BBC Studies Portrayl of LGBT Society in Media

I'm sure it's crossed all of our minds at one point or another that the depictions we see of people on TV aren't terribly accurate. Very few women are that tall, that thin, or that witchy with a capital "B". Men are not the emotionally blinded, comic relief they are portrayed as. Family relationships, sexual relationships, and any interaction between any two humans EVER is completely different in the media than in reality. So it shouldn't come as any real surprise that media protrayl of the LGBT community often falls into this habit, as well.

Recent studies by the BBC found that many lesbians disliked the portrayls of lesbians on television as "butch" or "lipstick lesbians". Similarly, gay men showed dislike over the overly effeminate gay stereotype that often appears. The conclusion? LGBT people aren't being depicted on television with any great frequency OR accuracy.

Despite that:

• 18 % of people surveyed said they felt uncomfortable with the amount of LGBT portrayl on television-- particularly in scenes of intimiate nature.
• 50% of people described themself as "comfortable" or "very comfortable" with depiction of LGBT persons on television. 32% were ambivalent.
• 40% of people thought that there was the correct amount LGBT portrayal in the media, but 10% said that there were too few portrayals :)

The BBC is already using this new information to change how they choose their programming. Says Tim Davie, BBC's head of audio--

“The BBC has a responsibility to serve all our audiences as best we can and there are clear commitments we are taking from this study. We have already begun to share the research with content teams across the BBC in order to continue the progress we have made towards achieving more authentic and diverse portrayal of lesbian, gay and bisexual people.”