Queer Eye for the Straight Guy in the mid 2000s was the first reality show to depict gay men as style gurus.
Especially with the rise in popularity of style makeover and fashion competition shows, the audience (of usually straight women) is coming to expect gay male style gurus on these types of reality TV. One stereotype that gay men particularly have had to deal with in media is being portrayed as what Gamson calls the “gay male style guru”. This was America’s first taste of real gay men of color and they opened the doors for future queer people of color on television. Both Pedro and Sean were men of color (Pedro was a Cuban immigrant and Sean was black) and both were HIV positive during the show. The first openly queer couple on reality television were Pedro Zamora and Sean Sasser on MTV’s 1994 The Real Word: San Francisco. Sean from “The Real World: San Francisco”
In scripted fictional television shows, the queer character is often white (such as Jack and Will from Will & Grace, Kurt and Brittany from Glee, and Mitchell and Cam from Modern Family).
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However, reality TV has also had positive impacts on the perception of queers in our society. However, this is not too unusual within the genre of reality television, because networks often turn anyone into a spectacle in order to attract a larger audience. But focusing on “quirky” or “strange” forms of queerness portrays queers as sensationalized spectacles on exhibit for the entertainment of the audience. Portraying queer people as nothing but stereotypes only allows the audience to view them one-dimensionally. In some ways, reality TV has continued the stereotypical images of queer people – especially gay men – while it has also given attention to of forms of queerness that have long been overlooked by the media, like drag queens and trans people.
Sociologist Joshua Gamson has states that reality TV is “a welcoming place for gays and lesbians, who have served as efficient sources of disclosure and self-acceptance drama, symbols of authenticity, and lessons in tolerance” ( 2013, pg. Reality television has always been a way for audiences at home to see the “real” lives of “real” people – even though most of the story lines are planned out in advance.