This week I had the privilege of watching Fox's new show "Glee", and found it funny, clever, and original. But I found one aspect of it business-as-usual in Hollywood; it's portrayal of Christians and gays. The "Celibacy Club", as it is called on the show, is a program for teenagers at high-school who want to wait until marriage before having sex. Fair enough. But the girls running the club are straight up hoochies and so far are the main villains of the show. The girls make statements meant to make the idea of celibacy seem ludicrous, while the show's main character makes a dramatic plea to the students in the club urging them that celibacy is "unrealistic" and that they should instead simply be prepared for sex. The male lead is then convinced that indeed, celibacy is ludicrous. I'm not a prude, and would be the last to preach abstinence until marriage (considering I'm a gay Californian, I'm not even afforded that right). Celibacy education (abstinence I would argue would be a better term for the show) has its problems, and undoubtedly some teens will choose to have sex, but those that make this commitment shouldn't be made fun of, or ridiculed for their beliefs. Obviously, it's a lot safer and smarter to avoid sex if you can when you're a teen, so if you are committed enough to go that route, Hollywood has no business making these teens out to be less than human. Just because myself and Hollywood wouldn’t go that route, doesn’t mean we have the only correct position on this issue.
At the same time, the gay character on “Glee” is stereotypically effeminate, fashionable, and serves as the comic relief for the other characters on the show. He is always being thrown into a dumpster and picked on by the other kids. In all fairness, getting picked on in one way or another, is a reality for most of the kids taking part in the glee club. It's just unfortunate that once again, rather than giving us a strong, popular, gay character that breaks the stereotypes that Hollywood provides of the typical gay man, they instead give us the tired, one-dimensional stereotype. Luckily for "Glee" the show has enough other attributes that it is more than worth putting up with this one played-out aspect of the show.
It is ironic though, that as much friction as there often is between the gay community and the Christian community, they are bound together by Hollywood's relentless pursuit of persecution. While some right-wing activists believe that Hollywood serves to make gay culture more mainstream at the expense of traditional family values, and cite movies such as "BrokebackMountain" and "Transamerica" as examples of this "agenda.", the vast majority of gay roles portray gays as feminine, weak, dramatic, and androgynous. It was this portrayal that was one of the reasons my own coming out was so difficult. Not knowing any openly gay men myself, all I knew of what it was to be gay, was from the characters shown on T.V. For years, I held back on accepting who I was in part because portrayals of gay men as wearing women's outfits, talking with a lisp, and having a limp wrist was not something I identified with, nor were they attributes I exhibited. While positive gay characters exist on a few shows and movies now days, they still pale in comparison to the stereotypical "comedy relief" roles, where their flailing wrists, and dramatic personalities lighten the serious mood in any movie or T.V. show. Even if there are no gay characters, language, particularly in movies, is also skewed against gay community. Gay jokes litter most comedies made within the last 20 years, and gratuitous use of the term "faggot" is the norm, and usually attached to a punch line that is supposed to induce a laugh.
As for Christians, what can say? They are usually portrayed as judgemental, ignorant whack-jobs who provide the comic relief, or villainy. They are almost equally disrespected as gay characters, and their views are portrayed as being outside the mainstream.
Apparently, Hollywood, for all its liberal well-meaning tolerance, believes America still finds these caracatures apt and funny. If you’re like me, and believe they’re stereotypes whose time has passed, make your voice heard.
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