More Criticisms Of LGBT Representation On Television
What HAVE they done to Corrie?
The Daily Mail, 6 July 2011
Is it true that the lives of heterosexual Mancunians are haplessly intertwined with transvestites, transsexuals, teenage lesbians and a horde of homosexuals across the age range
By BRIAN SEWELL
For fully half a century, Coronation Street has formed the nation's view of Lancashire. Life is gritty; men are tough; in their devious ways women have achieved equality — if not downright dominance — and society is sterlingly working-class.
And perhaps life was like this in Oldham, Rochdale or Manchester, the metropolis of the north, when houses were back-to-back, the bathroom was the kitchen sink and the lavatory was a lean-to outhouse in the yard. It seemed realistic to me.
Today, however, the soap that was once pure Salford, that took the paintings of L. S. Lowry and brought them to life on TV that fortified the great divide between the noble North and the soft and silly South of England, has departed from reality. Squalor, grime and poverty have been replaced by shoddy, tinsel-edged glamour.
Modern plots: Jason Grimshaw won Mr Gay Weatherfield in one storyline - and is part of countless gay, lesbian and transsexual characters that are flooding the soap
Today, all the characters are showered, prinked and perfumed — particularly the men. Every hair is in place, every eyelash twice normal length, the cosmetics thick as plaster masks (only the ginger boy has spots) and the clothes are straight from Primark, Next and Topshop.
This Coronation Street is not good old grubby Lancashire, but just a turning away from Footballers' Wives — a fantasy world of a working class with money to burn. Is this really the Lancashire of now, the new truth about the sturdy North? Are these well-washed denizens of the Street really the ordinary people there, leading their ordinary lives?
Is it true that the lives of heterosexual Mancunians are haplessly intertwined with transvestites, transsexuals, teenage lesbians and a horde of homosexuals across the age range? Is Manchester now the Sodom of the North?
Coronation Street has a gay scriptwriter, Damon Rochefort. Fine. Nothing wrong with that. Indeed, its very first writer, its inventor in 1959, Tony Warren, was gay and open about it when homosexuality was still illegal and the penalties dire — and had a tough time with homophobia.
But the pendulum has swung to the other extreme, and where once we had no gaiety at all, we now, perhaps, have rather too much.
Too far? Lesbian teenagers Sophie Webster and Sian Powers are just some of the main cast characters that appear in the soap
Among the main cast, we have lesbian teenagers Sophie Webster and her girlfriend Sian Powers — whose relationship was revealed when they were caught in flagrante by Sophie's mum Sally.
There's also homosexual Sean Tully, the part-time barman in the Rovers Return, who is set to tie the knot with boyfriend Marcus Dent later this year in what will be the show's first civil partnership.
And middle-aged cross-dresser Marc Selby, who was involved in a love triangle with hairdresser Audrey Roberts and her glamorous friend Claudia Colby. And factory worker Hayley Cropper, who became the first transsexual in a British soap when she appeared on screens in 1998.
There are also countless peripheral gay characters. Ted Paige, the father of long-suffering Gail Platt, revealed he was gay, while Ken Barlow's long-lost grandson James, who appeared in the show last year, also turned out to be homosexual — much to the distress of James's homophobic father Lawrence.
Clean-cut Todd Grimshaw, who cheated on his pregnant girlfriend Sarah Platt with a man in one of the soap's most watched storylines, also pops up from time to time.
When confronted with this, the sane man may feel his nose is being rubbed in it.
There's too much, not only of gay men — who are estimated to make up just 6 per cent of the population, but who dominate the storylines in the soap — but also of lesbians, bisexuals, the trans-gender community, cross-dressers and everyone else with some sexual quirk or fetish.
It is not just Coronation Street — EastEnders is at it, too, with, last month, boys in bed together, apparently naked.
Love triangle: Cross-dressing Marc Selby became involved with Audrey Roberts, right, and Claudia Colby in one storyline
The dear old egalitarian BBC protested that its policy is to portray gay and hetero- sexual relationships in exactly the same way, both equally suitable for pre-watershed viewing. But are they equally suitable?
