Gays and Lesbians Throughout the Media

Is there an equal representation of gays and lesbians throughout the media? I feel as though we see many more lesbians within the media rather than gays. Why is that? Considering the media tries to get as much audience as it can, lesbians would be expected to be seen more throughout the media. Straight men watch TV shows that include lesbians because that is seen to be acceptable seeing as men who look at pornography are just seen as your typical man. In society, it is not necessarily looked down upon if a man looks at pornography. The pornography almost always includes woman on woman action shots or interactions. So, the audience that looks at things throughout the media pertaining to lesbians are mainly straight men, lesbians, gays, and some straight women may watch TV shows with characters who are lesbians. Who would be the audience for gays? Gay men, lesbians, and maybe some straight women may watch TV shows about gays or even read things dealing with gays in society. There is not much of an audience compared to the audience for anything pertaining to lesbians since more people have been shown to pay attention to the media about lesbians. As said in the movie we viewed in class today, if you are not represented in the media then "you don't exist". There needs to be an improvement with the visibility of lesbians and gays throughout the media. Increasing visibility will help to normalize gays and lesbians in society. In today's society, many stereotypes are made of gays and lesbians. Most TV shows today show gays as being more feminine than your ideal man while lesbians are shown more masculine than your ideal woman. Even if there is a character who is gay or lesbian is portrayed as the ideal masculine man, their partner is almost always the opposite. When we see a gay couple anywhere there is usually one of the partners who look more masculine while the other partner looks more feminine.
An article I read from The Columbian Dispatch, TV's Gay Characters Equally Men, Women, which said that "Gay characters featured in leading or recurring roles on new shows this year include the Fox police comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the NBC sitcom Sean Saves the World and the CBS thriller Under the Dome. ABC and Fox were the only prime-time networks to increase the percentage of gay roles on shows." This article proved how gays are more likely to be seen on television now with more equity of men and women. This doesn't mean that they are completely 50, 50; there is yet an improvement in showing each couples more on television. It used to be that gay couples were made fun of on television, whereas now they are being more normalized as not to be poked fun at. Society is becoming more accepting of gay communities. Personally, I feel the more we see it, the more we will begin to normalize it.
During the reading of GTLB on TV, I noticed a varity of opinions on the matter. Dan Savage felt as though gay pride was only once a cure and is now toxic to society and the gay community. He suggested the idea of being "quietly gay". Another indivual, James, said that people should conform to a more normal standard of gender identity while retaining non-normative sexual identities. Lastly, the individual Xaphan said that there is a need for repeated "treatments" seeing as it has not been completely cured. He expressed his idea that "Pride is the treatment". He said pride is the continuation of the homophobia chemotherapy reffering to Dan Savage's comparison of gay pride to cancer and chemo therapy. If you put all of these ideas together it still shows that we need to see it miore to believe it. As I have seen, gay communities are thankfully being more represented throughout the media which helps society to conform to these "new" ideas and styles of living.