...Gay Agenda: LGBT Leading Characters on Primetime TV I. Introduction In 1997 Ellen DeGeneres came out on national television. I was 14 years old, watching that historical moment in complete rapture. I remember thinking that the world had just changed forever; that my world had just changed forever. Unfortunately Ellen’s moment didn't last too long as her show was soon canceled, her career seemingly over. Fast forward 17 years and Ellen’s courageous moment seems so long ago, as we have progressed so much since then, that it can easily slip the mind. Ellen is back on top with a smash hit talk show, and a bevy of LGBT identified folks and television characters are right along with her at the top. Gay rights are the hot button “issue” of the current time. You could argue that it’s a the new civil rights movement, an abomination of “traditional family values”, or simply an elaborate horse and pony show to distract us from the real issues. Regardless of how you view it, the point is, you are still talking about it. As an LGBT identified person myself, and one who lives in a politically liberal bubble, I know that my perception of this movement is somewhat skewed. I have the privilege of living my life in the open and along the way exposing all kinds of folks to a new or unfamiliar way of life. However I often wonder what it is like to live in Middle America. What is it like to go to the grocery store, pick your kids up from school, or on a date and never see an LGBT identified...
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...Jameika Baysinger WGSS 2360 Character Analysis Name of the Show: Between Women Network Aired: YouTube For my research I chose to watch a YouTube-based drama called Between Women. This show centers around a group of African-American lesbians in Atlanta, Georgia. I chose one of the main characters, Miller Harris, as the focus of this paper. Miller is a former hustler turned successful business owner who has to face the struggles of her past resurfacing in her life, causing an imbalance in her present life. Miller Harris is an androgynous, African-American lesbian. Her signature feature is her long, waist-length dreadlocks. Her style can be described as business casual. She is often shown wearing her slacks and nice shirts to showcase her status as a businesswoman. Miller generally presents herself in male’s clothing, but she still takes pride in her feminine qualities. Miller is a lesbian just like most of the other characters apart of the show. All of the other characters on the show are African-American lesbian or bisexual women. She is most like the character Rae Tyson. Rae and Miller are the main androgynous characters on the show. They both have a history of failed relationships with women, but are doing everything in their power to restore their relationships and friendships so that the people they love can have better lives. The other comparison between these two characters is that they both stepped up in their roles as the heads of their households and married...
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...Amy Montelongo Professor Merritt English 1302 April 20, 2014 An Analysis of the Different Effects of Sexual Orientation Issues The authors of, Mental Health of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Youth and Young Adults: Differential Effects of Age, Gender, Religiosity, and Sexual Orientation, explain the issues that adolescents, of a different sexual orientation, face. Problems have occurred in LGBT youth community from depression, suicide, to substance abuse since the nineteen-ninety. All these illnesses are caused by distress from the homophobic society. LGBT ,Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, youths struggle with acceptance of their sexuality from friends and friends, school, society, violence, the work force, religion, suicide. The choice of turning all those subjects away has been a solution to many of the cases on these people. Depending on the family of the individual, they may be turned down for the rest of their lives or given the chance to still be involved with them. It all depends on whether the family is traditional. Tradition is when all the sons, daughters, aunts, and uncles that have a straight orientation. Everyday Life The LGBT community faces many challenges in their everyday life like voting, sexual talks, and segregation. In the early nineteen hundreds, the people who campaigned for elections did not let the LGBT community vote because they did to feel that they were equal to the heterosexual man. Equality is what everyone wants like the next guy but do...
