This doesn’t have anything (directly) to do with comics, but I think it provides an interesting comparison*, particularly in light of recent industry news:
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has released its annual study of network TV dramas and comedies, and finds just nine gay or lesbian characters in regular lead or supporting roles in eight fall shows. Another five are in semi-regular recurring roles. (That’s 1.3 percent of all series-regular characters appearing on the 2006-2007 TV schedule.)
Those numbers are down slightly from last year’s 10 regular and six recurring characters, the media-advocacy group reports. (You can read the full “Where We Are On TV” study here.)
Now, I realize television is a mass medium, something the superhero comic hasn’t been in, oh, half a century. But there are at least passing similarities, at least when it comes to examining serial fiction and/or recurring characters.
Using the Gay League’s list of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender characters, I count 10 in starring/co-starring roles in DC and Marvel titles, with another six or so in supporting and/or recurring roles. I don’t know what percentage that is, because it would mean a lot math (and time), which makes my head hurt.
What does any of this mean? Nothing, probably, because I don’t know that the TV/comics parallel is strong enough to provide any sort of meaningful comparison. I just thought it was worth pointing out.
* And not in a See?-It-Could-Be-Worse kind of way.
Related: L.A. Daily News reports on the GLAAD study
August 22nd, 2006 at 10:31 am
I always though of having a token gay character, by that I mean making a character gay just for the sake of “bringing the numbers up” as a stupid idea. I mean I would think that GLAAD would rather have 5 really well written gay characters than 25 poorly-written stereotypical gay characters.
August 22nd, 2006 at 10:41 am
I guess with things like this there’s the danger/appearance of bean-counting, but there’s a problem with the “would rather have” line of thinking, too: Would GLAAD rather have one well-written gay character than 100 poorly crafted stereotypes? Zero instead of 50 poor ones?
GLAAD’s an advocacy group, so it tends to push for more and better. It’s been criticized for occasionally fawning over studios/networks/publishers for the smallest “crumbs,” but it also takes the media to task for those stereotypical depictions.
August 22nd, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Fair enough.