Gender Race and Class in the Media

NBC is crossing borders and breaking traditions with their new prime time show that started this past fall. The New Normal is the ground breaking show in which the main characters, Bryan and David, are a homosexual couple that lives together in Los Angeles. The premise of the show is Bryan and David want to have a child, but since both of them are male they have to hire a surrogate mother. Then we meet Goldie, a recently single mother of one, who moves to LA from Ohio to chase her dream of being a lawyer. She is short on money so she becomes their surrogate mother through an adoption agency and she and her daughter become instant friends with Bryan and David. Jane Forrest, also known as Nana on the show, follows her granddaughter out to California to try and convince her to come back home and ends up getting more than she signed up for. The final character that has actual relevance to this paper is the character Rocky who is Bryan’s personal assistant. Each of these characters alone is representations of stereotypes that are normally overlooked and not seen as a problem, but when all together the show brings light to the dimmed subjects.
In Jay Clarkson’s article about the limitations and discourse of norms he discusses how once gayness was completely out of the public eye and when it was that way the men and women that were gay had to be far more secretive about their relationships. Now there are so many gay couples in the public eye that most gay couples outside of the trending media feel that it is okay to be more open. “But I think that what was once the cure is now toxic. I see more and more of our rights taken away more hate crimes, because flamboyant elements of the gay movement have remained the power after they have ceased to be effective…” (Clarkson) and now when a gay couple walks down the street, it’s not that they need to hide their affections but they need to be wary of who sees it. In the series the character Bryan Collins is the most flamboyant of