T.V Soap Opera Analysis

Anna Shvets

Jennifer Katman

Tuesday Thursday T.V Class

April 26,2010

T.V Soap Opera Analysis

In the T.V series of “Will and Grace”, there is one gay male character named Will, one male character named Jack who acts feminine, a straight female character named Grace and heterosexual female named Karen which is Graces’ friend. Will and Grace who live together are both looking for love, but will never find it with each other because Will is gay and Grace is straight. All of these characters play and important role in this show either gay or straight. I can tell whether the characters are gay or straight by how they act towards each other or just in general. Will is a gay male who is very handsome and attractive, and works as a successful lawyer in Manhattan. When he attends work it is a total institution because there is authority over him and he has to follow certain kind of rules to not get fired. In the show, he doesn’t act gay to me because he lives with Grace and acts very high class. His gay side comes out when he goes on a date or to a gay bar. This is another total institution when he goes to gay bars because usually the gay people are in authority and pretty much there are rules! On the other hand, Jack who acts feminine who plays a really funny role can’t find a job so he is unemployed. His role as a male is hilarious because he totally acts like a girl but doesn’t hid on men even though, judging his outside I would think that he is the more gay one. Even though he is funny he is unstable because he has nothing to depend on for example a job to help him provide money. The portrayals of the gale males in this show are positive. Their roles are humorous throughout all the series. Jack is always acting feminine and Will is always acting more serious but that’s what makes him be more humorous. It is shown in a multidimensional way because it shows Will who acts as a more serious gay male and it shows Jack who acts more feminine but is still considered gay. I can tell that’s the portrayal is more positive because even though the T.V show has gay males, it doesn’t show them making out or being all touchy, it just shows an example of gay males who have a big sense of humor. On the other hand when you try to relate it back to the real world you can see that not all gay men are like that. There was one episode where Grace took Jack to her dinner party, and Jack couldn’t settle down until they got out of there because he was very suspicious what people would think of him. He was expecting to have all eyes one him, which would make him feel very uncomfortable and maybe even hearing some name calling. At the dinner party Jack gave compliments to everyone, and one of Graces coworkers really adored Jack because he was in love with her shoes and I don’t even think she noticed that he was gay. The image that this program portrays of gay men is both good and bad from different points of views. For example, I am against gays because that’s against my religion. Even though I don’t like homosexuality, that doesn’t mean that I hate every gay or lesbian person out there, it just means that I don’t like what they do or what they believe in. I have seen many gay males everywhere, at the mall, at salons and they seem to be the nicest people with great personalities but I just don’t like the whole gay part. To other people who are for gays, I think that this program shows them an even better side of gays because they are filled with humor. Some of the pictures that are shown with gay males holding hands or hugging do bother me because I don’t think that it’s right. There was a part where Grace said something like real intense but Jack didn’t get offended but if you look at it from a side you would say that it is ok to call people names. That is a negative effect on society because if you have a child and saw a lady on T.V calling a gay guy a faget, it would not be ok for her to call a gay guy she sees on the street a faget. The content of this program contributes to our socialization process because in sociology we learn to view things from other people’s perspectives and being gay or lesbian is what people choose to be even though some are against it. From society we learn that gay men can also reach a goal in life and have a high paying job or look handsome because they are also people that want a good future. From these T.V shows we can analyze a lot but we need to here every character before we make a decision whether we like the show or not. I do acknowledge that there are negative effects and there are positive ones. For example my mom told me that this show is a way of making people gay because it shows men happy and funny so men just try to be like them. She says that it is a negative effect on us and everyone who watches it. Opinion- In my opinion, I think that the TV’s powers of socialization is going a little bit out of control because everything is being shown on TV that was never shown before and its starting to become normal. I’m not saying if you watch it you’re going to want to be gay. I just don’t remember having so many shows with gay characters. Either was I thinking it is good that they have characters like that that way we don’t cut any kind of people off. Gay people are just like you and me! In this show there is one thing that I absolutely did not like. It was the fact that Grace and Will find love but at the same time there is always something wrong with it. When grace bring someone home Will like them at first and hates him after he uses Grace. This show is an on going conflicting story about these four characters that try to get love but somehow it fires back at them say there isn’t any true love out there. It’s a bumber to watch those kind of thing because when kids watch it they can have a negative effect on themselves saying that there’s no point looking for mr.write or for my princess. When having a negative affect from a show it makes you think about how you can change it.