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Essay on teen suicide awareness
A speech about teenage suicide awareness should be increased
Essay on teen suicide awareness
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One rising issue in the United States is teen sexuality. As teenage homosexuality gains notice, changes are being made in America with social treatment of gays. Tragedies such as the youth suicides which led to the precipitation of the It Gets Better campaign are instigating a social movement. Gay Straight Alliance clubs are more common on public school campuses than they previously have been, and the idea of “gay is okay” is being shown via the television broadcast system. Americans are being exposed to gay culture and are becoming more accepting of it because of the exposure. One show with a unique set of characteristics is Glee. Glee is a show on a national network with the reputation of being conservative: FOX, which makes it more surprising that the show also holds the record for number of non-heterosexual teenage characters on a prime time show (four). The popularity of this show, marked by their success in ratings and merchandising (average of 9.4 million viewers each episode, over 30 million digital and physical record sales, and a cult following self titled as “Gleeks”), means that whatever messages shown in their forty-four minute run time are making their way out to the public .
To analyze the content of Glee, I watched all of season one and a portion of season two (as it is still airing) and took notes on anything where an open or closeted teen homosexual was interacting or mentioned. Each episode ran an average of forty-four minutes accounting for commercial breaks and for special episodes that ran longer than the normal hour slot. In all, approximately 16 hours of television was reviewed. Patterns appeared out of the notes such as supposed behavior of teen homosexuals and collective beliefs and attitudes about teen...
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... be purely up to the media to change this problem of one masculinity and one femininity. Glee is a unique show and has done so much, but the rest of America needs to do more.
Works Cited
Baptist, Joyce A., and Katherine R. Allen. "A Family’s Coming Out Process: Systemic Change and Multiple Realities." Contemporary Family Therapy 30.2 (2008): 92-110. Print.
Naugler, Diane. “Wearing Pink as a Stand Against Bullying: Why We Need To Say More.” Journal of Homosexuality 57.3 (2010): 347-363
Oswald, Ramona Faith. "Family and Friendship Relationships After Young Women Come Out as Bisexual or Lesbian." Journal of Homosexuality 38.3 (1999): 65-83.
Pascoe, C. J. "Multiple Masculinities?: Teenage Boys Talk about Jocks and Gender." American Behavioral Scientist 46.10 (2003): 1423-438.
Woolery, Lisa M. “Gaydar.” Journal of Homosexuality 53.3 (2007): 9-17
Moses, E. A. & Hawkins, R. O. (1982). Counselling Lesbian Women and Gay Men: A Life Issues Approach. St Louis: Mosby.
Kidd, Dustin. 2014. “Not that There’s Anything Wrong with That: Sexuality Perspectives.” Pp. 129-163 in Pop Culture Freaks: Identity, Mass Media, and Society. Boulder: Westview Press.
The world is an ever-revolving place. Where in the blink of an eye what was once considered trendy and interesting becomes obsolete in minutes. Fashion, publications, social media, entertainment, and celebrities are news one minute and cease to be acknowledged the next. Which is why when a cable television show, targeted at teenagers on a moderately popular network becomes the most watched television show on Tuesday nights, people have something to talk about. Pretty Little Liars, an ambitious show- for the network that once was solely dedicated to Christian shows such as 700 club- has quickly redefined the way that a show can measure its success. In an article published by Entertainment Weekly it clearly and effectively documents the show and also its rule bending success.
Historically, the representation of gay, African-American men on television has fallen short of the mark . We have seen “sissies, faggots and finger-snapping queens” sashaying across the screen, feminizing and marginalizing African-American men by these racially insensitive and homophobic caricatures. In this paper I examine the characters: Keith Charles of HBO’s Six Feet Under, Omar Little of HBO’s The Wire, Lafayette Reynolds of HBO’s True Blood, and Julien Lowe of FX’s The Shield and how their characters manifest their masculinity. The three characters that appear on HBO shows are portrayed as strong, masculine, openly gay men. Only Lowe, the sole African-American gay man who has appeared on a basic cable hour-long television drama is a closeted gay character. Since the “out” characters appear on HBO and the closeted character appears on basic cable, is it possible that an audience who can afford to pay for HBO is tolerant of the representation of masculine gay men while an audience watching on basic cable is not tolerant of that representation? Or is HBO’s marketing campaign, “It’s not TV, it’s HBO” an experimentation with “genre, coupled with their strategy of distancing themselves from broadcast television culminating in a distinguishable brand name and a noticeable schism between pay cable and broadcast television” (Jaramillo 60). Or rather, is the HBO audience one that is able to pay for a subscription to HBO, just gazing at these characters? Are these characters just a twist on the “big black buck” stereotype for a post-modern audience – one comfortable with explorations of masculine, racialized, gay desire? HBO’s marketing certainly attempts to position itself as a step above broadcast TV, airing programming that is de...
This report observes the consequences that televised sexuality has by different, essentially observing reality shows, soap operas, animated shows, and comedies. Moreover, they related the quantity of sexual content with the repeated references t...
Hilton and Szymanski (2011) conducted research to understand the experiences of 14 white homosexual biological siblings after they learned that their sister or brother was lesbian or gay. Their subjects consisted of eight females that had a gay brother, two females that a lesbian sister, and four males with a gay brother. Hilton administrated the study by asking a series of questions; the subjects getting interviewed through these methods person to person...
