Here's to Change

Gross' essay on "The Ethis of (Mis)representation" got me wondering if the media has changed any bit since the essay was released. After searching online, I found that the work was released in 1991. Depending on the subject or person, twenty years can be a short or long amount of time. I wanted to focus on the media, and if any changes (particularly positive) have occurred with the media's portrayal of homosexuality and heterosexism. Gross writes, "The rules of the mass media game have a double impact on gay people: not only do they pick and use weak and silly, or evil and corrupt, cliche'd characterizations, but they exclude and deny the existence of normal, unexceptional as well as exceptional lesbians and gay men"(196). I would like to propose otherwise. Though it has been (and still is) a long process, the media's portrayal of homosexuality is changing.

Ellen DeGeneres is a well known media personality and comedienne. In 1997, DeGeneres came out on public television as a lesbian. If Gross' interpretations of this subject are true, the public and media would have shunned her. Her career would have gone to waste. However, it didn't and Ellen Degeneres career thrived. She went on to have her own talk show in 2003, which is still on the air. The quote from Gross that I included above does not seem to apply to DeGeneres. Here is an openly gay woman, who has gone on to have great success. The part that makes me think Gross is wrong about the media is that the show Degeneres hosts is not defined by her sexuality, but by her personality. She is a talk show host, like any other, that discusses current issues, has guests, tells jokes, and even dances with the audience.

I like to believe that our culture and society is changing. That we are becoming more open and accustomed to lifestyles that may be different from our own. While Gross' essay certainly has its merits and evidence to back it up, I am of the belief that the media, and with it society and culture, are evolving to become more accepting.