The Homosexual Stereotype in Film
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The ster
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No social group can afford to ignore the importance of the cinema. Although perhaps eclipsed today by television, it has been for most of the century the preeminent mode of communication, expression and entertainment. It has acted as a repository of images of how people are and how they should be, images that are both produced by and help to produce the general thought and feeling of culture. In addition, it is widely regarded as a particularly rich medium involving so many different elements: spectacle, narrative, performance, photography, music, speech, montage, and movement. Because of this richness, film plays a role in the way society conceives of certain social groups. As an inescapable shaper and reflector of thought and feeling, as a prestigious form of art and entertainment, cinema is guilty of gender stereotyping in the case of homosexuals more so than any other gender group. Homosexuals are constantly attacked by the creators of film and the principle line of attack has been stereotyping. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that stereotypes are not just put out in films, but are widely agreed upon and believed to be right. Particularly damaging is the fact that many gay people believe them, leading on the one hand to the self-oppression so characteristic of gay people's lives, and on the other to behavior in conformity with the stereotypes which of course only serves to confirm their truth (Atwell 4). Equally, there can be no doubt that most stereoty
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e relate the information that has been coded into roles to a notion of personality. Then in context of role, individual and type their is the relationship between these three elements as in a member of a given class or social group (Peck 29-30). Clearly, the creators of cinema play upon these four elements to further the homosexual stereotype, and this gives a scientific reference point to understand gender stereotyping.
When discussing modes of film characterization it is useful to speak in these sociologic terms. A type is any simple, vivid, memorable, easily-grasped and widely recognized characterization in which a few traits are foregrounded and change or development is kept to a minimum. Types are instances which indicate those who live by the rules of society and those whom the rules of society are designed to exclude--the stereotype. For this reason, stereotypes are more rigid than any other type. Where one may chose, and this applies even to a fictional character, a social type, one is condemned to a stereotype. Moreover, the dramatic, ridiculous or horrific quality of stereotypes limit a personality even further. It is not surprising then that the genres in which homosexuals most often appear are horror films and comedi
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Approximate Word count = 1395
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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