By analyzing my very own personal investment in the idea that heterosexuality is normal, I have realized that I am currently and that I used to deliberately present myself in a heterosexual persona to the world at large. Personally, when I was young, I used to be uncomfortable with women who broke the social norms of heteronormativity in public. I remember feeling anxious, and believing that one day soon society would perceive me as a divergent towards the norms because I hang out with women who didn’t present a heterosexual persona. I feared unspeakable things that would happen to me once I lost my privileges of being perceived as the ‘good’ heterosexual female. The lost of my social standing in society scared me; I was already a minority,
Today television shows are widely praised for their portrayal of different characters sexuality. On Modern Family a same-sex couple’s life is shown through their relations with their family and raising a child. There’s also shows aimed at young adults that are receiving attention for their depiction of gay or lesbian characters such as Glee and Pretty Little Liars. Even the Disney Channel has shown a same-sex couple on the show Good Luck Charlie (with some backlash claiming that since Disney is intended for children that they should seek merely to entertain and not to push an agenda). On the contrary to this argument is the idea, that same-sex couples are becoming more and more normal thus they should make it recognizable to children.
In the new millennium, the concepts of racial diversity in multiculturalism have become part of the fabric of American discourse. Consequently, the television industry faces an increased pressure from advocacy groups to better reflect the nation’s demographic reality. Many observers of American popular culture believe that multicultural television fare presented when children are most likely to be viewing this critical to advancing acceptance of racial and ethnic diversity in the United States. (Wilson, Gutierrez & Chao) Being a show designed for younger audiences, Everybody Hates Chris is able to address racial stereotypes to young audiences and possibly impact the way younge...
The average America watches more than 150 hours of television every month, or about five hours each day (“Americans,” 2009). Of the 25 top-rated shows for the week of February 8-14, 2010, six were sitcoms, averaging 5.84 million live viewers each (Seidman, 2010), to say nothing for the millions more who watched later on the Internet or their Digital Video Recorders. The modern sitcom is an undeniable force in America, and its influence extends beyond giving viewers new jokes to repeat at the water cooler the next day: whether Americans realize it or not, the media continues to socialize them, even as adults. It may appear at first glance that sitcoms are a relatively benign force in entertainment. However, the modern sitcom is more than just a compilation of one-liners and running gags. It is an agent of gender socialization, reinforcing age-old stereotypes and sending concrete messages about how, and who, to be. While in reality, people of both sexes have myriad personality traits that do not fall neatly along gender lines, the sitcom spurns this diversity in favor of representing the same characters again and again: sex-crazed, domestically incompetent single men enjoying their lives as wild bachelors, and neurotic, lonely, and insecure single women pining desperately to settle down with Prince Charming and have babies. Sitcoms reinforce our ideas about what it is “normal” to be, and perhaps more importantly feed us inaccurate ideas about the opposite sex: that women are marriage-crazed, high-maintenance, and obsessed with the ticking of their biological clocks, while men are hapless sex addicts whose motives can’t be trusted. The way that singles are portrayed in sitcoms is harmful to viewers’ understanding of themselves...
Despite the transition, little consideration has been given to understanding the growing population of gay adolescents. 25% of American families are likely to have a gay child (Hidalgo 24); In the United States, three million adolescents are estimated to be homosexual. Yet, American society still ignores gay adolescents. Majority of children are raised in heterosexual families, taught in heterosexual establishments, and put in heterosexual peer groups. Gay adolescents often feel forced by parents to pass as “heterosexually normal” (Herdt 2). As a result, homosexual teens hide their sexual orientation and feelings, especially from their parents. Limited research conducted on gay young adults on disclosure to parents generally suggests that disclosure is a time of familial crisis and emotional distress. Very few researchers argue that disclosure to parents results in happiness, bringing parents and children closer (Ben-Ari 90).
If one were to identify a time in life when the recognition of a homosexual identity would be most disruptive, adolescence would be at the top of the list. According to psychologist Erik Erikson, adolescence is a time of identity versus confusion. During adolescence, children are exploring their independence and developing a sense of self. Those who receive proper encouragement and reinforcement through personal exploration will emerge from this stage with a strong sense of self and a feeling of independence and control. Those who remain unsure of their beliefs and desires will insecure and confused about themselves and the future (Crain, 2000). The successful completion of these steps can be impeded by identifying one self as a sexual minority. Andrew Sullivan articulates his experience as a homosexual teen in his essay “What Is A Homosexual?”
... and Lesbian Families." ERIC.com. Educational Resources Information Center, Dec. 1993. Print. 04 Dec. 2013.
We may be personally responsible for our own misconceptions of gender and masculinity. Our actions about these topics speak louder than words. Sociologist, Ann Oakley argues that parents often mold their children around certain behaviors, with positive and negative consequences, to adhere to the standards that are socially acceptable. Oddly there is a strong back lash to this sort of treatment in females. In a study done conducted by Michael Messner, when asked who was a tomboy and who was a sissy as children, women raised their hands more often to identify with the tomboy image. The tomboy trait celebrates masculinity and restricts femininity. Often children explore many traits about themselves, as Allen explained to Pascoe, “When you’re younger…you’re a kid. You are wide open…You just do what you want” (Pascoe 118). Darnell, a football player, stated “Since you were little boys you’ve been told, ‘hey don’t be a little faggot’” (p 55). Darnell showcasing that males are conditioned very early like females about their roles of masculinity. These children are taught about how masculinity works. In the school Pascoe researched, a faculty member, Mr. Ford, reminded males students through his reply to a backhanded comment made to him from another student that men should engage in sexual actives with women, not men. Another...
middle of paper ... ... Works Cited Adam Sharpiro, Megan Schultz, Christina Roush, Cassandra Schofar, Emily Shilling, Tawnia Simpson, Natalie Sampiller. Portrayal of Homosexuality in Media. 26 March 2014 http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/tcom103fall2004/gp16.pdf>. Huegel, Kelly.