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...The Public Shining of Same Sex Marriage Simi Station Strayer University Public Administration PAD515 Introduction to the Public Policy Analysis Living in the information age, news can travel around the world in seconds. The first same sex marriage between Marcia Hams and Susan Shepherd just hit its ten year anniversary this month. In prior years before Massachusetts began allowing same sex marriages, passing information around the world could be slow. As same sex marriages are becoming more mainstream throughout our nation, the rate in which news can be relayed has also increased drastically (Anniversary,2014). The world revers movie stars, television stars, singers, basically anybody that is labeled a “star” can be influential in not only how people want to look, but also how they feel. Television has been a juggernaut in establishing a foothold into same sex marriages. The correlation between the ever rising amount of lesbian and gay relationships on television and the growing percentage of overall acceptance of same sex relationships in our nation cannot be denied (Becker,2011). In 2003, American television had a total of twenty-six gay and lesbian characters on television. With that only thirty-three percent of America’s citizens showed acceptance of that lifestyle. In the following five years the acceptance level rose and fell, the same with the numbers of same sex relationships on television (Becker,2011)...
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...Jake Arnott’s The Long Firm includes may discussion about crime and punishment, law and order and justice and in justice. Do you regard novels as useful sources of legal theory or merely irrelevant distraction? It has been argued by recent legal theorists that novels are useful sources of legal theory. In Ian Ward’s book Law and literature: possibilities and perspectives , he argues that by studying literature, students are able to better understand law. He suggests, for example, that it is worth in the examination of ‘... the psychology of English property law ... [to look]... at the pictures in the Tale of Peter Rabbit Arguably, novels which have law as a central theme are a mirror by which lawyers or legal researchers can examine contemporary attitudes to the law and professionals working within it. Current participants in the debate as to the usefulness of literature and law have examined works such as Kafka’s The Trial or Dickens novels as sources of legal theory for these same reasons. Professor R.M. Dworkin argued that law is similar to literature in that we seek to find meaning in the same by process of interpretation. He argued that this process is adopted by judges in that they interpret the law. He attacked legal positivists, who simply examine the law in isolation from society, who find only the meaning of the law and not its substance. The debate as to the usefulness of novels sees the creation of the distinction between ‘law in literature’ and ‘law as...
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...Rhetorical Analysis #1 Identity In the Crossroads Between Sex and Gender Is that a man or woman? This is a common question asked after only a brief look at Jess Goldberg, the protagonist in Leslie Feinberg’s novel, Stone Butch Blues. Each person is born to a specific sex, male or female. Some people in society stray from the norms and become gender variant. Jess’s gender variant life style along with her religion, Judaism, paved the way for an extremely difficult and confusing upbringing. Jess is treated inferiorly upon entering the women’s clinic due to her gender variant qualities, which reflects unequal accessibility to healthcare during the mid and late 20th century. Jess’s endeavors as a gender variant female allow Feinberg to appeal to the readers’ emotions, by portraying the obstacles and misconceptions Jess encounters on a daily basis. Secondly, Feinberg appeals to the reader’s understanding of how uneducated and untrained healthcare professionals are at this time and place. Finally, in the women’s clinic, Feinberg introduces the doctor who establishes a glimmer of hope in a seemingly hopeless environment. Before continuing, it is essential to acknowledge that Feinberg, the author of the novel and mastermind behind the scene is more then qualified to illustrate the struggles that gender variant people endure due to the fact that she herself was a lesbian butch growing up in the 1960s and is a well known LGBT author and activist. Feinberg has published writings...
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...INTRODUCTION LGBT rights have been a hot topic in India during the last few months due to the Supreme Court of India‘s decision of recriminalizing gay sex. The issue of gay rights is very cloudy in our great nation. Most of this is due to the problems with the issue, the reasons for controversy, and the pros and cons of the issue. First of all, both sides have too many problems with gay rights for there to be a common ground on the issue. The biggest problem we find with the whole thing is the problem is not just fought by words, but also by physical means. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people frequently face violence motivated by their sexuality or gender identity. Violence may be executed by the state, as in laws prescribing corporal punishment for homosexual acts or by individuals engaging in intimidation, mobbing, assault, or lynching. Violence targeted at people because of their perceived sexuality can be psychological or physical and can extend to murder. These actions may be motivated by homophobia, lesbophobia, biphobia, transphobia, and may be influenced by cultural, religious, or political biases. Currently, homosexual acts are legal in almost all Western countries, and in many of these countries violence against LGBT people is classified as a hate crime, which such violence being often connected with conservative or religious leaning ideologies which condemn homosexuality, or being perpetrated by individuals who associate homosexuality to being weak...
