Report on the BBC and gay issues

[ninebob]

I thought twice about posting this here, but decided that I'd quite like some "straight opinions". From local Brighton magazine GScene this week:

Gays Invisible on BBC?

Gay people are almost invisible on the BBC's flagship channels in spite of contributing £190 million a year to the BBC in TV license fees, according to new research commissioned by Stonewall.

A major monitoring exercise of 168 hours of primetime BBC1 and BBC2 found lesbian and gay lives realistically portrayed for just six minutes, or 0.06 per cent of airtime. A further 32 minutes of programming featured derogatory or offensive references to gay people. These came from a range of programmes including the Weakest Link, hosted by Anne Robinson, and The Lenny Henry Show.

Tuned Out, carried out by Stonewall and researchers from the University of Leeds, found:

- Even when they feature on BBC1 and BBC2, gay lives are five times more likely to be portrayed negatively than positively
- Lesbians hardly feature in BBC programming at all
- More than 50 per cent of all references to gay people on the BBC were as jokes
- Gay people living in stable relationships with partners and families are invisible on the BBC - most of the images used are clichés and stereotypes
- Lesbian and gay issues are rarely tackled or even mentioned in factual programmes
- Gay sexuality is frequently used as an insult, with almost no evidence of the BBC challenging homophobia when it arises

The report suggests eight key recommendations to the BBC. These include provision of urgently-needed balanced and unsensational coverage in its news and current affairs programmes, developing authentic gay characters throughout drama and soap outputs and including six per cent of gay contestants in game shows, reflecting the wider British population.

The only part of that article I don't agree with (I actually find it laughable) is the very last part about 6% of gameshow contestants - If we want to make up 6% of gameshow contestants, so be it, but who really cares?

The rest of it is slightly disturbing. I was hoping we'd reached a point of general acceptance, and indeed things are significantly better than they used to be, but the way forward is surely to educate people towards removing the stigma, which clearly isn't happening.

The part about soaps is very true - of the two majors ones, Eastenders and Corrie, there are only 3 gay characters - Sonia & Naomi (which, in my opinion, is based around a very ropey and negative storyline anyway, shown to be breaking up a marriage), and Sean in Corrie, who makes me cringe because he's everyone's stereotype of a gay man and everything that I'm not.

It could be argued that this report only targets the BBC, and we do get better representation on CH4 and 5, but it has still made me cross, the attitude from the company that the majority of my license fee goes to.

Your thoughts?

 

[johnny_t]

Interesting to note your thoughts on Sean from Corrie, as I have often felt the same thing, whereby the only 'acceptable' gays on television have to be ultra-camp, such as Julian Clary, Graham Norton or John Inman.

It would be good to have personalities who happen to be gay, but that isn't the main plank of their act - Maybe Paul O'Grady falls under this heading, but I don't watch him enough to say for sure.

Leading on from that though, maybe there are a lot of gay personalities that aren't camp, and so we don't know how much airtime they have - For example, Phil Jupitus or Mark Lamarr could easily be gay, for all I know.

The other thing I will agree with in the report is that there is more of a tendency to use 70s-style playground language like 'gayer', 'bender' etc. (and not just limited to sexuality - 'spaz' and 'joey' are on the rise) but to deem it acceptable now on the grounds of irony. Might be funny now, but it always engenders a lack of mutual respect and slowly but surely will get used with more venom as the years progress.

 

[Richardp]

I spose they feel that by making someone camp labels them gay otherwise how would we know and if that's the case then all the straights should speak with deep gruff voices and start their sentences with 'I play rugby I do' we will know when there is complete acceptance when there are no labels, if gays don't come out they get criticised but straight people don't have to declare their sexuality.
If the soaps have gay couples they should just have same sex couples living together like any other couple and and leave us to work it out, no funny walks no funny talks just people.
the bit about the gameshow suggests that gays are more intelligent than straights

 

[hermes]

I read a similar article in one of the nationals recently and it seems a shame that the beeb can't be a more grown-up and open-handed.

Richardp wrote:

If the soaps have gay couples they should just have same sex couples living together like any other couple and and leave us to work it out, no funny walks no funny talks just people.

Pity you're not a tv director.

 

[Brightness]

I have lots of gay friends of both sexes and I agree with most of what you are saying but leave Sean out of it !!!! He makes me laugh so much because I'm not into Corrie at all but am married to a Corrrie addict. Sean brightens my day when he's on. Not because he's gay but because he's so funny & his one liners are so amusing LOL

Sonia and Naomi I think are pathetic though I have a mate who went through a similar case scenario when she kicked her hubby out after falling in love with a very beautiful young lady - still together 5 years later....

