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If
it’s real life you want, forget about scripted
programming. Reality programs are where we’re not
only well represented, according to GLAAD, but also fabulously
diverse.
“Unscripted
reality television continues to be the most inclusive television
genre and represents a spectrum of LGBT diversity.”
GLAAD reported on August 29. “On the broadcast networks,
the new seasons of UPN’s America's
Next Top Model, and CBS’s Big
Brother and Survivor, include gay and
lesbian contestants. And for the first time, NBC’s
The Apprentice will feature openly gay participants
on both the Donald Trump and new Martha Stewart versions.”
According
to GLAAD Entertainment Media Director Damon Romine, “Reality
TV is where you tune in to see real LGBT people. Gay people
and our families … continue to be well-represented
by a genre that realizes the importance of diversity and
value of telling our stories."
Value?
Have you seen America’s Next Top Model?
Please
pause now for a moment of silence in which I encourage you
to think of one gay, lesbian or bisexual reality cast member,
on any network, that you admire or who comes close to representing
you.
Our
only real hope for true accuracy on television
this season seems to lie in cable. And on that front the
news is good. There are 25 LGBT characters slated to appear
on cable series in the 2005-06 season. GLAAD notes that
cable “continues to traverse boundaries by exploring
our lives, families and careers in multi-dimensional ways.”
I
suppose that means we should all prepare for our eventual
banishment to cable and pray for another Six
Feet Under. But I’m not willing to do that
yet. I am ready to demand that networks change their tactics,
though, grow some cojones, and reacquaint themselves with
the word “creativity.”
Call
me optimistic, but I believe most gays and lesbians, and
people outside and in between, don’t want to watch
crap. Yes, there’s a certain segment of our population
that drooled over the graphic sex scenes in Queer
As Folk and others who can’t wait to hear
what Ivette on Big Brother 6 will say next. And,
likewise there are straight folks who believe television
is “immoral” and “unclean” and who’d
prefer to watch reruns of Little House on the Prairie
rather than Trading Spouses.
But
I believe the overwhelming majority of viewers fall somewhere
in the middle of the sex vs. stupidity and real vs. unreal
spectrums, because the middle is precisely where most of
us live.
Regardless
of the “color” of our politics, most of us live
in a very, very grand canyon called Reality, surrounded
by extremes that are not, by any stretch, reflections of
our actual lives.
To
those who insist that GLAAD’s report reflects
a polarized society and mirrors the will of a people mentally
disabled by extreme views on everything from American Idol
to the war in Iraq—I say, “Wake up!” We,
the people, are not polarized at all. We are simply living,
trying to get from point A to point B, with whatever resources
we have. We prove every day that we can, indeed, survive,
thrive, and operate our remotes, despite cries from a few
extremists who say Janet Jackson’s boob ruined humanity.
Accurate
representation of the LGBT community on network television
will come when the powers-that-be raise the bar and stop
greasing the squeaky wheels that insist television is a
“liberal” or “secular” weapon with
enough power to annihilate the moral fiber of entire families
in 22 minutes flat.
As
James Carville might mutter every time he turns on his set,
It’s the quality, stupid.
Those
of us who respect the “art” of television crave
substance, not agreement. Substance is within reach; agreement
is the enemy of innovation.
