representation of sexuality

How do the producers of this episode of The Street represent sexuality?

The street is a T.V drama which focuses on social realism, its based in the north of England in such places as Newcastle and Manchester, its based on lower working classed people living in a urbanised society, that often depend on benefits. The dominant ideologies presented in the street are mixed. The positive ideologies being that gay/homosexual is more accepted in society and can occur in even the so called ‘masculine’ areas the example in the street being a demolition site, it also challenges today stereotypes of homosexuality, finally it uses affairs in the episode to show that marriages and family life breaks down after an affairs regardless if homosexual or straight  However it also presents negative ideologies through the lexical field used off homosexuality such as; queer, gay, bent. Another reason is the way the male demolition worker refuses to accept that he is gay, this shows that there are people in society that are scared to out in the open about their sexuality.

These set of ideologies both negative and positive are reinforced in the TV drama by the use of stereotypes, expectation and prejudice that can be involved in every day society in current times. Its an accurate representation of what life can be like for certain people, it also relates closely to focus which is social realism so the producers probably aim to keep the drama as close to reality as possible.

 The street and in particular challenge certain aspects of ‘normal’ life, they challenge the fact that gay people may not be necessarily accepted in society but have made progress this is due to prejudice and pre judgement this can be summed up by Vito Russo who stated that from the 1890’s-1930’s gay/homosexual people were presented through the media as an object of humour and ridicule but Russo later states that there was a self-censorship code introduced to not allow overly gay people to perform in theatres . It also challenges the stereotype that all mean are portrayed in a feminine way, its challenges this by placing both of the gay characters on a demolition site. It wasn’t till the 1990’s that homosexuality has become popular in media.

As the audience I would decode a negative attitude towards homosexuality this is due ton the negative vocabulary used in the episode and the way they are judged on up north in a negative way sometimes being associated with as ‘queer’ it also demonstrates violence towards gay men which could be seen as another type of prejudice this is seen in the scene where Charlie gets attacked in the gay bar, this could be due to someone thinking he was weak or gay. The whole thing just has a negative attitude towards homosexuality and in particular gays. Due to the prejudice shown through the episode I believe that homosexuals are treated as an inequality almost like they have committed a crime and conspired against, this would support Joshua Gamsons theory.  On the contrary I believe the producers were trying to create a positive attitude about gays due to the fact that Tom and Charlie work on a construction site which is not very stereotypical and challenges this thought.

I believe the media has a responsibility to try and create a positive attitude towards different groups in the public, to try and get rid of certain stereotypes, this is due to the basis that a lot of stereotypes are become more acceptable in society now and if they are discriminated against this may loose the company a lot of money and viewers, so I believe that they will have to present groups accurately.