Once it may well have been
the key defining aspect of a character, but now, across several
soaps, there are a few young gay men for whom their sexuality appears to
have led to a troubled and disturbing life. In other words, they sometimes act like complete and utter loon-bags.
The main culprit is Ben in EastEnders:
admittedly having Phil Mitchell as a father would set any kid off on the wrong
foot, but Ben's descent from gentle fan of tap dancing to glacier-eyed psychopath
via an appearance-changing stay at Borstal has sometimes been a stretch to understand for
even the hardiest fans of Albert Square Adventures.
Recently we've seen
him frame his father for the death of Phil's ex, Stella, resulting in lots
of scenes involving shouting and storming off, and then Ben bragged to
his half-brother Ian that he lied to police.
Lord knows what his poor
ma Kathy would say.
And most disturbingly, he killed harmless Wham!-fan Heather with a single blow to the head, and just
as she was about to marry her long searched for sweetheart, Andrew from Southend.
So it feels a bit wrong - not least for poor Hev - and it will be interesting to see how Ben fares with the arrival of a new executive producer, following the departure of current exec Bryan Kirkwood.
So it feels a bit wrong - not least for poor Hev - and it will be interesting to see how Ben fares with the arrival of a new executive producer, following the departure of current exec Bryan Kirkwood.
But it's not just EastEnders where we've got the troubled teenage gays: on that daily
teen hormone-cauldron Hollyoaks, among a few other gay characters, we have that nice George, fond
of wearing red jeans and a permanently attached blue scarf whatever the
weather. He had apparently faked his own death as a result of school bullying,
then changed his name before finding himself living on the
streets.
And over in the Grange Hill
re-boot by another name (Waterloo Road), there is the
young, sensitive, football-shunning Josh. Admittedly this isn't quite the same as Ben and George, but Josh has just had a
'psychotic episode' after which a doctor speculated to the boy's
teacher father, when pressed, that his son could possibly maybe have
schizophrenia but we don't for sure but this episode needs a cliff-hanger.
On one hand it's good that these characters' sexuality hasn't hindered them from getting
some decent - which in soap terms means melodramatic, and in EastEnders'
case means sometimes means VERY melodramatic - storylines, and why should they.
'Shared the same bed sheets'
Watching the bumpy
and character-led actions of EastEnders' other gays Christian and Syed and
their relationship, it's clear we've come a long way from the issue-led approach of, say, EastEnders' first gay couple of
Colin and Barry back in the mid-80s where barrow boy Barry had to gently explain to Dot that he and Colin 'shared the same bed sheets' (Dot was his cleaner at the time, in a bit of moonlighting from the launderette). Her reaction was probably quite realistic for the time, if almost totally unsayable now: "You've probably both got AIDS!".
But once Colin's secret was out and he'd come out, he had nothing else to do, other than, er, go back in again or leave the Square. So him and his light grey summer jacket left.
But once Colin's secret was out and he'd come out, he had nothing else to do, other than, er, go back in again or leave the Square. So him and his light grey summer jacket left.
But putting aside today's
probably well-intentioned but perhaps slightly hackneyed attempts to
'tackle issues' such as homelessness, mental health and, er, coping with a
parent who's a Mitchell (and even bearing in mind the heightened, fast-paced,
events-gobbling demands of soaps), questions remain.
What does all this
tell us? That if you're a teenage gay the process of coming out will turn you
crazy? That a person's gayness can trigger huge problems, or that you can't have a
'normal' adolescence?
The hope is that any young gay teenager watching these adventures take it for the slightly rum old melodrama that it is – rather than a bleak depiction of a part of them they may still be struggling to sort out. There's not much fun in soap sometimes, for anyone.
The hope is that any young gay teenager watching these adventures take it for the slightly rum old melodrama that it is – rather than a bleak depiction of a part of them they may still be struggling to sort out. There's not much fun in soap sometimes, for anyone.
Or is it more positive than that: that a person's sexuality has just become another personality aspect for a soap character, and is no longer so interesting in itself so now writers need to up the ante in some other way, as they would for any other character, gay or straight.
The message - if their is one - is maybe a bit confused, but just like life, nothing is ever that straightforward - and let's all remember it's just telly.
Related stories:
- Waterloo Road isn't a school but a place for actors and kids to do soapy stuff and quip a lot
- A magazine about soap operas has decided this scene from EastEnders' 'Sharongate' storyline is the best soap scene of the last 20 years
- Hollyoaks Later needs to be racier otherwise it's a wasted opportunity with pert bare buttocks
- EastEnders: Mandy vs Lucy and the strange pleasure of a quick plot recap from 20 years ago
- EastEnders' Yusef: the stare, the suits, the walk, the man. TERRIFYING
- EastEnders: "I want pizza and I want Hazell Dean!"
- EastEnders: Zoe Lucker's Vanessa and her white trouser suit loses plot; shoe; shouts a lot
- Oh, Pam St Clement (Pat in EastEnders): What are your post-soap options?
It seems that it's not possible for writers to have a gay character in any soap without portraying them as some way 'unhinged'. It's been going on ever since Brookside in the 1980's had Beth Jordach murdering her father and burying him under the patio. They later introduced another lesbian character who was completely 'normal' to start with but then turned out to be disturbed as well. I'd be really interested to see if anyone has done any proper research into this. In a way this is negative representation which may influence uniformed viewers see gay people in a bad light. I would say that there is a huge over representation of gay characters as mentally unstable in the media and it should be addressed.
ReplyDeleteI kind of agree with this article. Especially in Waterloo Road, when Josh comes out of the closet, and then a few series' later he's diagnosed as being schizophrenic. Although, I don't see it as being on purpose for all these gay lads to be all insane. The writers are just trying to make characters out-of-the-ordinary or just different. And I somewhat respect that. We have to many boring people in Soaps today, why not throw a little crazy into the mix?
ReplyDelete