Are soaps, watched by pre-pubescent children — who may still have some tattered remnant of innocence that we should cherish — really a proper platform for sexual propaganda and special pleading?
TV's most notorious exposure of gay life at its most promiscuous was Queer As Folk in 1999 — a show that shocked viewers with its depictions of gay life in Manchester, including graphic sex scenes — but which was an unashamedly genuine assault on prejudice and ignorance.
Its title told parents loud and clear what it was about and properly it was broadcast after the watershed. Properly, it informed. Properly, it caused serious argument.
But the cause for reform might, as with Coronation Street, have been better served by intellectual debate.
Soap first: Hayley Cropper, played by Julie Hesmondhalgh, was the first transsexual character when she appeared on screens in 1998
So is there some connection between the nature of the new characters in Coronation Street and Damon Rochefort's open homosexuality?
A new book, Primetime Propaganda by Benjamin Shapiro, argues that in California an exclusively liberal TV establishment shapes taste, style, politics and family life and attitudes, complaining that gay writers, directors and actors admit to promoting their own gay rights agendas.
It is what people do when they have position, power and patronage — they favour their own prejudices, be these of minority, race or sexual direction.
There are mafias in every field of activity — commercial, aesthetic and intellectual.
Scots favour Scots, Irishmen favour the Irish, Armenians exiled in the Twenties were notorious for assisting other Armenians, Jews once considered favouring Jews a duty to their race, and homosexuals have always favoured other homosexuals.
It's how minorities — who are often, but not always, persecuted — gain strength and influence. The compulsion to favour is all but irresistible.
W e have constructed a society that surrenders to the will of minorities that shout. We see it among ethnic minorities and sexual minorities, in the disabled lobby and in the funding, patronage and promotion of the arts.
And giving these minorities a huge voice is fundamental to the philosophy of those in charge of TV. As a result, TV is far too politically correct. It fosters all minorities and gives them a disproportionate amount of airtime. In every kind of programme — be it drama, news, debate or for children — in this land of equal opportunities, minorities are given the opportunity to punch above their weight.
This is precisely what has happened in Coronation Street — and the result is a minority preaching to us from some supposed moral high ground.
Long before the series was a glint in Tony Warren's eye, the Campaign for Homosexual Equality was founded in Manchester by Allan Horsfall — a dear old duck — and it might reasonably be claimed it was he who established the city as a centre of homosexual unrest.
How it should be: Coronation Street should revert back to old as an urban version of the Archers, meaning it can continue to be broadcast before the watershed
Coronation Street's writer Damon Rochefort is continuing the tradition, widening its parameters to embrace the fringe interests of the transvestite and transsexual — but in doing this he upsets the balance of the Street and abandons the homely, traditional values that have attracted millions of viewers.
Some would argue this is the duty of the dramatist.
Coronation Street is not a real back street in Salford, and all its characters are as fictional as James Bond and Mary Poppins, if not quite so convincing.
Why shouldn't Rochefort introduce disruptive characters and issues?
Why not bring in not just cross-dressers, but those who subscribe to leather fetishism, bondage and flagellation? They exist. But if this is to be the case, then we must address the issue of the watershed.
It is simple. If, in Coronation Street, the audience prefers an urban version of The Archers — agreeable, benign and mostly heterosexual — then the Street must revert to the past, abandon this campaigning and continue to be broadcast before the watershed.
If the audience responds to the proselytising and is happy for the street to swarm with gloomy lesbians and happy homosexuals engaged in relationships ranging from intensely monogamous to brief, shallow and promiscuous, then it must be broadcast after the watershed. ITV must make up its mind.
Alternatively, the audience, fearful of a descent into moral turpitude, must press a button and turn off the programme.
Please click on this link to see the original article
Art critic Brian Sewell complains ‘there's too many gays on television'
Art critic Brian Sewell has complained that there are too many gay characters in British soaps and accused the BBC of spreading "sexual propaganda” to children.
Writing in the Daily Mail on 6 July 2011, Sewell, who has said he is bisexual, contended that the wide range of LGBT characters in soaps make "sane” viewers feel their noses are being "rubbed in it”.