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...The concept of this play is about growing up, its reality and the tags along with it. It also focuses on LGBT Community to be represented by John, the 11 year old lead character in the story. The story will depict acceptance, freedom and responsibility where the lead character will discover what he really wants to be in spite of being surrounded by his gender oriented family. Brought up in the ideology of “machismo” Mang Julian, John’s father who has an occupation of being a barber raise the three of them with the belief of ‘the more hair you have, the manlier you are’ however his younger son John viewed it the other way. Unlike his elder brothers, Jerome and who fantasize about women particularly the pin up poster of “the dream girl” on their barber shop, John admires her for being flawless, hairless on particular areas where a boy’s hair grow. John wants to be like her. Later on in the story after the dream girl visit his dreams, everything suddenly became crystal clear to John. Instead of having “wet dreams”, he was enlightened about his gender preference. He doesn’t want any hair on his armpits or his pubic area, so what he did is to shave his growing hairs on his genitals with his father’s razor, he cut himself cause to bleeding. Thus, because of his mentality and discovered preference he called it as ‘menstruation’ or “Ang Unang Regla Ni John.” Script Analysis The setting will take place in a barber shop, present day. The Theme of...
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...As performers they are putting on a show. They are using amplified femaleness to provide enjoyment. There are a few different types of drag, the two most common are actual imitation and then the more campy. Those who seek to replicate being a woman giving a show often go to great lengths. Many of the men in Pageant provide this more classy form of performance, or illusion as they referred to it. They tend to be hard to tell from a real woman when in character. Coti Collins is a prime example seeing as his Reba impersonation is so dead on Reba herself took notice (Pageant, 2008).The more campy drag queens tend to be about laughs. Most of the time you will know it is a man dressed as a woman outright and that is part of the amusement. Basically, whether classy or campy, drag queens are taking female gender roles on the stage. They play the best woman they can or joke about being the best woman they can and perhaps in turn this allows for audience members to grasp at a more masculine role in spite of their own...
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...Running head: FEDERAL DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE ACT (DOMA) ANALYSIS Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) Analysis Ashanti Craine Northwestern State University Analysis of Contemporary Social Policy Issues SOWK 4350 Professor Sepora Fisher, LCSW April 29, 2013 Abstract The Law plays a prominent role in the everyday life of same-sex couples, continuing regulations and constant policing of sexuality and gender form around every aspect of same-sex couple and their marriage. Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) a federal law designed to uphold the traditional meaning of marriage which is described as a union between one man and one woman by not recognizing same-sex marriage and taking the option away from the states to make their own decision. DOMA has become a leading problem not just for the same-sex couples who are denied the rights and privileges in which opposite-sex couples are afforded under the federal law, but DOMA has also been called into question for its constitutionality and whether it not only goes against equal protection for American citizens but also legally discriminates against a group strictly based off their gender and sexuality. Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) Analysis Problems that Necessitate the Policy: Section 2 of DOMA says “no State, territory, or possession of the United States, or Indian tribe, shall be required to give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other State, territory, possession, or tribe respecting...
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...Leadership and the use of Power to Achieve Social Change Daniel William Chappell Dallas Baptist University Leadership and the Use of Power to Achieve Social Change Introduction The United States changed forever on November 4, 2008. Anyone watching a television on this important evening knew that everything had changed. Barak Hussein Obama had just been elected the 45th President of the United States of America, and he represented the first African American to ever win this office. To many the election was a fulfillment of Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream for social and political equality for African Americans. Still others, including the newly elected President, reached back to Lincoln. President Obama would also, invoke the founding fathers, giving credit to the social experiment that democracy is and thus hinting to the efforts of Washington and others. The days that followed the Obama election would be filled with symbolism leading to the concert on the steps of the Lincoln memorial, and the day of service, called by the President, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the day before inauguration. The election of President Obama seemed to have brought full circle the experiment of democracy. The dreams of the founding fathers were present, the echo of Lincoln’s consequential Presidency were present, and certainly the dreams and speeches of Dr. King were front and center in this cultural moment. Yet the cultural moment represented so much more than a continuum...
