first draft

How has the representation of LGBT+ through tropes developed within the past decade?   

“Representation is so important to LGBT+ people…” (Ellis, 2018) the representation of the LGBT+ community has come through tropes, which can be good, but it can also be bad, which is going to be talked about within the essay, LGBT+ tropes such like; bury your gays, queerbaiting, armoured closet gay, X-rated queerness and rape and switch. Which theses tropes are commonly used within tv and film, tropes is a certain theme or cliché, that film makers put into their films or tv programs to push it to a certain audience, but it is sometimes not a good representation, especially with the example tropes already giving. 

“Bury your gays” (TV Tropes, 2020) this is one of the most devastating tropes that its going to be mentioned because it is such bad representation for the LGBT+ community because it doesn’t give the LGBT+ character a happy ending and it kills them without an explanation, “This trope is the presentation of deaths of LGBT characters” (TV Tropes, 2020) because this leads to “where LGBT characters are killed off disproportionately often and/or without justification.,” (TV Tropes, 2020) which in the year 2016 it became a massive within the LGBT+ community because of Lexa from The 100 (figure 1) which started a massive campaign because she was such an impactful character and she was killed because of a stray bullet which was aimed at the one she had a romantic scene prior to the shooting, which is a big thing with the bury your gays trope, which is another example Tarra from buffy the vampire slayer, she was also shot with a stray bullet which was in front of her partner willow, which then caused her to go dark and these two deaths are one of the worst deaths within the LGBT+ community today. Which this trope isn’t the best representation and neither is this next one because it causes harm to those who are gay “armoured closet gay” (Ellis, 2020) this is another bad representation for the LGBT community because this trope is designated to show the negative side of being gay because it shows a gay character being bullied, physically abused or mentally abused by another gay because they them selves are so angry because they are gay and take it out on someone who is out and proud to be gay, which a great example is David Karofsky and Kurt Hummel from GLEE where Karofsky is the Armoured closet gay and bullies Hummel to the point where he leaves the school and then

which is another bad representation for LGBT+ characters, because this trope is designated to show the negative side of being gay because it intel’s on a gay character being bullied, physically abused or even mentally abused by another gay character who is so angry that they are gay that they take it out on someone who is out and proud, which a great example for showing this is David Karofsky and Kurt Hummel, which Kurt is out and proud to be who he is and David bullies him because he is in denial of who he really is. “This is the character who massively overcompensates in an attempt to stay in the closet” (Ellis, 2020) and because gay men characters are portrayed as feminine these characters come of as aggressive tough and macho to hide who they really are. 

  

Even though the first two tropes I have mentioned I feel like this next one has a big effect on the LGBT+ community especially to those who are fans of the tv shows that this happens in, Queer baiting because there isn’t much of representation for the LGBT+ community, that is either good or true, so when this happens its hard hitting just like “Bury your gays” because it is giving us hope or leading us on to something that won’t happen, even though there is a few of this happening in tv shows now such like betty and veronica from Riverdale, eve villanelle from killing eve and Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor from Supergirl but it is really common in films, such like “Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok” (Vinke, 2020)  Albus Dumbledore “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald” (Vinke, 2020)  lately people are saying that queer baiting has evolved into being promised something from directors or even the cast and not actually getting what they said was going to happen, which equals to queerbaiting, which isn't a great way of representing the LGBT+ community. Not only is this bad representation but also the trope “X-Rated queerness” which is where films that include an LGBT+ storyline are mostly X-Rated because it is queer, and that can simply be because they are holding hands to even hugging or kissing. Which films without LGBT+ storylines that may include hand holding or kissing aren't necessarily given an X-rating because it shows a heterosexual relationship, and which this infuriates so many LGBT+ people because it isn’t fair that just because the characters are gay they shouldn’t be giving an X-Rating just for kissing or holding hands. 

Theses next few tropes are a few of the nicer ones I would say being they aren’t are about death or queerbaiting or giving any harm to a queer character, the LGBT+ fanbase which made for and by the LGBT+ community, to which they can write whatever they want which makes fan fiction, so they can make what they want to come true, either writing about gay characters that are already together or even right about characters who aren’t even gay, to satisfy their creative needs because they aren’t happy with the original content that the creators have created. 

  

  

  

  

  

  

Bibliography 

  

Vinke, E. (2020). Why Queerbaiting In Films and On TV Really Needs To Stop. [online] Her Campus. Available at: https://www.hercampus.com/school/aberdeen/why-queerbaiting-films-and-tv-really-needs-stop [Accessed 21 Sep. 2018]. 

Ellis, R., 2018. Gays React To Queerbaiting Feat. Calum Mcswiggan. [video] Available at: <https://youtu.be/BriGs6CLWB8> [Accessed 8 November 2018].   

(figure 1) Ogles, J. (2020). 18 Unforgivable Deaths of LGBT TV Characters. [online] Advocate.com. Available at: https://www.advocate.com/television/2016/7/12/18-unforgivable-deaths-lgbt-tv-

characters#slide-1 [Accessed 6 Mar. 2020].