Media Writing Lab

By Sydney Secuskie Popular culture plays a strong role in the way teens develop and respond to their sexuality. It helps young adults develop a way to interact with their counterparts and helps them get a sense of sexuality and sexual experiences that they may experience in their young lives. However, what happens to this development when the sexuality an individual identifies with is rarely portrayed in popular films and television series? Heterosexuality is normalized within numerous popular television series, making young teens of the LGBTQ+ community struggle to find a character to resonate with. Callie Torres, a bisexual character in the TV hit show Grey’s Anatomy , exemplifies the struggles that many individuals in the LGBTQ+ community face when trying to identify their sexuality. Callie begins the first season as a straight, married female; however, she eventually falls in love with a female doctor after her divorce with her husband. Callie constantly denied her bisexual...

By: Sarah Selzer The straight population within American media is known for gaining and maintaining its power within television and film, and therefore have the dominance to change the cultural flow of society. Unfortunately, heteronormative plotlines are continually produced, neglecting the accurate representation of lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual, and queer individuals within the entertainment industry. Straight people have the privilege of never having to worry about how they’re represented, but negative stereotypes of other sexual identities are still working their way up to the point where their stereotype does not solely represent their entire essence as a character. This notion is supported by social theorist Gail Dines with quote from her book Gender, race, and class in media: A critical reader : “While the entertainment industry have on some level acknowledged that gender and sexual identities are more fluid than was once thought, film and TV representations of ch...

By Stella Ahn Athlete represents masculinity. When you think about the popular sport games in America such as football, baseball and basketball, the male athletes will directly come to your mind. As a matter of fact, athlete characters in the films and TV shows are often depicted as jocks; male, strong, aggressive. For example, Noah Puckerman, one of the main characters in Glee, is a football player. He takes a role of typical jock in the show, being aggressive and bullying other students. By constantly showing this kind of athlete characters, media reinforce the stereotype of athletes. If these stereotypes are wrong as previous posts mentioned, are jocks the only victim of it?  Considering athlete as masculine excludes people who have different genders and sexualities. This essay will talk about athlete’s gender and sexuality that excluded from media, specifically women and homosexual. Daniels posed a question (2008) , “If athlete means masculine, where do femininity a...