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Nicollette Roe
COM 389
The Representation of Race:
How Non-normative Sexualities Are Portrayed in Media
For my research paper on content analysis and representation I will focus on the
representation of non-normative sexualities and look at the races of those LGBT characters in a
few current television shows. In order to carry out this research I chose to watch an episode from
three successful television shows that I already knew included characters that portrayed people
with non-normative sexualities. The three shows I analyzed were Skins, Modern Family, and
Orange is the New Black. It was imperative that I not only chose shows that featured members of
the LGBT community, but shows that reached out to various demographics. For example, Skins
is a drama series with an entire cast of teenagers so it was clear that the audience intended in the
creation of this show were young people. Modern Family on the other hand is more of a comedy
and is family appropriate; therefore, I felt it was a great series to analyze specifically for its
attraction to differing ages and thus making it a family friendly series. The last show I analyzed
for my research paper was Orange is the New Black, due to its adult demographic considering it
contains mostly adult content with the language and a high number of sexual encounters. All in
all, each of these three shows analyzed together are a good look at how non-normative
sexualities are framed and portrayed to all kinds of varying audiences, while at the same time it
still keeps the scope of my research appropriate in size by not analyzing anymore than three TV
shows. In looking at how non-normative sexualities are portrayed and which races are featured, it
allows me to better understand in what ways all ages view non-normative sexualities and to see if
they differ or have similarities.

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While analyzing these television shows, I counted how many male and female
homosexual characters there were and then noted what their race was. As I said earlier, this is
important to learn so that one could better understand how non-normative sexualities are framed
by media forms. When learning these things, we can then question whether their portrayal is
accurate to our views or not. Depending on my findings, I would be able to tell if there were
overwhelmingly more male representatives, or more black representatives compared to that of
white characters, etc. The way I counted was very simple and self explanatory. For every LGBT
character shown, I made a mark under either male or female. (Later I totalled them up to
compare whether or not there were more men or women featured as homosexuals in television
shows). Then, whenever I had made a tally for a homosexual character, I also noted their race.
The categories for race included Caucasian, African American and Pacific Islander/Asian. Each
night for three nights I watched two episodes from each TV series, to make sure I knew all the
characters involved and that I didn't skip anyone by only watching one show. In total, I watched
six episodes. This was enough to understand the full scope of the cast members without being too
vague with only one episode or too broad by watching many, which wasn't necessary. The data I
collected from these three television shows was enough data to better understand how media
represents these non-normative sexualities and their racial identities.
The data I collected looked like this: there were clearly an overwhelming majority of
female LGBT members due to the fact that one of the shows, Orange Is The New Black, is
mainly women. I did not realize this until I was well into my paper so it teetered my scale of
having more women than men. But it turned out to still be relevant to my research because of the
tallying of racial groups that I was keeping track of as well. In total, there were thirteen LGBT
members among all three shows within the six episodes I watched. Four of those thirteen

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members were male while the remaining nine were female (due to the Orange Is The New Black
cast being majority women as stated earlier). Skins, featured two gay males, both of whom were
white, while Modern Family featured the same representation of two gay white males. Lastly,
Orange Is The New Black featured the entire nine female LGBT characters; however, the
interesting thing about it was that seven out of those nine were white people. Orange Is The New
Black was the only show that featured more than one race in regards to characters with nonnormative sexualities. That means that in the show Orange Is The New Black, white LGBT
characters accounted for 78% of the representations of people with non-normative sexualities
and the remaining 22% were African American actresses. This means that there were zero
representations of non-normative sexualities among any other race other than Caucasian and
African American. It became very clear in my research that it was not about male or female
representations, but rather, the representation of those non-normative sexualities being of people
of different ethnicities.
By looking at the data I collected, an analysis of these findings show numerous
ideologies in contemporary society. The first is the overwhelmingly presence of white people
representing gays more so than any other racial group. When a homosexual character was not
white then they were black and no other races were represented as seen by the numbers from
earlier. This tells a lot about how media frames and perceives the identities belonging to people
who portray non-normative sexualities. It creates an issue considering we know that there are
homosexuals among other ethnicities, but it raises the question as to why those other people are
not being portrayed or represented. In total, with 85% of the gay characters being white among
all three shows combined, the 15% remaining being black characters, leaving 0% of any other
race featured; these shows that are only perpetuating LGBT members to be primarily white are

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clearly setting the standard for hegemonic norm found within the gay press. (Han), as media
forms like this often speak only to whites (Han), which is what we see here being the case due
to the abundance of white cast members. In other words, what this does is maintains gay as
largely a white category (Han). Although these things are subtle when watching the television
shows, coming off as the norm, it is important to realize these inequalities in representation
because it is not realistic. Han argues, These stereotype images have worked to construct [nonwhites] as fundamentally foreign, threatening, and perhaps most importantly, as inferior to white
men (and women)." That is why when noticing the misrepresentation of LGBT members in
television series such as these, we can then interpret the underlying messages and ideologies that
stem from what is being seen, or not being seen. To completely not represent entire groups of
people that are gay is something terribly odd in today's media culture.
While what these images represent is as I stated unrealistic, it made me question the plans
that can be implemented to change the hegemonic norm of non-normative sexualities in media.
In order to create a change, there must be more diversity applied to the cast members featured in
these shows to give a more accurate account of LGBT members to the millions of citizens that
watch these series and subliminally soak up knowledge from them. When media continues to
curate and sustain this hegemonic norm, Jay Clarkson says that They fail to recognize the
liberatory potential of representing higher degrees of transgression." Furthermore, when we see
the same patterns in each of the representations of LGBT members throughout various television
shows, without any breaking of that normative mold already set in place, [It] creates the
impression that the shows are equating very specific conceptions of beauty, race, and ethnicity
within queerness. (Pratt). With the implementation of more diverse characters, it will break
down these barriers and spread true knowledge about people in todays world.

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All in all, this research paper has been eye opening. In the beginning of this research I did
not know what to expect, and the results were far from what I had previously believed. For
example, I never questioned the races represented by LGBT members in media. I had a
preconceived notion that it was diverse, without truly analyzing and reporting the diversity
beforehand. With the results of non-normative sexuaities being represented by a mass number of
white people, it allowed me to see how gays are mainly seen as being a white thing, although
we know that is not true. It is important to me because the representation of sexualities and races
is important to understand the role media plays in the ideologies and stereotypes that are created
that effect an abundance of people. Now, I view media differently than I had before. I am more
aware and I study more closely the things that I see which allows me to take responsibility as a
viewer for ideals that perpetuated through media. As one of my professors once told me,
become a co-producer of knowledge, and not just a passive consumer. In completing this
research paper, I definitely have become more diligent at questioning the ideologies and
stereotypes rather than normalizing them and believing them to be true without question.

Sources:

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1. Chong-suk Han, "Sexy Like a Girl and Horny Like a Boy: Contemporary Gay 'Western'
Narratives About Gay Asian Men," in Gender, Race, And Class In Media, edited by Gail Dines
and Jean M. Humez, 163-168. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publication, Inc., 2011.

2. Jay Clarkson, The Limitations of the Discourse of Norms: Gay Visibility and Degrees of
Transgression in Gender, Race, And Class In Media, edited by Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez,
335-340. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publication, Inc., 2011.

3. Marnie Pratt, This Is the Way We Live and Love!: Feeding on and Still Hungering for
Lesbian Representation in The L Word in Gender, Race, And Class In Media, edited by Gail
Dines and Jean M. Humez, 344. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publication, Inc., 2011.

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