Who Are We Really?: How the Media Misrepresents People
In the media today, different groups of people are represented in different ways. In television and film, white males are most often represented as the most diverse and complex character, not really having a stereotype that his character has to fill. While that’s true for that one type, it’s not true for all types of characters. African Americans find their fictional portrayals as the goofy best friend to the white main character, furthermore, people who are gay see their portrayal as the sassy gay friend or the butch female just looking for fun. No matter what group someone identifies with, the media stereotypes them in a negative way. In Amy Zimmerman’s “It Ain’t Easy Being Bisexual on TV” and Amy Stretton’s “Appropriating Native American Imagery Honors No One but the Prejudice,” the two discuss how the media stereotypes both bisexuals and Native Americans in a negative way, making them almost nonexistent or caricatures to the world. Amy Zimmerman titled her article, “It Ain’t Easy Being Bisexual on TV” as an allusion to the infamous Kermit the frog song, “It Isn’t Easy Being Green.” Kermit’s song describes how he fades into the background as something green in nature, instead of standing out like everything should. Zimmerman’s article does the same by describing that bisexuality is horribly underrepresented and misrepresented in the media; they fade into the background. Zimmerman tells how the media isn’t “going out of [it’s] way to showcase bisexual role models,” only representing them to satisfy “the sexual gratification of the off-screen male viewer. . .” Zimmerman begins her article by describing the logos of bisexuality in the media. …show more content…
A study was conducted by GLAAD, an organization that monitors the media portrayal of LGBT characters, in which they found the 2013-2014 TV season had “46 LGBT characters in total, out of which there were only 10 bisexual characters.” If that wasn’t a small enough number, “out of that minuscule number of bisexual roles, only two were male characters” goes on to describe just how little bisexuality is actually portrayed in the media. The world in the media is nothing like the world that actually exists, as Zimmerman points out that the bisexuality portrayed is “either a fun voluntary act of experimentation or a mere myth through two tried and true tactics: misrepresenting and oversimplifying bisexual characters until they are either punchlines or wet dream fodder, or simply refusing to portray bisexual characters in the first place.” By reducing bisexuality to experimentation, myth, punchlines and wet dreams, the media makes bisexuals feel invalid or confused, as Zimmerman uses pathos to make the audience feel sympathy for those who are reduced to such demeaning terms. The article then goes on to tell how bisexuality doesn’t have a stereotype, like the gay stereotype of “a disco-dancing, Oscar Wilde-reading, Streisand ticket-hold friend of Dorothy.” Bisexuals are “so absent from the agreed upon narrative of acceptable queerness, they are there [sic] own particular brand of illegible.” The bisexual characters shown on television aren’t really true bisexuals, not that anyone would actually know that. One character from Game of Thrones, Oberyn Martell, is portrayed “not as someone who happens to be bisexual, but as a man with an insatiable appetite.” The other bisexual male mentioned in the article is Frank Underwood from House of Cards, who uses “bisexuality [as] one of his tools, but the show stops just short of saying that it is part of his identity.” Zimmerman means that the ethos of bisexuals is devalued since the ‘bisexual’ characters in the media are portrayed as being bisexual in the same way someone is a geek; it’s a label, not their identity. Zimmerman concludes her article with pathos, discussing how “everyone should have the right to envision the future for themselves,” and that the media “has a responsibility to these children” who are bisexual, and deserve to see others who have the same sexuality as them as role models. It makes the reader thing about how if they’ve ever felt lost, they had the opportunity to look to a role model for guidane. Those who are bisexual don’t have that opportunity because of the media. “While not every show
In the media today, different groups of people are represented in different ways. In television and film, white males are most often represented as the most diverse and complex character, not really having a stereotype that his character has to fill. While that’s true for that one type, it’s not true for all types of characters. African Americans find their fictional portrayals as the goofy best friend to the white main character, furthermore, people who are gay see their portrayal as the sassy gay friend or the butch female just looking for fun. No matter what group someone identifies with, the media stereotypes them in a negative way. In Amy Zimmerman’s “It Ain’t Easy Being Bisexual on TV” and Amy Stretton’s “Appropriating Native American Imagery Honors No One but the Prejudice,” the two discuss how the media stereotypes both bisexuals and Native Americans in a negative way, making them almost nonexistent or caricatures to the world. Amy Zimmerman titled her article, “It Ain’t Easy Being Bisexual on TV” as an allusion to the infamous Kermit the frog song, “It Isn’t Easy Being Green.” Kermit’s song describes how he fades into the background as something green in nature, instead of standing out like everything should. Zimmerman’s article does the same by describing that bisexuality is horribly underrepresented and misrepresented in the media; they fade into the background. Zimmerman tells how the media isn’t “going out of [it’s] way to showcase bisexual role models,” only representing them to satisfy “the sexual gratification of the off-screen male viewer. . .” Zimmerman begins her article by describing the logos of bisexuality in the media. …show more content…
A study was conducted by GLAAD, an organization that monitors the media portrayal of LGBT characters, in which they found the 2013-2014 TV season had “46 LGBT characters in total, out of which there were only 10 bisexual characters.” If that wasn’t a small enough number, “out of that minuscule number of bisexual roles, only two were male characters” goes on to describe just how little bisexuality is actually portrayed in the media. The world in the media is nothing like the world that actually exists, as Zimmerman points out that the bisexuality portrayed is “either a fun voluntary act of experimentation or a mere myth through two tried and true tactics: misrepresenting and oversimplifying bisexual characters until they are either punchlines or wet dream fodder, or simply refusing to portray bisexual characters in the first place.” By reducing bisexuality to experimentation, myth, punchlines and wet dreams, the media makes bisexuals feel invalid or confused, as Zimmerman uses pathos to make the audience feel sympathy for those who are reduced to such demeaning terms. The article then goes on to tell how bisexuality doesn’t have a stereotype, like the gay stereotype of “a disco-dancing, Oscar Wilde-reading, Streisand ticket-hold friend of Dorothy.” Bisexuals are “so absent from the agreed upon narrative of acceptable queerness, they are there [sic] own particular brand of illegible.” The bisexual characters shown on television aren’t really true bisexuals, not that anyone would actually know that. One character from Game of Thrones, Oberyn Martell, is portrayed “not as someone who happens to be bisexual, but as a man with an insatiable appetite.” The other bisexual male mentioned in the article is Frank Underwood from House of Cards, who uses “bisexuality [as] one of his tools, but the show stops just short of saying that it is part of his identity.” Zimmerman means that the ethos of bisexuals is devalued since the ‘bisexual’ characters in the media are portrayed as being bisexual in the same way someone is a geek; it’s a label, not their identity. Zimmerman concludes her article with pathos, discussing how “everyone should have the right to envision the future for themselves,” and that the media “has a responsibility to these children” who are bisexual, and deserve to see others who have the same sexuality as them as role models. It makes the reader thing about how if they’ve ever felt lost, they had the opportunity to look to a role model for guidane. Those who are bisexual don’t have that opportunity because of the media. “While not every show