Expectations of gay men/ harm of stereotypes.

• Why might there be an expectation for gay men to appear more masculine than heterosexual men?

- Gay men may feel they need to appear masculine so that heterosexual men wont think they are gay. They may feel this due to the oppression gay men experienced decades ago and the punishements that were inflicted on gay men for their sexuality.

- Gay men might want to be masculine and appear masculine as perhaps thats the only way a man gay or straight can be attractive and sexually appealing. This view may be anchored by the media such as magazines like Attitude that feature muscular and  hegamonically attractive icons.

- Gay men might feel ashamed of their sexuaity due to the discrimination the LGBT+ community recieve.

- Gay men may also feel they have to be masculine due to all the abuse 'camp' gay men recieve and may be scared of what could happen to them if they appeard gay.

- Gay men may also want to be masculine as there the stereotype that gay men are attracted to straight looking men which is being masculine.

- Gay men may just want to be more masculine to defeate the stereotye that all gay men are hyperfeminine and camp. They may just want to be more masculine to change social norms.

• Joannou is discussing gender stereotypes here, as well as stereotypes surrounding sexuaity. This is something we've looked at extensively. Why are stereotypes harmful? Make reference to Gerbner and Stuart Hall.

- Stereotypes are harmful as they cultive specific ideologies which is adopted into social norms (Gerbner).

- Stereotypes easily allow audience to decode a media product as stereotypes is something any audience can easily recognise (Hall).

- This is harmful as stereotypes can cultivate fear in audiences such as against a certain race. Stereotypes in movies anchoring that balck people are thugs and dangerous can causes audiences to adopt this ideology leading to violence and segregation e.g. slave trade used this approach with propaganda suggesting black people were not intelligant and were like monkeys making slavery ok.

- Stereotypes surrounded around gay men for example can cause harm to people who arent openly gay. They may feel that the ideologies the media present is what they should be as these ideologies could be widley anchored by many forms of media which become a social expecation. ie, gay men are camp, gay men like makeup, gay men are feminine, gay men are weak.

- Sometimes the media can make stereotypes appear positive anchoring the ideology that everyone conforms to some sort of stereotype. This anchors audiences to believe that stereotypes are true causing extreamismgroups such as White supremisists and Neo natzis to more likely act out.

- The news presents specific ideologies when chosing what to report. Terrorism is something that is widely reported and presents a stereotype that muslims are dangerous anchoring audiences to dislike muslims and to perhaps go further and commint hte crims against muslims.

- Stereotypes can be so intergrated into sociatal norms that people ignore education. For example stereotypes surrounding mental health issues can cause people to look out or certain acts or signs to define a mental health issue cauing harm to people who dont conform to the stereotype therefore not getting sufficiant help leading to sucicde and self harm.