While doing research for this project I came across a few articles on the misrepresentation of men and women in the media. Most were geared simply towards gay men in the media with a few lines here and there devoted to the representation of women. While looking at said articles though I found this small piece of information that I wanted to share with you all as well as my personal opinion on it.
Spainhower says that neither lesbian nor gay couples are portrayed enough in the media, let alone accurately. She also feels that two women together are more accepted in media and culture than two men are.
In looking at television shows from the past 10 years or so that have run on the five main networks during prime-time (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CW) I found that very few of the television shows have lesbian characters as compared to the amount of gay male characters or bisexual female characters that date both men and women.
Let's begin with NBC television shows with gay/lesbian characters (this will only focus on prominent characters not guest stars.) Three of the TV shows I have listed feature lesbian characters.
(I am certain that I am missing some for NBC, if someone knows of anymore please let me know.)
ABC is leading over NBC when it comes to their overall representation. Revenge features a bisexual leading male character. Of these shows three feature bisexual female characters with one having a lesbian character. Suburgatory features a female character that has been mentioned to have dated a female at one time.
CBS Features multiple bisexual characters while FOX's Glee gives you a little of everything. The CW show The Carrie Diaries has a gay character, and recently introduced (for apparent shock value ) a maybe-bisexual character on their television show Arrow. Previously the CW featured the very prominent character of Willow from the incredibly successful and popular television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a lesbian. The CW's television show the Originals also features a gay male character.
I noticed the trend that broadcast networks had more openly gay male characters than openly gay female characters in prominent roles so I checked the figures from GLAAD and discovered that I was correct.Â
Gay men make up 46% of those characters, compared to 61% last year. Conversely, the percentage of lesbian characters has increased drastically from 20% last year to 30%, while bisexual representation also increased from 18% to 22% (with most of those being women.)
According to the numbers the amount of representation for lesbian women on broadcast television is going up but they are still surpassed by men.Â
