Representation of the LGBT+ Community in the World of Film
Some of you reading this may be wondering to yourselves why it all matters. Is representation of the LGBTQ community all that important? Are there quantifiable or tangible real-world results? Is the current state of representation in film really all that bad? And why should you care? Well allow me, a more or less qualified person who wrote a paper about the subject last semester, to answer some of your extremely specific hypothetical questions.
Over the course of the research process for my senior project last semester, I contacted a few different people well-versed on topics pertinent to the LGBTQ community, some of whom were experts within the film industry.
They all had similar thoughts on the importance of this representation, both for those in the community and outside of it. To start, seeing gay or transgender characters within mainstream film or television can help “normalize” them to wider audiences.
By making more diverse sexual and gender identities understandable to people who didn’t previously have this knowledge, the risk of LGBTQ individuals being targeted, othered, or pushed to the margins can decrease. Some even argue that increasing representation in media contributed majorly to current public perspectives on LGBTQ people, and even played a part in the Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality.
In addition, wider spread media representation can allow members of the community to feel acknowledged and validated. Studies have shown that explicitly LGBT-positive media have directly impacted experiences of self realization and acceptance for members of the community. Seeing role models, heroes, or simply an ordinary person going through situations similar to theirs can help people in a profound and fairly direct way.
Knowing all of this, it’s somewhat disheartening to learn the actual statistics of LGBTQ representation in widely released films of the past few years. GLAAD Media’s Studio Responsibility Index is currently the most detailed official report on this subject, and according to their research, only 13.9 percent of studio films released in 2012 included LGBTQ characters of any kind. This increased to 16.7 percent in 2013, 17.5 percent in 2014, 17.5 again in 2015, and 18.4 in 2016.
And while the numbers are increasing, it’s important to note that these broader studies do not distinguish between characters that are positively or negatively represented, and also includes characters sometimes so far removed from the actual film as couples in the background of one shot.
It’s also important to note that the vast majority of the films that do actually include supporting or main LGBT characters feature white and male gay characters, leaving lesbians, people of color, bisexual people, and especially transgender people with even less consideration. (one movie in 2016 featured a transgender character, and none in 2012 or 2014).
In short, it’s important to keep in mind that, in a word, film isn’t just film, it’s one of the most widely consumed forms of art in America, and it has a huge impact on the public’s perceptions of both other people and themselves.
People of the LGBTQ community have been dealing with the real and negative consequences of poor representation for decades, and deserve at least a small change for the better.