It might help matters though ninebob if certain actors 'came out of the closet' so to speak and stopped hiding their sexuality. I could name more than a few whom I suspect are gay - why hide it? It's 2000 & blardy 6 for petes sakes!

Another thing that annoys me (and possibly you) is that gay men are almost always portrayed on tv as being highly promiscuous - most of the ones I know are in a very happy loving relationship or would like to be - they're most certainly not party animals who shag everything that moves

Anyway, agree with 99% of what you're saying - write a letter to auntie Beeb and tell her what you think mate - can't do any harm can it?

 

[johnny_t]

Mind you, following on from the earlier points on how do you know if a same-sex couple are gay or not, almost every lifestyle programme on TV (especially house-related ones) will feature a same sex couple whose exact relationship to each other is never touched upon, so maybe there are more than the stats reveal.

 

[Richardp]

Like I've already said, I don't see why gays have to 'comeout' have you come out as being straight bi or what ever?? why do we need to know should there be a rule that we have to declare our sexual preferences or even our sex on here?

 

[johnny_t]

Absolutely - Only reason we need to know is so that people can compile accurate figures on how much gaytime TV is broadcast. My point was that there could well be many gay people on TV but, just because they aren't swinging a handbag and saying things like 'Oo Duckie, I've just spent my wad on a ringmaster's jacket' then we don't know. Or need to.

 

[Gary_M]

Interesting readings.

I wonder if there could be other reasons for not making it 'blatant' that people are gay on the telly.

Here is one example to illustrate what I mean : I once attended a conference about 'disability' and inclusion. There was this EXCELLENT speaker who was in a wheelchair. She talked about the actual 'harm' that laws such as Disability Discrimination were doing to 'disabled people'. She went on to say that if people want to be accepted by others and have a 'normal' life, they should NOT have special laws made only for them as it is segregating them further from the community, and actually promoting exclusion and reinforcing the 'labels' idea.

It was very interesting to hear a different 'slant' on something that was thought to be a good idea.

So, perhaps there is a similar philosophy about depicting gay people on television - by making someone obviously gay (the stereo-typical version) is it actually benefitting acceptance or promoting further exclusion by reinforcing labels?

My personal beliefs are - the more someone highlights or protests about something, the longer it takes for that person/s to be accepted because, in a round-about way, they are saying 'I am different, accept me'. We all go through life continually needing to be accepted by others, but in my experience, those who 'protest' take MUCH longer to be accepted.

I hope people don't read this wrong - I am all for acceptance and equality in life. We are all human beings and it does not give the right for anyone to judge us otherwise about the decisions WE make

'Change' in general is a frightening concept for most people - sometimes this change is better to happen in a subtle way

 

[Brightness]

Like I've already said, I don't see why gays have to 'comeout' have you come out as being straight bi or what ever?? why do we need to know should there be a rule that we have to declare our sexual preferences or even our sex on here?

Oi, oi, oi calm down! I didn't mean anything awful by it. I just don't understand why, when interviewed by people some actors and actresses refuse to confirm or deny their sexuality - I personally don't care if someone is bi, gay, hetero or a sexual. I treat everyone the same & don't understand why tv doesn't. I also can't understand why society finds it offensive for two guys to walk down the street arm in arm yet they don't find it offensive for women to do the same - bigoted is not the word

I just think 'live and let live' for lack of a better phrase and no one should be ashamed or scared of whatever sexuality they are (unless they are paedo's of course and they just deserve to die).

Ninebob, don't know whether you experience or have in the past experienced anything like this but I was mortified.... About 5 years ago when my youngest was 10 I needed to go to a dental appt. and youngest was poorly. My mate who just happens to be a gay male offered to sit with him and look after him for me, he is not a stranger but a good friend & I'd trust him implicitly with any of my possessions including my precious kids.

When I was out I met a neighbour who asked me where youngest was I told her at home in bed and that my mate was looking after him. She pulled a face and said that she wouldn't trust a gay man with her kids I was horrified that she was implying that he was going to sprout horns and turn into a monster as soon as I was out of sight and told her so.

I was still steaming when I got home & I told my mate why. He said it wasn't the first time it had happened and had even had comments when he babysat for his sister.

I really felt for my mate and was disgusted to thank that my neighbour (thankfully she is no longer a neighbour) could think that my kids were at risk just because my mate happens to prefer people of the same sex rather than the opposite sex.

I told my hubby of this when he got home and he assured me that she was the one who had a screw loose and he most certainly trusted my mate to look after our kids, more so than some of my female mates.