The 79-year-old critic wrote: "There's too much, not only of gay men – who are estimated to make up just six per cent of the population, but who dominate the storylines in the soap – but also of lesbians, bisexuals, the trans-gender community, cross-dressers and everyone else with some sexual quirk or fetish.”
Referring to Coronation Street, he wrote: "Is it true that the lives of heterosexual Mancunians are haplessly intertwined with transvestites, transsexuals, teenage lesbians and a horde of homosexuals across the age range? Is Manchester now the Sodom of the North?”
Sewell also accused the BBC of spreading "sexual propaganda” to "pre-pubescent children” and questioned whether gay relationships are "suitable” to be shown before the watershed.
He wrote: "The dear old egalitarian BBC protested that its policy is to portray gay and hetero- sexual relationships in exactly the same way, both equally suitable for pre-watershed viewing. But are they equally suitable?
"Are soaps, watched by pre-pubescent children — who may still have some tattered remnant of innocence that we should cherish — really a proper platform for sexual propaganda and special pleading?”
Twitter users, presumably distracted by the News of the World phone hacking scandal, have failed to display Jan Moir-esque levels of outrage.
Gay rights charity Stonewall tweeted: "Oh dear…” and a spokesman for the charity argued that Coronation Street had a representative number of gay characters.
The spokesman said: "Given that the government estimates that six per cent of the population are lesbian, gay or bisexual it isn't inconceivable that a number of the 66 current Corrie characters are LGB.
"And with Wetherfield just a short tram ride away from Manchester it's easy to argue the show is more reflective of modern Britain than ever before, which is why Corrie picked up Stonewall's Broadcast of the year trophy last year and remains one of the most watched TV shows on British screens.”
Sewell, who has a reputation for controversy, said in 2007 that his interest in men is a "disability” and an "affliction”.
He has also said that "only men are capable of aesthetic greatness” and called for a "plague … to abolish the North”.
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Daily Mail's Homophobia Fueled by Brian Sewell Column
gather.com, 6 July 2011
Art critic Brian Sewell has only encouraged the homophobia of the Daily Mail and its conservative readers in his article decrying the excess of gay characters on television.
The critic targeted the long-running ITV soap Coronation Street, known to fans as Corrie, for promoting "sexual propaganda" by giving too much prominence to minorities.
Describing gays and lesbians in the most offensive terms, Sewell writes:
Is it true that the lives of heterosexual Mancunians [residents of Manchester, where the soap is set] are haplessly intertwined with transvestites, transsexuals, teenage lesbians and a horde of homosexuals across the age range? Is Manchester now the Sodom of the North?
It's not the mere fact Sewell questions the supposed abundance of LGBT characters that is offensive, but his reasoning, which reeks of homophobia. Why should the intertwining of heterosexual lives with homosexual ones be "hapless"? Why is a group of homosexuals a "horde"? Why invoke the biblical story of Sodom, a legend about male rape, frequently cited by anti-gay Christian fundamentalists?
But it gets worse: Sewell lumps in gays, lesbians and transgendered persons with "everyone else with some sexual quirk or fetish." He goes on:
Are soaps, watched by pre-pubescent children — who may still have some tattered remnant of innocence that we should cherish — really a proper platform for sexual propaganda and special pleading? ... Why not bring in not just cross-dressers, but those who subscribe to leather fetishism, bondage and flagellation?
This is homophobia, pure and simple. Despite being openly bisexual, Sewell promotes a prejudiced and archaic view of gay sexuality as a mere fetish, a decadent indulgence inherently inferior to heterosexuality. It's not. It's an orientation as fundamental to gay men and women as straight orientation is to heterosexuals.
By insisting that soaps such as Eastenders and Coronation Street ought to promote "homely, traditional values," Sewell isn't really disavowing using TV for sexual propaganda. He's promoting a propaganda of his own -- an anti-gay, anti-equality propaganda that denies gays and lesbians the same respect and the same opportunity for love and relationships that straight people take for granted. That is homophobia.
There may be a debate whether gays are overrepresented in TV dramas, but a fair debate cannot begin with such ugly and homophobic assumptions.