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...Occupy Wall Street Movement Liz Croutch Annette Redmon Bus309 May 8, 2013 Discuss the moral and economic implications involved in the movement According to Occupywallst.org, The Movement Occupy Wall Street is a leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that “We Are The 99%” that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants. (Occupywallst.org) The movement began out of frustration in the growing inequality between the wealthy 1% and the rest of the population. Greed, corruption and the perceived undue influence of corporations on government especially in the financial services sector produced this momentous uprising. This movement is the embodiment of all of the frustrations that Americans have dealt with particularly; economically. The rich are getting richer and the poorer getting poorer. This has been the downward spiral for the last forty years. This movement gives a voice to the grievances of the people. According to newpol.org “Occupy is a kind of a party, not a party with a formal structure, but potential peoples party in formation, the party of working people, the party of the poor, the party of the dispossessed, the oppressed, and the exploited. The Occupy movement excoriates the banks...
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...representations of intimacy on gay couples in television, especially in comparison to the intimacy shown in cases of straight couples. I was also interested in understanding how audiences feel about such representations. I decided to focus my research on the TV sitcom Modern Family. To gather and analyze in an appropriate manner, I conducted a content analysis of the show’s episode in terms of intimacy shown whether it was physical, emotional or intellectual. To study the impact of the representations on the audiences, I conducted a mini survey using questionnaires. I expected my findings to be a lot more controversial. In fact, people are not bothered by the depiction of intimacy among gay couples. They think it’s natural when telling a couple’s tale to have moments of intimacy. Thus, they were troubled by the fact that even though Modern Family involves a same-sex family, it almost disregards the natural need for intimacy that characterizes all personal relationships. I came to the conclusion that, even though television seems to have progressed and removed taboos, in reality it is as conservative as ever and most of the LGBT portrayals are just an excuse for diversity. Intimacy in televised portrayals of homosexual couples: Modern Family When watching a movie or a TV show that has any kind of a romantic plot, we naturally expect to see intimacy between the couple. Intimacy is crucial in close relationships. Actually, if there is no intimacy of any sort, there is no relationship...
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...University of Tennessee, Knoxville Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 12-2009 Peeking Out: A Textual Analysis of Heteronormative Images in Prime-Time Television D. Renee Smith University of Tennessee - Knoxville, drsmith@utk.edu Recommended Citation Smith, D. Renee, "Peeking Out: A Textual Analysis of Heteronormative Images in Prime-Time Television. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2009. http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/10 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact trace@utk.edu. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by D. Renee Smith entitled "Peeking Out: A Textual Analysis of Heteronormative Images in Prime-Time Television." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Communication and Information. Catherine A. Luther, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Michelle T. Violanti, Suzanne Kurth, Benjamin J. Bates Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice...
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...you are asking, "What is so wrong with the public school system? In a word, EVERYTHING! Perhaps a better question is: What is right about the public school system? The truth is intolerant my friend. 1 + 1 = 2. Now you can ignorantly claim that 1 + 1 = 3; but you'd be wrong (and probably a product of the public school system). Children are robbed of faith in God in public schools. Instead, children are taught that they evolved from "stardust" which somehow formed into a planet, and then life just happened. Children are taught that humans are animals. If this is true, then bestiality is acceptable, right? This is what the evolutionists teach is it not? A good Christian family is a bulwark for good morals, the soil for the planting of good character, the tool and means for the furthering of Biblical Christianity and confirming it upon the earth. The family is also the foundation of the nation, as Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, wrote, “In the family lie the seeds of everything that later sprouts and grows into the greater family which is called the nation.” Satan knows this truth better than any Christian. Why do you think the family is...
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