wanted to look at Universalizing and Minoritizing on sexuality. So while trying to find an episode for this blog assignment I decided to look up shows that were/are on television and had at least one homosexual character in it. I found lists that were over one hundred shows long from the 1980s to the present. In the more recent shows, the gay characters have more lead roles. I think that people are actually starting to look at homosexuality with a Universalizing discourse. I decided to pick a show that had two lead characters that are in a lesbian relationship together because I knew that it would have both views in it. The show I choose was South of Nowhere, a show about a family that moves to Los Angeles and their daughter Spencer becomes friends with a known lesbian at school, Ashley. Over time that friendship changes into a romantic relationship and Spencer finally realizes that she is gay. The show deals with what it means for spencer personally that she is a lesbian and what it means to her family, and she gets an array of responses.
The episode that I am going to be looking at is titled "Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are". In this episode Spencer decides that she is ready to come out to her parents. Something that she has had to work up courage for because her mother feels that being a homosexual is wrong and deviant. She thinks that Ashley turned Spencer gay and if they had never met she would still have her perfect, normal straight daughter. However in contrast Spencer's dad knows that his daughter was born this way and is very accepting, he even helps explain it to Spencer's mom.
South of Nowhere, and specifically this episode draw upon a minoritizing discourse because there are some characters that feel very strongly that being gay is wrong. These characters are people such as Spencer's mom, her brother and people from their high school. They make heterosexuality the norm and they feel that society should be situated around heterosexuality and that all other sexualities should be pushed aside. Minoritizing discourse feeds into the ideas of hegemony that Lull discussed in his article. Hegemony is the power or dominance that one social group holds over others. Minoritizing discourse has the idea that heterosexuality is the norm and that it has power over other forms of sexuality.
This show also draws upon a universalizing discourse through characters such as Spencer, Ashley, Spencer's dad, and Ashley's friend Aden. They realize that sexuality is on a spectrum and that situating heterosexuality as the norm takes away rights and resources from homo/bisexuals. This idea is one that needs to be spread throughout society. Without characters like these this show would not be progressive, but would rather reaffirm stereotypes about homosexuality. I think it is very important to have characters that call upon universalizing discourse because they are the ones that help portray homo/bisexuality in a good way and are helping make it more commonly seen and less taboo. While most shows that have prominent gay characters are criticized for the ways that they deal with those characters, I fell that South of Nowhere handles homosexuality and the relationships between the homosexual characters and others. It accurately shows the struggles that homo/bisexuals deal with when coming out and what that means for their future. I also think that the show does a good job portraying intimate scenes between Ashley and Spencer, where as in shows like Will and Grace they try not to show intimate scenes staring the homosexual characters.
