(Provide a close analysis of at least one contemporary example)
For instance, Suzanna Danuta Walters (2001:27) states, ‘’TV has become our national cultural meeting place, a site of profound social meaning and effect’’. Most people spend great majority of their free time on watching television. Television audiences are often exposed to many of the social and cultural campaigns that are directly demonstrated all over our immensely, incoherent media. It has also been noted that contrasted to films, television is progressing more rapidly and is frequently seen as a more precise description of actual life. Nevertheless, the research of LGBT campaigns on television is seen as complicated and many journalists and television commentators decline over whether television is especially reflective of cultural actualities of its represented audience (Walters, 2001).
Since the beginning of television programming, the figures of gay and lesbian characters in amusement or popular culture have both been finite; if they did exist, they were either exaggeratingly stereotypical, or linked with criminality or abnormal behavior. All the way through 1990s, gay and lesbian characters started to be seen as reoccurring characters in comedies and dramas. But these show often receive many negative feedback and even exception or penalty from the sponsors. By 2000s, gay and lesbian characters in media had become more visible and mainstream; the growing numbers of gay and lesbian characters in the media are illustrating a probably growing acknowledgement of the community by society (Battles & Hilton Morrow, 2002). Individuals obtain their cognition of the world around them through what they are bared to in the media. Most of a peoples’ worldview are the repercussion of their preference shows on television. The way a group is depicted on television is ordinarily how the mainstream audience views them. This is a powerful reflection of where community is and what society considers significant on some themes at the time of televise. Gray (2009:1163) has even called media’s visibility and indications of homosexuals as a ‘’remedy to LGBTQ cultural marginalization’’ and a reason to rejoice in its livelihood and facilitate of the community. Many people assume this growing tendency as an enhancing recognition and justice for the LGBT community among society. Even those resisting the LGBT movement recognized this tendency and reproached the entertainment industry for developing a particular agenda aspire to alter attitudes about the lesbian community (Rice, 1997). Thence, this increasing visibility has made it manifest that homosexuality is normalizing not only in television but also in society. To examine what form of visibility of the lesbian takes in contemporary televisions, this essay is going to use Japanese TV drama as the case and illustrate how lesbian visible in the programme.
Due to Japan is a country with a history of cross-dressing and homosexual-related literature and art, has a trenchant disconnect when it comes to sustaining and concerning its lesbian, bisexual and transgender population. Japanese people either aware of lesbians as women with problems who are going through a phase or dispatch them as entertainers in the pornographic industry. Like Western countries, the Japanese people seldom recognize female bisexuality. ‘‘In Japan, steps have been taken to create a more relatable LGBT community; however there seems to be some uneasiness around the topic of lesbianism. In Japanese media, these individuals are the source of comedic relief, and are infrequently portrayed as realistic individuals on cable television.” (Regina Caldart, 2010:7). This remuneration of LGBT in Japan has arrested from years of stereotyping and constraint of the stereotypes, and is gently altering, as lesbians become more