Gay African American on TV Essay -- Social Issues, Gender Roles

Historically, the representation of gay, black men on telly has fallen short of the mark . We have seen sissies, faggots and finger-snapping queens sashaying across the screen, feminizing and marginalizing African-American men by these racially insensitive and homophobic caricatures. In this constitution I examine the characters Keith Charles of HBOs Six Feet Under, Omar Little of HBOs The Wire, Lafayette Reynolds of HBOs True Blood, and Julien Lowe of FXs The Shield and how their characters manifest their maleness. The three characters that appear on HBO shows are portrayed as strong, masculine, openly gay men. Only Lowe, the repair African-American gay man who has appeared on a basic melodic line hour-long television drama is a closeted gay character. Since the out characters appear on HBO and the closeted character appears on basic cable, is it possible that an audience who can devote to pay for HBO is handsome of the representation of masculine gay men bandage an audien ce watching on basic cable is not tolerant of that representation? Or is HBOs marketing campaign, Its not TV, its HBO an experimentation with genre, coupled with their strategy of distancing themselves from broadcast television culminating in a distinguishable brand name and a noticeable schism amongst pay cable and broadcast television (Jaramillo 60). Or rather, is the HBO audience integrity that is able to pay for a subscription to HBO, meet gazing at these characters? Are these characters just a twist on the big black buck stereotype for a post-modern audience one comfortable with explorations of masculine, racialized, gay desire? HBOs marketing certainly attempts to position itself as a step supra broadcast TV, airing programming that is de... ...hough he is tall and strong, Juliens masculinity is policed aggressively and violently by his peers. When the rumor spreads that Julien is gay, his checkmate officers, beat and keep him. Despite his stature, Julien quietly submi ts to their threats and intimidation. Quite literally, Juliens masculinity is policed by his fellow police officers. Much like Patricia Hill Collins assertion closely controlling images and that representations of black women as mammies and matriarchs work as powerful ideological justifications for intersecting oppressions of race, class, gender and sexuality (p. 69) the same can be utilize to the controlling images of black male masculinity, the faggot and the queen. Controlling images be given to justify various oppressions by distorting reality through reducing the stereotypic subjected black body to a controllable object.