The Cosby show was HUGE in the US in the 1980's, everyone I knew watched it, even in it's 5th season it averaged 40 million viewers.
Wiki says it was the #1 rated show for 5 years in a row. Ya, everyone watch it at some point.
I agree and disagree, it's easy for a straight person to say that because just about everyone in every show we ever watched if you are a certain age was assumed to be straight if not outright confirmed. I grew up in the 80's and we had no real gay characters other than a guy on Dynasty who's father never really accepted he was gay but just acted like it as long as the son didn't talk about it and then Billy Crystal played a gay character on a sitcom for a little while, both of those were shows younger gay people never watched as they weren't meant for younger people.
Back then all you ever heard were negative things about gay people, not just out in public but often times also at home so everyone was afraid to come out and be themselves because they thought that they would be disowned, that their mother & father would hate them and that they'd lose everything and sadly that did happen a lot. It's easy to pretend now that it's always been that way but really a lot of this kind of acceptance has just come on in the past 10-15 years and I am thankful and amazed at how quickly it turned around. The only person I ever heard publicly ever say anything positive about gay people when I was in my teens was Madonna, after that it started to happen more and more, you'd see a tv show character have a sibling come out while visiting but they'd be gone and never spoken of again. Then we got to a point in the 1990's where there were "gay" characters on shows but they'd never actually have a steady love interest and they weren't allowed to show them kiss etc.
We aren't at that point anymore though, now gay people are included far more often in entertainment and I don't think we need to pretend that it's some rare thing anymore, it's not uncommon to see gay characters on shows, gay kids get to see other gay people portrayed positively and most of society isn't going around telling us we are going to hell anymore all while not understanding that we didn't choose to be this way. So when I hear stories like the one told her about that writer I just think it's all about his ego, he probably grew up with twitter telling him he can dictate to others how they are supposed to think, he clearly lacks humility or perspective. He was applying for work, he was asking them for a job they weren't asking him for his approval.
I get what your saying. My parents watched Dynasty a lot. I never watched it, but all I remember was the gay guy was blonde and Emma Samms and Heather Locklear were hot as hell. lol
I dont remember widespread gay bashing stigma back then, since I cared more about watching hockey, cartoons and comedy shows but I dont doubt it. I'm sure it happened. For example, one of my fav shows Three's Company always made fun of Jack pretending to be gay. And he'd do it in the "obvious gay guy way".
The difference though is modern day has acceptance from LBGTQ in media a lot more than back then, combined with the community not liking being outed as "they are no different than everyone else". So if that's what's wanted, then for media most plots why do writers have to go out of their way to show someone is straight or gay?
Even if a game or tv show does, which kind of gay is the best one to show? The flamboyant one? Or the "I cant tell he's gay unless someone told me way"?
If a tv show or game shows a flamboyant one and low key gay people grill them, who is right?
If a tv show or game shows a low key one and flamboyant gay people grill them, who is right?
I guess one way to cover it is have two gay men. And then to make lesbians, bi and trans, you also have to have them too or else it looks like only gay guys are getting the spotlight.
No writers seem to have someone is bi. So for anyone who is bi, you'd need a writer to have a script showing someone goes both ways even though it has nothing to do with the main plot. At least I dont remember any bi characters off the top of my head.
That's probably why most media stick to non-sexuality and non-religious characters. It's unnecessary fuel to add to fires unless the plot calls for it like a married couple or a family going to church. In gaming, its even less important because most games have no real plot anyway and if it does, most of the time the character's role is just to kill anything in the way and find the king boss.
Nothing stops writers from telling viewers in every game or tv show what sexuality the characters are from the first episode/level to set the tone, but unless it's an important factor for the 72 TV episodes or 12 game levels, nobody will do it. And most people wont care.