Outing of Fictional Characters

Quote: Face

Muppets, man. (sorry, Manufactured-Americans ;)) What a trip.

BTW, there was a very short-lived series some years ago about a TV show employing puppets. The puppets were alive, like regular people and animals. I forget the name of the show or who was in it, or why I saw an ep, but that's where the term "Manufactured-Americans" comes from.

Quote: 1nickelmiracle

Sorry, but when I was a kid, I always got the impression B&E were also children. Whatever details there were, were lost on me. I would say nobody is gay until they admit they're gay and it's as wrong to accuse people of gayness as it is to
discriminate.

Bert and Ernie were in some kind of "in-between" world. Consider:

The had toys that were the kind kids would play with, so not quite adults but..
They had their own basement apartment in an unnamed outer-borough of NYC, so not quite kids, and
They were muppets/puppets so not human but.....
They weren't "monsters" like Grover, Harry, and Cookie.

Quote: AZDuffman

Bert and Ernie were in some kind of "in-between" world. Consider:

The had toys that were the kind kids would play with, so not quite adults but..
They had their own basement apartment in an unnamed outer-borough of NYC, so not quite kids, and
They were muppets/puppets so not human but.....
They weren't "monsters" like Grover, Harry, and Cookie.

Just didn't notice it as a kid. All I knew was they lived in a building and sometimes talked on the balcony. I always thought they were brothers as a kid and it didn't matter they looked different just like real brothers or even step brothers do. Based on their young age, I would guess they're not gay because they haven't hit puberty yet, in a similar way a seed is not yet a tree. I think you have to let the hormones kick in and sexual feelings begin before any labeling can apply. Therefore, tell the kids Bert and Ernie aren't anything until they say so and considering them young children, they wouldn't identify and understand any of this.

Quote: 1nickelmiracle

Just didn't notice it as a kid. All I knew was they lived in a building and sometimes talked on the balcony. I always thought they were brothers as a kid and it didn't matter they looked different just like real brothers or even step brothers do. Based on their young age, I would guess they're not gay because they haven't hit puberty yet, in a similar way a seed is not yet a tree. I think you have to let the hormones kick in and sexual feelings begin before any labeling can apply. Therefore, tell the kids Bert and Ernie aren't anything until they say so and considering them young children, they wouldn't identify and understand any of this.

Good points. I say let them alone and let kids have something to watch where they are not shoving gays in your face every five minutes like so much of TV. Watching them even now they are still pure slap-stick funny.

Thinking about it a bit, they might be loosely based on a mix of "The Odd Couple" and "Abbot and Costello."

Quote: AZDuffman

I say let them alone and let kids have something to watch where they are not shoving gays in your face every five minutes like so much of TV.

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Last years study reviewed 97 scripted TV programs scheduled to air in the upcoming season on the broadcast networks, counting a total of 701 series regular characters. The study found that 31 of them are LGBT characters.

ABC has the highest amount, with 10 out of 194 of their regular characters identified as LGBT. I think the 10 characters are:
Modern Family: Mitchell and Cameron
Grey’s Anatomy : Callie and Arizona
Happy Ending’s: Max (the first gay male character on TV to be slovenly)
Suburgatory: Mr. Wolfe school counselor
Revenge: bisexual Nolan.
Scandal: White House Chief of Staff Cyrus Beene, (he has a husband)
Don’t Trust the B---- in Apt 23: Celebrity assistant Luther
Malibu Country, Geoffrey, a gay label record assistant

I am not absolutely sure, but Mitchell seems to be the only gay character played by a very open gay actor. I think the other ones are probably gay for hire.



There are supposed to 45 "PEOPLE OF COLOR" on ABC out of 194 which is certainly an overrepresentation of the population at large. Only 13% of the population of the USA is African American.

One could argue that 10 out 194 characters is not over-representative of the real life percentage. But writers like characters to stand out, so they write character with are non-traditional. But I think primarily most people just notice the gay characters more than the straight ones.

Quote: Pacomartin

.ABC has the highest amount, with 10 out of 194 of their regular characters identified as LGBT. I think the 10 characters are:

Where is the Hayes Office when you need it? I'll admit the precode movies were witty and interesting, dealing often with women in prison or women sleeping their way to the top of the business world. Then it became where one could not even use lesbian as a noun, only as an adjective. So it became " leading a lesbian lifestyle " rather than "being a lesbian" which would have acknowledged the existence of a perversion rather than being an illustration of a perverse reaction to ordeals suffered by a woman of weak character.

Even when criminally charged, a woman was not referred to as being a lesbian but as leading a lesbian lifestyle so that it was clear she was being punished for her actions.

After the code took effect movie kisses were timed, women had to be surprised and act demurely and some of Hollywood's rules were more strict than at a southern Bible College wherein members of the opposite sex could never be within six inches of another and members of the same sex had to guard against behavior that was subject to being misinterpreted. Some local newspapers refused to even publish legal notice of various statutes and ordinances taking effect since the laws themselves were vulgar and offensive to White women.

When is that pendulum going to start its return swing????

Quote: Fleastiff

When is that pendulum going to start its return swing????

Not very soon. Lesbians are becoming a staple of TV series.


But there is one kind of shot that is a dead giveaway that a series was made in Europe, and not in America, even if the series is also aired on American TV.

Pope Sixtus IV was famous for establishing and being the namesake for the Sistine Chapel (i,e, Sixtus- Sacellum Sixtinum in Latin).

Do you not know to label such things NSFW??

Quote: Evenbob

I had kids. When they're little and ask something
they can't possibly understand, like Gayness at
8 years old, I just turn it back on them and ask
what they think it means. Whatever they say go
with that and change the subject. They won't
pursue it and they don't really care what the answer
is anyway. Not at 8. There's plenty of time for
them to be wised up later.

The bolded is the only part I don't agree with.

I remember people, usually parents and teachers, doing the same to me when I was young. I had such a severe negative reaction to it I can still vividly remember several incidents that happened when I was of that age. I'll never forget it.

I promised myself I'd never do that to my kid. Sure, there will be some things that must be skirted or sugar coated, but I always give it to him straight. Kids have a certain brilliance to them, and I'll not be one to stymie that.

Quote: Pacomartin

Not very soon. Lesbians are becoming a staple of TV series.

I can't figure out which shows these are from.

Actually, I think things like WIGS.COM and its YouTube channel indicate that women still want "zero core porn" so that they have an escort but she spends all her time talking to clients and the clients are all handsome young males who listen to her. In other words, scripted nonsense in teaser situations. In real life the clients would say "shut up and put out" which is just about what the woman's boyfriends and husbands would like to say too.