Incidentally, when I got in I found child #2 and mate both laying on the floor in the lounge playing Buckaroo and eating nutella sarnies.... Amazing recovery when he found out who was babysitting him

 

[dg123]

I thought twice about posting this here, but decided that I'd quite like some "straight opinions". From local Brighton magazine GScene this week:

Gays Invisible on BBC?

Gay people are almost invisible on the BBC's flagship channels in spite of contributing £190 million a year to the BBC in TV license fees, according to new research commissioned by Stonewall.

A major monitoring exercise of 168 hours of primetime BBC1 and BBC2 found lesbian and gay lives realistically portrayed for just six minutes, or 0.06 per cent of airtime. A further 32 minutes of programming featured derogatory or offensive references to gay people. These came from a range of programmes including the Weakest Link, hosted by Anne Robinson, and The Lenny Henry Show.

Tuned Out, carried out by Stonewall and researchers from the University of Leeds, found:

- Even when they feature on BBC1 and BBC2, gay lives are five times more likely to be portrayed negatively than positively
- Lesbians hardly feature in BBC programming at all
- More than 50 per cent of all references to gay people on the BBC were as jokes
- Gay people living in stable relationships with partners and families are invisible on the BBC - most of the images used are clichés and stereotypes
- Lesbian and gay issues are rarely tackled or even mentioned in factual programmes
- Gay sexuality is frequently used as an insult, with almost no evidence of the BBC challenging homophobia when it arises

The report suggests eight key recommendations to the BBC. These include provision of urgently-needed balanced and unsensational coverage in its news and current affairs programmes, developing authentic gay characters throughout drama and soap outputs and including six per cent of gay contestants in game shows, reflecting the wider British population.

The only part of that article I don't agree with (I actually find it laughable) is the very last part about 6% of gameshow contestants - If we want to make up 6% of gameshow contestants, so be it, but who really cares?

The rest of it is slightly disturbing. I was hoping we'd reached a point of general acceptance, and indeed things are significantly better than they used to be, but the way forward is surely to educate people towards removing the stigma, which clearly isn't happening.

The part about soaps is very true - of the two majors ones, Eastenders and Corrie, there are only 3 gay characters - Sonia & Naomi (which, in my opinion, is based around a very ropey and negative storyline anyway, shown to be breaking up a marriage), and Sean in Corrie, who makes me cringe because he's everyone's stereotype of a gay man and everything that I'm not.

It could be argued that this report only targets the BBC, and we do get better representation on CH4 and 5, but it has still made me cross, the attitude from the company that the majority of my license fee goes to.

Your thoughts?

More than compensated by the number of homo hosts! (That's not meant to be offensive BTW).

Re the Sean character, my cousin was exactly like him. So camp it was unbelieveable but a great laugh. He is sadly missed by all.

 

[hermes]

Moderator,

(Joe-90 quote deleted)

 

[toffee]

Moderator,

Toffee, sorry, your post now deleted because of Joe-90 comments

 

[toffee]

Im not sure what the answer is ninebob on how to improve things so that tv shows real life for gay people instead of exaggerated characters.
One of my young boys saw a gay couple on tv and just said, see those two mam, they are gay. (Had to stifle laugh because it was asthough I didnt know)
He went on to say, that means that they are like boyfriends and girlfriends, they do kisses and hold hands but they cant mate and have babies.
This was said matter of fact and when the two hugged, he put his head in the cushion and said err yuk... (he also puts his head in the cushion when straight couples hug or kiss)
We do not make any attempt to discuss social issues until they arise in real life(or on the telly) and then explain as see fit.
Our kids know that peoples situations are all different.
This was not the case when I was growing up.
When I was younger, I cant remember seeing any openly gay scenes on tv and often single parents were portrayed in a negative way too.
Time is moving on though with what is shown on tv.
Another thing is the adverts for womens sanitary products that used to show women doing all this stuff and using blue ink to signify events and somehow make it 'less offensive'.
I would hear a lot of people saying that it is disgusting to advertise the things.
For goodness sake, women have periods, it's life, but we dont need false images around it.
People are gay, it's life but we dont need false images around that either.
People are single parents but we dont need overblown storylines to prove a persons position.
It is a personal view but it seems to much is given to sex, religion, colour etc and not enough to simply what the person is like as an individual. On the tv or in real life.

 

[securespark]

Moderator, (Joe-90 quote - Deleted)

Joe-90, keep it clean & behave, if you got nothing good to say then don't say it and read the message from securespark

AFAICT, Nine isn't telling us about his private life. It is just that, private, and has no bearing on this topic.

His sexuality doesn't come into the equation at all.

In fact, it could have been me complaining about the treatment of gays on TV.

No doubt you'd have something to say about that, too!!

Come out of the Dark Ages, this is 2006.