Thursday, February 15, 2024
My experience with Gay Representation within Telenovelas: Blog Post #2
Growing up, I never really saw good gay representation in telenovelas that wasn't exaggerated flamboyance in men. Gay men in telenovelas have always been portrayed as sassy, flamboyant, and feminine fashionistas. For a while, I was fine with this representation because I thought that any representation was good representation. However, now I know how damaging this type of representation can be. The representation of exaggerated gay men is not representation at all, it is made solely for comedic relief. The truth is that this kind of representation is there to laugh at gay people who have feminine traits and mannerisms. With that being said, I always thought that was how gay people behaved and therefore I did not feel represented because I was never overtly feminine. Sure I possess feminine characteristics, but it was too exaggerated in telenovelas and it felt like they were mocking gay people rather than trying to paint gay people in a good and positive light. There are so many ways to portray gay men and so it is very disappointing to see my two identities, clash within telenovelas and modern-day society. Therefore, I felt like it was up to me to rediscover my gay identity and reshape it into an entity that I could actually connect with. Furthermore, this made me resent the gay identity because of the over-exaggerated flamboyance that was portrayed by gay men in telenovelas. Over time, I stopped watching telenovelas altogether because of the stereotypes that not only negatively affect gay people, but also, darker-skinned people, plus-size people, etc. I also have to admit that because of these negative stereotypes in Telenovelas and Mexican media, it has made me a little ashamed of my ethnic background. However, Mexican media and telenovelas are starting to get more inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community and I finally feel like my identities, being Mexican and Gay, can coexist. I also have to give thanks to my mother who made me feel loved and accepted regardless of my sexuality even though being gay is a taboo and controversial topic in Mexico.
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As someone who did not grow up watching telenovelas, I can understand how the representation of gay men in telenovelas as flamboyant or hyper-feminine could have led to a misconstrued understanding of what it means to be a gay man in society. It is sad that for a long time, in telenovelas and other genres, any representation was deemed as "good enough". Thank you for being so open about how this representation affected your view of yourself as a gay man. This really shows how the media we consume can have massive impacts on our self-views and worldviews.
ReplyDelete¡Hola Chris! Estoy de acuerdo que no es necesariamente la verdad que cualquiera representación es buena representación. Sé que generalmente hay una línea de tiempo con la representación de grupos marginalizadas. Al principio, no hay representación porque es algo tabú y supuestamente la sociedad no está lista para hablar de estas cuestiones. Después, hay poca representación con personajes simbólicos que no son importantes en la historia. Parece que muchas de las telenovelas que veía son de este tipo. Con el tiempo, la representación mejora poco a poco, y espero que ahora hay más series con representación mejor. No estaba completamente satisfecho con la representación en la telenovela que analicé porque el personaje bisexual fue muy promiscuo y esto es un estereotipo negativo de nuestra comunidad.
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