[SouthernBelle.]

Actually, I don't really mind how gays are portrayed in the media. It's like this to me: They have their ideas of what gays and lesbians are like, but we -- the actual gays and lesbians -- know what we're actually like.

If they [the media] choose to think we're like that, then honestly, I just laugh and go on. For instance, one of my favorite shows -- the Golden Girls -- had an episode where Rose accidentally volunteered them for a talk show, the subject of which being lesbians. Of course they made it funny.

But honestly, let's look at it this way:


Figure A:

A straight girl on a movie might coo and squeal and jump up and down be hopelessly preppy and mean. Straight people laugh at it because it's just plain hilarious. Does that mean that all straight girls are like that? No. There are some girls who are like that, but there are other types of girls, too.

Figure B:

A lesbian girl on a movie is this athletic type girl who has short hair and dresses only in masculine clothes and acts all in all like a sports jock, all the while managing to make things look hilarious. Does this mean that we lesbians are all female sports jocks who wear masculine clothes and run about cracking dry-humored jocks and stalking a pretty, harmless straight girl? No.

Figure C (compare to B so as not to take offense):

This straight dude in a movie walks around all the time hitting on girls, making dry-humored jokes, and all-in-all being hilarious. Honestly, when comparing this movie to the movie in Figure B, is it any less funny, just because it has a straight guy and not a lesbian girl? No. You can still laugh your head off at it.



So, to sum it all up: Straight people in movies are sometimes made to look like idiots for the sake of comedy, gays/lesbians in movies are sometimes made to look like idiots for the sake of comedy, and everyone laughs at them -- not because they think there's something wrong with them! -- but because it's funny. Therefore, I don't feel guilty or offended when laughing at a gay or a lesbian portrayed in a way that was meant to be funny, in the same way I don't feel guilty or offended laughing at a straight person portrayed in a way that was meant to be funny.