US shows such as Looking offer a more diverse portrayal of gay life,but we hold a long way to go before LGBT characters pause being defined by their sexualityIn a 2003 episode of Will and Grace, Fagmalion, and Will (the sensible,career-driven one who’s always the butt of beefy jokes) and Jack (the promiscuous, youth-obsessed one who’s always jumping between jobs and lovers) decide to embark on a kind of “gay renovation of cousin Barry. One day Barry arrives at Will’s flat, and bemoaning the cost and lack of consolation of a original pair of Gucci loafers,to which Jack and Will respond: Choosing fashion over consolation, living beyond his means ... Boy George, and he’s got it!”Its scenes like these that research being carried out by Anglia Ruskin University is getting at when it comments that gay men,faced with “seemingly positive stereotypes” risk potential damage as certain shows “paint gay men as one-dimensional figures and prevent people from seeing someone’s true personality. If only the biggest problem facing young gay men in this country was that the stereotypes they were exposed to were too positive, and thus damaged their self-esteem.
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Source: theguardian.com