Too often have I witnessed the portrayal of gay characters in movies and TV shows fall tragically into two stereotypes: the flamboyant fairy and the sick corrupted narcissist. The LGBT community has been strongly and repeatedly misrepresented by the media ever since the character Peter Panama came frolicking out of the closet in the 1972 sitcom The Corner Bar.
However, a wave of straight actors playing LGBT characters has rolled in to the TV and cinema scene, which may potentially encourage both a stronger overall acceptance of the LGBT community and a stronger rebuttal against heteronormativity.
Shows like Modern Family, Glee and Will and Grace all share common ground: they dodge the cringe-inducing stereotypes and render homosexual characters as––drumroll, please––normal human beings.
Eric Stonestreet is perhaps the first name that comes to mind when considering this topic. Since the premiere of Modern Family exploded into pop culture in September 2009, audiences have slowly yet surely been taking to the idea of gay parenting with more open-mindedness.
Cameron and Mitchell, played by Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson, are two dads with an adopted daughter. While the show’s overall aim is simply to make viewers laugh, it’s hard not to admire the portrayal of this power couple. They parent their child just as any other couple would, proving that parenting doesn’t have to involve a mother and a father.
“I definitely look forward to the day where this is not a revolutionary couple,” said Ferguson in an interview with The Paley Center.
But what I find most impressive about this interesting dynamic is that Stonestreet, an openly heterosexual male, doesn’t seem to find an issue in playing the role of a normal, openly homosexual person. This does a tremendous justice for pop culture. Perhaps audiences will learn tolerance and acceptance at the sight of a burly-looking man presenting such a character in a non-threatening, down-to-earth fashion.
Glee is another pop culture phenomenon. With all glitter, pom-poms and cheesy pop song covers aside, it actually follows some pretty pressing social issues, like the different facets of relationships and sexuality.
Darren Criss, American actor and singer-songwriter, is most famously known for his positive portrayal of the openly homosexual character Blaine Anderson on Glee. Also being heterosexual outside the world of Gleeks, Criss exudes his character’s personality as a normal, respectful high school student.
Blaine has defended his loved one in times of bullying and ridicule, engaged in a heavily controversial kiss and even introduced the topic of gay marriage into the show by proposing to his love interest. However, when questioned about his own sexuality in numerous interviews, Criss has made the point that it simply shouldn’t matter. And to be honest, I find it odd that actors who play straight characters are rarely ever asked about their sexuality. We’ve been conditioned to believe that heterosexuality is to be expected, and anything that deviates from that norm is something to be investigated.
Sadly, this ideal is still considered “progressive” in our modern age, an age of heteronormativity.
Tracing back, images of old John Waters films from the ’60s come crusading into my mind when I think of the unstable relationship between the LGBT community and mass media. Divine, the leading character and drag queen of Waters’ films, made a painfully obvious mockery of drag queen culture. Films like Pink Flamingoes and Female Trouble aimed high on the shock factor scale and showed Divine tampering with topics like rape, murder, incest and so on.
It’s as though audiences are more comfortable when LGBT characters are depicted as slightly less than human. We cope with the terrifying notion of someone actually being different from us by branding them with labels. Fruity, frilly, frightening, flamboyant… Suddenly, we’ve morphed a human being into a cartoon character. A large sect of humanity has been minimized into a vague and disadvantaged sketch.
But, to be fair, the depiction of LGBT characters has transcended profusely since the Waters era. Gay images are gradually finding a place in the world of entertainment.
I remember watching Milk for the first time. I remember how strongly and justly Sean Penn portrayed Harvey Milk. I remember feeling awfully proud of the fact that a heterosexual actor could so flawlessly and shamelessly fill the shoes of Milk, despite any controversy the movie may have ignited.
Even now, people still find themselves fidgeting in their seats and awkwardly clearing their throats at the sight of Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal kissing in their cowboy chaps. And let us not forget that steam-provoking scene between Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman in Black Swan, the one that made audiences stir in every direction in their movie theater seats.
But the point of the matter is this: a huge part of an actor’s job is to make him or herself comfortable in situations that are otherwise entirely unfamiliar to them. Perhaps these straight actors and LGBT members share the same sense of vulnerability. The actors must learn how to fill shoes that don’t necessarily fit them, and the LGBT community must learn how to live freely in a prejudiced society.
While actors and actresses run the “risk” of having people believe that they may be actually be gay in real life, they, for the most part, remain indifferent to that ridiculous fear. Who knows, maybe this will lead audiences to think, “Well, maybe it’s not such a weird thing after all.”
While I don’t fully agree with the mindset we have of heralding straight actors who play LGBT characters for their herculean bravery, I think society may be poking at a potential revolution. Think of it this way: a person is not defined by their sexuality. An actor is not defined by the role they play. And when an actor plays a role that doesn’t fit their sexuality, perhaps that actor is also highlighting the fact that humans are humans, regardless of who they decide to sleep with.
Jackie Braje can be reached at jacquelyn.braje@spartans.ut.edu