Homosexual Relationships in the Mass Media

Introduction

Over the last few years homosexual relationships have been presented more often in Mass Media. Often people are polled as to what these homosexual portrayals do to affect the change of the homosexual community to everyone, though especially heterosexuals. Social scientists have long studied sexual relationships searching for keys to happiness and their effects on longevity. For some time the Kinsey institute has been gathering data regarding sexual relationships over all spectrum. This information has become especially helpful when separating sex versus gender roles in relationships. Studying homosexual relationships helps social scientists be able to better break down the sexes and allows us to determine how males and females, separate from the opposite sex, think and act. This same study also makes it easier for social scientists to figure what causes the differences in heterosexual interaction.

With all this information that social scientists are able to garner from homosexual relationships, and the interest in what heterosexuals think about viewing them, it stands to reason that heterosexuals are affected by watching the portrayals of homosexual relationships. From that statement is posed the question: What are the changes that homosexual relationship portrayals on television create in heterosexual relationships? Because of research that has already happened we can state with confidence that spending time together has a correlation with increasing relational satisfaction scores.

H1: Heterosexuals that watch homosexual portrayals on television will increase their relational satisfaction.

Couples Watching Television: Gender, Power, and the Remote Control

Alexis J. Walker

Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 58, No. 4. (Nov., 1996), pp. 813-823.

Literature

Articles to summarize key points in regards to this research:

Separate or Equal?: Gay Viewers Respond to Same-Sex and Gay/Straight Relationships on TV. By: Freymiller, Lyn

Nothing queer about queer television: Mediated construction of gay male identities. By: Avila-Saavedra, Guillermo.

The Conflation of Male Homosexuality and Femininity in Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. By: Ramsey, E. Michele; Santiago, Gladys

Invisibility, Homophobia and Heterosexism: Lesbians, Gays and the Media By: Fejes, Fred; Petrich, Kevin

Homosexuality in Hollywood Films: A Contemporary Paradox. By: Nelson, Jeffrey

In order to be able to answer the posed question we will offer a survey, made up of multiple choice, Likert scale and short answer questions. The survey will be presented as a view into the perceptions of homosexual relationships on television. Though it will actually ask questions that will lead to answering the Research question.

Research Design

The variables presented in this research are fairly small, but have large meaning. The Independent variables would be the presence of a homosexual relationship in a television show, and the presence of an existing