by Giancarlo Rafael Tabios |
Our perceptions of the world as a whole are formed by everything we encounter during our life. What our parents teach us, what we read, and what we watch on television are just a few of the many factors that influence our perception of the world, from how we think we should be to how we think others should be.
We grow up hearing love stories about how Cinderella charmed the lovely Prince Charming at the dance or Rapunzel being rescued from the evil witch's tower by a youthful prince. Our society's enthusiasm and fascination with this kind of love are taught while we are still young. While this appears to be a good thing, it poses a risk to youngsters who may not love who they're "supposed" to love. Furthermore, it only promotes and reinforces heteronormative and homophobic culture, undermining the existence of more than just the two sexes.
Homosexuality continues to be seen as an illness or sin in many societies that thrive in ill beliefs and traditions. For decades, the struggle of the LGBTQIA+ community has been one of the issues that modern society has mostly closeted, as evidenced by the increasing number of violence, discrimination, and harassment.
Thankfully, today's LGBTQIA+ communities are taking a more active role in establishing their own culture. The primary goal is to attain affirmative visibility in mainstream media, supporting a more inclusive and representative portrayal and tackling issues that violate their fundamental human rights.
The COVID-19 pandemic became an avenue for that unprecedented change. Since the preventive lockdown measures have forced people to confide in the safety of their homes, there is a growing crave in the audiences' appetite for more and new content to ease their boredom. This became a significant opportunity for LGBTQIA+ exposure in the business, providing nuanced and diverse LGBTQIA+ characters who bring intriguing stories to the table, educating people about contemporary and relevant themes that aren't generally tackled and are mainly sidelined.
Books like Both Can Be True by Jules Machias and Fifteen Hundred Miles From The Sun by Jonny Garza Villa discussing nonbinary and genderqueer identity. To movies like The Half Of It by Alice Wu and Your Name Engraved Herein by Patrick Kuang-Hui Liu addressing anti-gay prejudice and heterosexism. Netflix even made a documentary called Pray Away by Kristine Stolakis exhibiting the danger of conversion therapy and praying the gay away through the lenses of survivors. Here in the Philippines, where homophobia and conservatism are very imminent, now has made numerous LGBTQIA+ web series like Gameboys by Ivan Andrew Payawal, Gaya Sa Pelikula by JP Habac, and The Boy Foretold By The Stars by Dolly Dulu that traverses these realities.
Because of these LGBTQIA+ stories streaming across all platforms of distribution, we're now entering an era where we're finally driving meaningful cultural change: a change where people don't need to feel pressured to act or look a certain way based on society's gender roles, norms, and stereotypes, and where we're creating an environment for the youth to express themselves and acknowledging and celebrating their differences freely even if they're stuck at home. With these mediators at the helm of the entertainment industry, hopefully, it will make someone's journey of coming out of the closet, who is watching behind the screen right now, something to look forward to and not something to be afraid of.
However, there is still an ongoing systematic and widespread censorship of LGBTQIA+ information in several nations, further contributing to the community's stigmatization and suppressing safe areas for LGBTQIA+ people to interact, share resources, and build strong social relationships. For this reason, many LGBTQIA+ people are further alienated under institutions that may criminalize their very existence without such options. Moreover, the restricted access to varied media channels that present opposing viewpoints assures that discussions around sexual orientation and gender identities remain stagnant, stifling societal acceptance.
It is why LGBTQIA+ representation in the media matters and still matters today, especially in this pandemic where individuals are highly vulnerable and susceptible to different types of abuse. Without that representation, people are forced to keep themselves locked up continuously further in their closets, where they're obliged to conceal themselves from the rest of the world as though they're not human beings. Worse of all, it bolsters the idea that they're willing to take their own lives. As a result, we should continue to push for a more complex and authentic queer experience to be represented on the silver screen to secure peace and order for future generations to come.
Representation is necessary for transformation, assuring us that who we are is more than okay and reassuring us that we are not just candle flares that can be quickly extinguished but full-fledged forest flames that will never be doused.
Illustration by Andrea Andam
Photos (from left to right): Gaya sa Pelikula, The Half of It, Your Name Engraved Herein, Love Beneath the Stars
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