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Brian Sewell complains about gay characters in soaps
http://www.atvtoday.co.uk/, 6 July 2011
Brian Sewell has complained about the number of LGBT characters in soaps and has questioned whether gay relationships are suitable for young children to view.
The art-critic attacked the number of LGBT characters in Coronation Street - and soaps in general - in an article for the Daily Mail. In recent months there has been criticism, from some quarters, over the number of gay characters in Coronation Street. The criticisms come as the ITV soap features one gay couple and one lesbian couple while a cross-dressing character was recently introduced. These criticisms have been picked up by Sewell but he also attacks other soaps such as EastEnders.
"There's too much, not only of gay men – who are estimated to make up just six per cent of the population, but who dominate the storylines in the soap – but also of lesbians, bisexuals, the trans-gender community, cross-dressers and everyone else with some sexual quirk or fetish.....Is it true that the lives of heterosexual Mancunians are haplessly intertwined with transvestites, transsexuals, teenage lesbians and a horde of homosexuals across the age range? Is Manchester now the Sodom of the North?” - Brian Sewell writing for the Daily Mail
It is not just Coronation Street — EastEnders is at it, too, with, last month, boys in bed together, apparently naked....The dear old egalitarian BBC protested that its policy is to portray gay and hetero- sexual relationships in exactly the same way, both equally suitable for pre-watershed viewing. But are they equally suitable? Are soaps, watched by pre-pubescent children — who may still have some tattered remnant of innocence that we should cherish — really a proper platform for sexual propaganda and special pleading?” ” - Brian Sewell writing for the Daily Mail
EastEnders was the subject 125 complaints last month for a scene showing gay couple Christian (John Partridge) and Syed (Marc Elliot) in bed together. The BBC defended the scene and revealed it had recieved many messages of support over the scene. Shortly after defending EastEnders the BBC were forced to defend a gay kiss in Holby City between Dan (Adam Astill) and Antonie Malick (Jimmy Akingbola) after some viewers felt it was "unsuitable" for children.
The argument that gay kisses/gay relationships are unsuitable for "children" is often wheeled out by some when soaps and dramas 'dare' to feature such scenes though the majority of the audience seemingly don't have problems with them considering the small number of complaints in each case.
The article by Brian Sewell has mostly - at the time of publication - gone un-noticed. However, it has been picked up by a fewer Coronation Street viewers one of which posted on a forum "Never mind the murders, deaths, disasters, violent acts, jail sentences and scenes of alcoholism over the years, children must be protected from the gays!"
Please click on this link to see the original article
Is Manchester the Sodom of the north? Well yes, a bit. Sorry
guardian.co.uk, 6 July 2011
Brian Sewell's anti-gay diatribe shows how little he knows about Coronation Street – or Canal Street, for that matter
Manchester's Canal Street has been a celebrated and openly gay district of the city for some decades. Photograph: Don Mcphee
In the summer of 2003 I sat down with the young actor Bruno Langley to discuss the impending coming-out of his character Todd Grimshaw, on Coronation Street. The actor, publicity team, executive producer and individual scriptwriter were all visibly nevous about this storyline, one that would lock Langley down in history as the soap's first regular actor to play an openly gay man.
For any gay Mancunian (such as me) this small revolution appeared long overdue. During the 90s, an explosion in popularity of Manchester's gay bars and clubs in and a very visible presence of openly gay men and women citywide had forklifted its subculture out of the margins.
By 2000 I had cousins who wanted to go out in "the gay village". The word "gay" itself had changed. It no longer represented a threat; it represented fun. This was a seismic shift in local culture. The long shadow cast over gay Manchester by its chief of police James Anderton, describing gay men as "swimming in a cesspit of their own making" in the 80s was starting to disappear. Coronation Street was not just reflecting the times in 2003. It was catching up with them.
It was horrifying, then, to read a diatribe unleashed by the august art critic Brian Sewell in today's Daily Mail, complaining about the number of gay characters in the show now. Were his words meant to echo those of Anderton? They read clearly and unequivocally. "Is it true that the lives of heterosexual Mancunians are haplessly intertwined with transvestites, transsexuals, teenage lesbians and a horde of homosexuals across the age range," he asked, despairingly. Yes, Brian, in 2011 I'm afraid it is. Honestly, go there.
