From In These Times: http://inthesetimes.com/article/14744/its_been_getting_better_now_someone_tell_hollywood/
Debunking the American Horror Story of gay and lesbian aging.
BY Dustin Goltz
March 16, 2013
Tonight, the 24th GLAAD media awards will honor representations of LGBT hope and equality. While GLAAD’s past and current efforts are surely worthy of commendation, many of the TV shows and movies that have been and will be celebrated continue to depict gay happiness as having a short shelf life (or at least, a “best if used by” suggestion)—sometimes as early as one’s 30th birthday. Although studies generally suggest older gays and lesbians report satisfaction on par with aging heterosexuals, our media and culture continually narrate older gay characters as sad, defeated failures. These stories need to change.
Having conducted in-depth studies of gay television and film representation since the early 2000s, I’ve found that gay characters are most often depicted as adolescents and young adults, ranging in age from teens to the ever-popular Will Truman-esque white, upper-middle-class gay male lawyer/doctor type in his 30s. The rarely seen over-40 gay male often portrayed as “that creepy old gay guy” the younger gays fear becoming. After all, no one questions why Richard Dreyfess was contemplating suicide at the beginning of Poseidon, or why on Queer as Folk, Brian’s friends threw him a “deathday” party for his 30th birthday. In mainstream gay male culture, where youth and beauty are worshipped, fear of aging haunts gay youth like a menacing Freddy Krueger. Hyper-sexualized and predatory, the older gay man is routinely positioned at the corner of the bar, isolated and desperate—a cruel foreshadowing of the consequences of deviating from the heterosexual path.
Sound a bit dramatic? Consider the GLAAD-nominated Glee, where the only older gay character is the student-fondling drug dealer and former teacher Sandy Ryerson. Another nominee, ABC’s Modern Family, recently aired an episode titled “New Year’s Eve,” where the gay couple Mitchell and Cam explore gay bars in Palm Springs. In a club full of young boys, Mitchell and Cam are invisible and ignored. When stepping into an older gay male bar, they cringe at gray-haired men whose ogling is constructed as a creepy, laughable site gag.
As for aging lesbians, few representations exist to counter the lingering cautionary tales of the cursed, hardened, predatory and lonely spinster—a different but not unrelated American Horror Story. Typically cast in supporting roles, lesbians rarely have their own life, story or future on the cultural screen.
Continue reading at: http://inthesetimes.com/article/14744/its_been_getting_better_now_someone_tell_hollywood/
