The Lack of Accurate LGBTQi+ Depictions in Film

In a world of progressive mainstream media that aims to represent people of various backgrounds, how do members of the LGBTQi+ community feel about the current representation of members in their minority group?

BY: PAYAL DASS

June is the month in which many of us are celebrating the diversity of LGBTQi+ community members, the struggles they have endured throughout the past, and the ongoing progress that is being made towards complete acceptance. Although these unprecedented times may have made the tone of celebration seem dull, Pride Toronto is holding many events online to celebrate identity and self-love! Happy Pride Month!

One thing I have always wanted to understand in greater detail is the opinions of people who are part of the LGBTQi+ community and their thoughts on their group’s portrayal in mass media. Knowing that representation in movies and television of certain groups can change the way people see them, I wanted to know how members of the community felt about their own representation.

As I am not a member, but instead an ally of the LGBTQi+ community, I conducted interviews with two dear colleagues of mine, who for the sake of this article, will be named Tara and Jay. Tara identifies as bisexual and uses she and they pronouns, while Jay identifies as a non-binary lesbian and uses they and them pronouns.

I chose to begin these interviews on a lighter note, by talking about their favourite representation in film and television, before addressing the aspects of representation they disliked and found problematic. 

What is your favourite LGBTQ+ representation you have seen in film or TV, and why?

Tara chose the characters Rosa Diaz and Captain Holt from Brooklyn 99 “because they are shown as “normal” people who can and are in high-ranking positions. They are also people of colour, which is rarer than you would think when it comes to representation. A lot of queer culture tends to cater towards gay White men so it is nice to see people of colour and other sexualities. They have pretty realistic coming-out stories, showing a lot of the different emotions and thought processes that come with that big moment. Their sexualities are also not their sole trait and overly focused on but, at the same time, a big part of them and their character. This is similar to how queer people are in real life, we don’t want our queer identities to be our sole identifier, but it also sucks when people completely ignore or forget about that part.”

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Where Tara chose a couple of representations she really admired, Jay chose an individual LGBTQ+ character they thought was an accurate representation of what it was like to be a member of their minority group.

Jay chose to talk about Taylor Mason who is a non-binary CEO on the show Billions. Jay states “this character has substance and power, not a one-off character thrown in for the sake of queer baiting disguised as diversity. They are written as cunning and financially savvy, while not downplaying their identity.”

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Looking at both of their answers, it is clear that their favourite representations share the underlying factor of LGBTQi+ characters being portrayed as normal members of society that are no different than members who are not part of the minority group. 

Do you think we need to see more LGBTQi+ representation, or do we have enough?

Both interviewees were very clear that there needed to be more representation for people to see and identify with.

Jay says we need more representation because not everyone is straight and/or cis. “I believe this will help people like myself feel just a little more normal and get cis/heterosexual people more comfortable with our existence. We need to see more representation of the LGBTQi+ community, but it needs to be accurate. Most of what I've seen always had an impression of being dulled down and seemed to play it safe when it comes to controversial topics such as religion and oppression.”

Tara says we need more representation as representation serves two goals. “The first goal is to give queer people stories starring them—there are still many different identities that haven’t been shown in any popular media. The second goal is to normalize LGBTQi+ people in life and stories so that we are no longer seen as something other (as in other than the “default” of straight and cisgender).”

Their answers of whether or not there was a need for more representation compelled me to ask the questions of whether or not LGBTQi+ representation was accurate in more than one way.

Do you think the representation for LGBTQi+ life throughout the lifespan is accurate (e.g., growing up and discovering your identity, can you see yourself in these characters)? 

Tara and Jay both gave similar answers in a sense where when a role is done well, they can have “profound experiences” watching these characters on screen. However, it is most of the time when they feel representation is done poorly. 

Tara goes on to elaborate that “when it is not done well, it is so disappointing and frustrating because a few pieces of bad representation can ruin the lives of so many people.” When she says this, she refers to the overuse of stereotypes in queer lives. In fact, Jay said that “most of the characters we see in media are shells of what they could be, as they rely heavily on stereotypes, not coming close to covering all the dynamics of a queer human being.” 

Tara also goes into detail about her personal experiences about what it was like discovering her own identity, and how the media fails to accurately represent it for the mass population. 

