the Stonewall website
