Representing the LGBTQ+ Community: A Study of Indian and American Popular Culture in the Last Decade

Abstract

Two discourses merit discussion in popular culture today: society's attitude to alternate gender identities of theLGBTQ+ spectrum, and whether forms of mass media should bear the social responsibility of equal representation for all. The conversation hinges on how society represents its gender/sexual minorities, and what that, in turn, reflects about the said society. This paper is a cross-cultural examination of these aspects in American and Indian popular cinema and web-series of the last decade. Through a close cultural analysis of select movies and webseries, the status of queer acceptance in both these countries, the secondary areas that the productions engage with, and the gender-roles assigned to queer couples have been examined. This paper argues that there are overarching similarities between the Indian and the American productions in terms of their choice of actors, the internal dilemmas of the characters represented, and their strong 'educational' intent. However, despite the global dominance of American mass culture, Indian representations and their reception by the audience also shows important deviations.

“Dressed like boys, hair trimmed, a nalla kutti otherwise”: construction of queer suicide in Indian online news media

“…The research highlights a significant disparity in representation statistics between Indian media and Western media, as noted by Martel (2020). This limited portrayal also reveals concerning trends, as mass media often depict queer individuals in stereotypical ways, thereby impacting their lived experiences (Phogat and Verma, 2022).…”

“…This limited portrayal also reveals concerning trends, as mass media often depict queer individuals in stereotypical ways, thereby impacting their lived experiences (Phogat and Verma, 2022). While Indian cinema has transitioned from caricatured depictions to more nuanced portrayals of queer characters, commercial success remains elusive, and entrenched gender biases persist in popular culture (Manukriti and Ajay, 2020;Joy et al, 2023). Efforts to bring authentic representation to mainstream discourse through cinema have been highlighted (Kaur, 2017).…”