“In most media, you will usually see people realizing their identities early in life and while that can happen, there are so many people who don’t realize or come out until much later in life. It is also common for people’s identities to change over time or for them to have a sort of fluid identity. For me, personally, it took me three years from when I first starting questioning to when I accepted I was bisexual and as for my gender I honestly still don’t know for sure yet, there are times where I dislike being feminine or being referred to as a girl but then there are also times I love it. I don’t know myself in that way fully yet and that is okay, but most media don't portray that, they are very definitive or they never fully address it. A lot of stories, simply for time’s sake, pace queer lives as fast and chaotic. I understand that may make for an easy and good story but a lot of lives aren’t like that.”

Both Tara and Jay are people of colour along with being members of the LGBTQi+ community. With respect to this, they address the lack of intersectionality between these two minorities. 

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Jay states that the “media is seemingly “allergic” to the concept of combining religion and sexuality, especially when it comes to conflict resolution. There are many examples of the default poster person of the LGBTQi+ community being white, cis, and/or slim and there is so much potential in the different combinations that may fit any member of the community.”

Tara extended this idea by explaining that there is a big problem in queer media where it tends to cater towards upper-middle class gay White men. She explained that although we do see stories with queer women and even people of colour, it’s not nearly enough, and when we do it tends to be very either Americas (North or South) or European centric. Queer Asians are a hard find in TV and film.

Photo courtesy of Vice

Do you think depictions of LGBTQi+ love and romantic relationships are accurate (e.g., the journey of finding a person who feels the same way as you do in a relationship)?

As both interviewees have been in successful relationships, I thought it would be valuable to see their opinions on the queer relationships depicted on screen, compared to their own life experiences. The main complaint is that relationships are very “basic” and often based on the fact that when one queer person finds another queer person of the same type, they are automatically paired together. 

Jay expresses this point when they say “I would like to see multiple love interests, one being chosen based on personality and likeness. I also want to see the one-sided love of someone who identifies as one sexuality but is in love with someone of another who does not reciprocate the same feelings.”

Tara emphasizes the point of the overwhelming “basic” representation of the common sexuality pairing dilemma. “I am currently dating a fellow queer person who does not identify as the same gender or sexuality as me, and I honestly have no idea if I will ever see a relationship with the same combination of identities as us being portrayed on screen. There are also so many types of relationships that haven’t been shown in popular media (to my knowledge) such as queer platonic relationships, platonic marriages, or straight passing couples.”

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The main concern both Tara and Jay had was the lack of queer relationships being portrayed as normal. From what they have seen, relationships are often portrayed as very non-monogamous, over-sexualized and fast, or as extremely innocent and slow. These representations make queer love seem different from straight, cisgender love when this is the ideology they are trying to move away from.

With the information I have obtained from the interviews of my two colleagues, I wonder what steps can be taken by the entertainment industry to create more realistic depictions of LGBTQ+ people in their work. 

Steps Towards Progression… 

Perhaps the fact that queer filmmakers are not as well-known as others, their work is unable to reach a larger audience. This may be a reason many popular films and television shows cannot accurately show what it is like to grow up as a member of the LGBTQi+ community, leading to a  somewhat stereotypical portrayal of these characters. Increasing queer representation behind the scenes may help create a better on-screen representation for their community—although this is just my theory.

Despite how filmmakers choose to increase accurate representation of the LGBTQ+ community, the important thing is that they start treating queer love as normal love. That is what accurate representation would be. This would be the type of representation that helps the LGBTQi+ community take steps towards getting complete acceptance from other members of the world. 

There is still a long way to go before we get more accurate representation in mass media through film and television. But, I would like to believe we are moving towards this goal as there is an increase of LGBTQi+ characters in many popular and critically acclaimed film and television franchises. Some examples would be Loki, who identifies as gender fluid and bisexual, in the Loki series currently streaming on Disney+, and Chiron, the gay protagonist of Moonlight which won an Academy Award for Best Picture in February of 2017.

An accurate representation of LGBTQi+ characters would be when they are depicted as any other person in society. Good representation would be a depiction of characters that aid in the journey of obtaining the status as another person, removing the other we use to differentiate such groups from the “rest.”