"TV Made Me Gay"

I totally disagree with the argument put forth by the author in this post: TV Made Me Gay (posted July 24). He writes in response to the group "One Million Moms" and their stand against the TV show "The New Normal," which apparently has gay characters. He mocks the idea that TV can have an effect on people- as if you'll suddenly have a weird sensation while watching an episode of "Glee" and immediately become gay.

Wait, really? His argument is "TV doesn't affect how people see the world"? Really?

The controversy over having gay characters on TV is a separate issue and I'm not going to get into that- I just want to challenge this line of reasoning.

Can you imagine someone saying "TV made me feel like my body's not good enough because I'm not skinny" and then someone else replies with this ridiculous narrative about how "oh I was watching 'The Little Mermaid' and then suddenly a weird sensation came over me and I suddenly believed I was fat and worthless"?

"Oh goodness! As a result of this 10-second clip, my views on what a female body should look like are completely changed!" Image source.

No. Everyone knows it doesn't work like that. But the criticism that media is negatively affecting women's self-image is valid, and this effect is generally agreed to be true, right?

I'm not saying this is the same thing as causing someone to become gay. I'm saying that the argument "TV doesn't affect people" is so wrong that I needed to say something and challenge it.

There are so many subtle messages in media that can have very negative effects. What about how minorities are rarely shown, or only in some stereotyped role? I remember one of my Asian-American friends telling me she never saw Asians in a certain role, and so she assumed she wouldn't be able to do that either. I thought it was silly when I heard her say that- but it's real. It may be subconscious; it may be things that, when you actually think about them, you realize they're totally ridiculous- but it still does affect how people see the world.

And I think this is a big deal. I wrote some about what movies say about romance in this post on "The Princess Bride". I wrote about how happy I was to not see the usual sexist tropes in this post on "Megamind". I wrote about my disagreement with the idea that the song "What Makes You Beautiful" is sexist. I wrote about the movie "Think Like A Man", one of the few movies starring black characters. I want to write more on this topic, because media is a HUGE influence on culture (and sometimes a very bad influence).

And what about the advocates of gay rights, who are happy to see TV shows with gay characters? Why do you think they're happy about it? Because it will affect the public's perception of being gay. You could make arguments about whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, but the fact is, it does affect how people think.

And currently, with most TV shows and movies not having any gay characters, it sends the message that gay people don't exist or matter. So this whole issue about "subtle messages in media" is very tricky and nuanced.

You can make arguments about whether it's good or bad to have gay people on TV shows. But one argument I will not accept is "it won't affect what people think about being gay."