The report suggests more - a lot more - can be done
When it comes to representing the gay community via popular characters, TV is way ahead of film, according to GLAAD, who have released a rather interesting studio ranking, based on leading homosexual characters in movies.
The list sees Universal performing at an ‘adequate’ level, with 25% of their films featuring LGBT character appearances. Sony and Paramount were also adequate, while Fox, with 0%, and Disney, with 7.7% are ‘failing’.
Javier Bardem's role as Silva "plays into some old cinematic cliches of bisexual people being duplicitous or unbalanced."
“For nearly two decades, GLAAD has carefully tracked the presence of LGBT people and characters on television and remained a constant advocate for more inclusive programming from the major networks,” opens the report. “Out of the 101 releases from the major studios in 2012, 14 of them contained characters identified as either lesbian, gay, or bisexual,” it continues under an overview of the findings. “Not one of the releases contained any transgender characters.”
Films like Seth MacFarlane's Ted drew criticism for using the words "gay" and "homos" "in a derogatory manner," while Cloud Atlas – starring the openly gay Ben Whishaw and directed transgendered Lana Wachowski – scored high when subjected to the Vito Russo Test, which measures LGBT involvement in films as well as the characters within them.
When looking at gender, GLAAD found that over than half of the films (55.6%) featured gay male characters, while 33% featured lesbian characters. 11% had bisexual characters. Male characters outnumbered female characters 63% to 37% overall.
Ben Whishaw, who is openly gay, starred in Cloud Atlas and Skyfall
"We are giving studios the opportunity to see where they are now and how to improve by not only creating more significant roles, but a greater diversity of roles and genres," says Wilson Cruz, GLAAD spokesperson. (THR)
"Throughout my experience in the entertainment field and here at GLAAD, I know that whether it's LGBT or a person of color, we want to see ourselves on the screen. When we don't see ourselves in films, there's an underlying message that we are not part of the world."
The findings show that film studios are lagging behind their TV counterparts when it comes to the representation of homosexuals.
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