The original intent of this blog was to explore the representation of sexuality and gender on YouTube; until now I have concentrated mostly on gender and the negative impacts of YouTube. However, YouTube is also a place that creates unique ways for oppressed communities to express themselves.

Only in the last few years with shows such as Modern Family (ABC), Glee (FOX), Pretty Little Liars (ABC), and a few others have prominent queer characters really begun to be an important part of television shows, since the groundbreaking— but still problematic — Will and Grace (NBC). However, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), in 2011 only five gay or bisexual characters on broadcast television are a leading character, two of those are from Modern Family, and four of the five are on the same network, ABC (GLAAD, 2011). Smash on NBC, was the fifth show, but it has since been cancelled. Despite Orange is the New Black, which features multiple lesbian characters, exploding in popularity on streaming site Netflix, broadcast television has been slow to incorporate non-stereotypical and complex gay characters. In other words, when a show has a gay character, their defining quality and storyline on the show is their sexuality — a token gay character. As Sayantan Deb puts it in their article, Homosexuality on TV: Not There Yet, “very few shows actually explore gay relationships or give them equal screen time and emotional depth as their heterosexual counterparts” (Deb, 2012).

Most television shows uphold heteronormativity, that is treating being straight as the norm and any other sexuality as a deviance from normality. Deb notes that even the show, fittingly titled The New Normal (NBC), actually exacerbates this issue (Deb, 2012). The show is centered on a gay couple living in Los Angeles who decide to have a child through a surrogate mother. The title is meant to be representative, like Modern Family, of how families are more diverse now and the mom, dad, two-and-a-half kids, a dog, and a white picket fence is no longer the norm. However, by calling this the new normal, it reinforces the idea that there is a “normal” and if you deviate from it, you are other. The time has come for people who don’t feel fully represented on television to take matters into their own hands — and that’s exactly what they’re doing.

Perhaps it is out of this lack of compelling queer storylines, that viewers have turned to YouTube to get what they want out of shows. Through what Frederik Dhaenens calls “queer cutting” and what people whom actually create and watch these call slash vidding, fans of shows re-edit their favorite shows to create gay storylines between canonically straight characters (Dhaenens 442). There are hundreds of these videos available to watch on YouTube for nearly any popular television series, both in the U.S. and internationally. Apart from taking straight characters and making them appear to be in a relationship, it is also commonplace for actual queer storylines to be cut out of larger episodes and be uploaded to YouTube (Yeung 4). In this case by isolating the relationship of a gay couple outside of the context of the show, it “[makes] them the most complex and layered characters in the fan-produced text” (Dhaenens 449).

For your enjoyment, here is a Dean/Castiel (Destiel) slash vid music video with scenes cut from Supernatural (WB):

(Source: lilacwest)

Television can be an incredibly powerful tool and is largely how young people begin learning about the world — it can be very impactful in a young person’s formative years, but particularly for gay and lesbian youth. Queer youth “often seek out these images for validation during their ‘coming out’ process” (Evans 3). Thus, these alternate versions of television shows, with storylines crafted by people more comfortable with their sexuality, can be very important for gay youth. Television must either realize this need for true diversity in their shows, or continue losing viewership to streaming sites like Netflix and cable television networks like HBO. Until then, YouTube will continue serving as a resource for more realistic queer storylines.

P.S. The writers of Supernatural are well aware of slash fans.

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Works Cited

Dhaenens, Frederik “Queer Cuttings on YouTube: Re-editing Soap Operas as a Form of Fan-produced Queer Resistance.” European Journal of Cultural Studies 15.4 (2012): 442-56.

Deb, Sayantan. “Homosexuality on TV: Not There Yet.” The Harvard Independent. N.p., 26 Sept. 2012. Web. 29 Nov. 2014. <http://www.harvardindependent.com/2012/09/homosexuality-on-tv-not-there-yet/>.

Evans, Victor D. “Curved TV: The Impact of Televisual Images on Gay Youth.” American Communication Journal 9.3 (2007): 1-3.

GLAAD. “Where We Are On TV: 2011.” GLAAD. N.p., 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2014. <http://www.glaad.org/publications/whereweareontv11/characters>.

Yeung, Stephanie M. “YouTube as De Facto Lesbian Archive: Global Fandom, Online Viewership and Vulnerability.” Spectator – The University of Southern California Journal of Film and Television 34.2 (2014): 43-51. ProQuest. Web. 29 Nov. 2014.