A report by the USC Annenberg Media, Diversity, and Social Change Initiative(MDSCI) called Inclusion or Invisibility? finds LGBT people are underrepresented in film, television, and digital series.
The findings of this report on diversity in the entertainment industry demonstrates how on-screen queer representation is less than the percentage of the U.S. population that is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer.
Isaaca Hoglen, a lesbian woman, says her queer identity influences her everyday life.
"It definitely affects how I interact with the world and, most importantly, how the world perceives and interacts with me," she said.
She says this is why queer representation matters. What the general U.S. population sees for the characterization of queer people influences how they will perceive the community.
The USC Annenberg MDSCI report recommends that studios adopt a more inclusive approach to characters in film and TV. They must move past stereotypic portrayal of queer people and create more realistic queer characters that accurately represent LGBT individuals.
Although queer representation is improving across media platforms, there are some queer characters that follow tropes, or recurring themes, that demonstrate how they aren't nuanced portrayals of real LGBT people. One such trope is the "bury your gays" trope.
The "Bury Your Gays" trope refers to the theme of queer characters, usually lesbian or bisexual, not allowed to have their own happy ending. Usually, the queer character is attacked, commits suicide, can't have a healthy romantic relationship, or murdered — they can be shot, hit by a car, etc. And the death is usually unnecessary. There have been 155 lesbian and bisexual characters that have died on television.
According to Hoglen, the trope is the epitome of queerbaiting. This term refers to the phenomenon of show creators trying to attract queer fans with homoerotic tension between two characters, but they never end up together.
"They'll show two women, they'll have a developed relationship, it will culminate in a kiss or in a confession of those feelings, or sex for the more progressive movies. And then almost immediately afterwards they will have to kill off one of those characters, to reinforce that idea that this is not an acceptable way to exist in society."
Hoglen says that with already so little representation of LGBT people it's hurtful that shows are killing off those few characters. "It's really offensive for a heterosexual person to say, 'Oh, just go watch a different show.' I can't. My representation is so limited. I'm limited in the quality of the representation."
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Annenberg Media