Thoughts 1.3, 3.2 & 4.3: Include, Don't Exclude

[verasteine]

I watched Torchwood series 1 and 2 out of order. I started on Torchwood series 2, and after enjoying that immensely, I went on to buy series 1 on DVD and watched that. And one night, late, I got to episode 12, and I had an epiphany. Please bear with me. Because this was not the sort of epiphany that I pride myself on, nor one that should come as a

Comments

[used_songs]

Yeah. Most of the TV I watch is stuff on the LOGO channel (the LGBTQ network) because I want to see queer people in shows, movies, commercials, the news, etc. and that's not an option in most mainstream media in the US. Often the gayness is the story, but not always and it is getting better in media aimed at folks like me. I loved Torchwood because the gayness was there but it wasn't the story. I guess because that's how life is, too. I'm gay and I live and work in a community of people of all different sexual orientations. I come from a family of many different orientations.

[verasteine]

The thing is, we (over here) pride ourselves on our liberalism, but we're not nearly as inclusive as we'd like to be. For the last six months or so, for instance, our undersecretary for equality has been arguing with the minister for defence over whether military personnel can attend the gay pride parade in uniform. Defence felt it was unbecoming to the uniform, even though the police and fire departments have been going in dress uniform for years. Okay, equality won and the military is sending people, in uniform, but it made me realise how thin a veneer our liberalism really is. And mainstream media isn't helping anyone by showing non-stereotypical gay people doing perfectly ordinary things (they do, sometimes, btw, but not enough). And I like what you say: we are all more than our sexual identity. Much, much more.

[missdeanna]

I don't particularly mind plots about gaybashing or homophobia in theory (in practice, I find them difficult to watch. It's a very real fear for me), because, well, it's a problem that exists

[verasteine]

I wholly agree with you. I don't mind that writers use the power of storytelling to highlight a social issue -- lord knows that's how some of the biggest social changes have come about. The reason why it startled me in the story I mentioned above is that nothing of that sort was going on -- it was just another twist in an already questonable tale.

Torchwood is, in this respect, so very different from 99% of television that I've become spoiled :). The Tosh thing, to use your example, works on many levels because the story is actually about Mary being an alien, and Tosh's interest in women as well as men is still shown to be an issue for her, but not made the most important thing about the story. And we need more storytelling like that.