Since Todd's coming out, Corrie's producers have displayed an uncompromised, committed, witty, reverent dedication to representing the city's many gay brethren. They've done it faithfully to the local dialect and spirit. When Gail Tilsley had a cat fight on the street with perennial sparring partner Eileen Grimshaw, after Todd's coming out, his brother Jason arrived in full builder's regalia (hard hat, hi-vis vest) and Gail delivered one of its immortal lines: "Two more and you've got the whole of the Village People."
Moments of groundbreaking dramatic content have since quietly passed. The first gay septuagenarian was introduced to soap in the form of Gail's dad, Ted. Corrie's most longstanding gay character, knicker-factory employee Sean Tully, fathered a child. Schoolgirl lesbianism – a storyline frequently played for titillation on Hollyoaks – has most recently been handled with love, care and affectionate attention to detail. "You like Mary Queen of Shops," mum Sally chastised herself after daughter Sophie came out, "She's one of them".
If Sewell believes that there is a disproportionate number of transvestites (one straight) and transsexuals (one married: Hayley) then he ought to tack a trip 45 minutes down the road to Blackpool on to his whistlestop tour of the new, hairnet-free north, and have a peak at Basil Newby's Funny Girls, the monopoly night-time entertainment empire with its immaculate cast list of acid-tongued local trannies.
Stepping up to the times was a seismic shift for Coronation Street. Corrie's founder, Tony Warren, famously had to dress up his own openly gay sensibility and stitch it into the hemline of female characters when he created the show in the 1950s, lending a colourful line of Corrie women the tart vocabulary of the New Union pub on Canal Street. Tennessee Williams did the high art version of the same thing on the Broadway stage. Them were the times, as Ena Sharples might once have put it.
This is not the first time tacit homophobia has been flung toward the expert team that put together Coronation Street. The Sun ran a recent online poll: "Is Coronation Street too gay?", and certain newspaper columnists have expressed horrified indignation at gay affection being shown on the soap before the watershed. The same refrain is always echoed: what about the kids watching?
When I sat down with the actors playing Corrie's delightfully plausible teen lesbians Sophie and Sian earlier this year, they regaled me with excited tales of correspondence they received on a daily basis, from young men and women questioning their sexuality who had been granted permission to open dialogue at home about it because of their fictional characters. They said the letters and emails frequently reduced them both to tears.
With no small irony, Coronation Street has its own inbuilt, Sewell-esque figure in the form of buttoned-up, sexually indeterminate bachelor Norris Cole. Cole tragically bleats from behind the counter of Rita's Kabin about the liberalisation of his younger neighbours.
"Is Manchester now the Sodom of the north?" asked Sewell, in precisely the manner of Norris. It is a bit, yes. Sorry
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We don't have a ‘gay agenda', says Corrie boss
Pink News, 13 July 2011
Coronation Street producer Phil Collinson has responded to claims that the soap's gay characters are turning off viewers.
Ratings fell from 10.4million in May to an unprecedented 7.4million last week following criticism of gay storylines.
Art critic Brian Sewell, along with several former cast members, complained that there were too many gay characters.
Mr Collinson, writing in The Sun, said the criticism would not have been made if it wasn't for the fact he is gay.
He wrote: "The accusation is that because I'm gay — and I've never made a secret of that – I have an agenda to promote gay storylines and characters. I don't.
"My agenda is solely to tell brilliant stories. First of all, there are two gay couples on Coronation Street at the moment and they were there before my tenure started.”
Mr Collinson added: "Our audience research shows that Sean, below, a gay character who has been on the show for ten years, is consistently one of the most popular. With Sophie Webster, who is in a lesbian relationship, our research shows her popularity went up after she came out.
"It has nothing to do with her sexuality. It's because it's about a young girl coming to terms with her sexuality, and her own love story.
Coronation Street currently has a lesbian couple, a gay couple, a transgender woman and a cross-dressing man.
In response to criticism about ratings, Mr Collinson said:” During the first 22 weeks of this year, we were the number one show in 16 of those weeks. The audience is going nowhere.”