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The L Word Analysis

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Although there is currently more than there was in the past, there is still not a lot of representation for lesbians and lesbian couples in today’s media. Created, written, and produced by Ilene Chaiken, The L Word, is a trailblazing television show that is centered mainly on lesbians and lesbian relationships. One of the most monumental events to take place in an episode titled “Land Ahoy” in the second season of the L word, when several of the characters went on a cruise meant for same sex loving women while another character met with her father. Many events took place in this episode and it is a strong example of Chaiken demonstrated, through usage of Stuart Hall’s theory of encoding and decoding and Julie D’Acci’s theory of the integrated …show more content…

Dana was especially nervous about going through security, and no one understood why until the TSA took another look at her bag. The TSA officers were surprised to find that there was a strap-on dildo and nipple clamps in Dana’s suitcase. The male officer takes the dildo out and waves it around wildly, drawing a lot of attention and causing embarrassment. He also puts the nipple clamps up to his chest in an inappropriate and unnecessary way. After this ordeal, the female officer winks at them and says “have fun”, and the group scurries away. Ilene Chaiken encoded this scene to seem over-the-top and ridiculous, as if no professional would ever actually do what he did, but it could be decoded by the audience to be shocking and causes those to wonder if that would actually happen. This scene could also be decoded as the oppositional meaning: a warning, or something relatable if this has happened to someone before. Or, the scene could be decoded exactly as Chaiken intended, as a laughable scene to not be taken seriously at …show more content…

Chaiken challenged her audience by showing us something shocking that would spark a unique reaction, as well as showing us a different way to view parental relationships in regards to their queer children. This episode is very telling of the fact that the series as a whole is meant to show the diversity that is queer

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They way a person reads is greatly influenced by their personal background; their story, their culture, anything that led them to who they are today. When reading How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents written by Dominican-American Julia Alvarez, many controversial points are brought up that can be interpreted in many different ways depending on who is reading. In many scenarios, it’s the matter of where the reader comes from, in this case the Dominican Republic, or the United States. By having written from both Dominican and American perspectives, Alvarez teaches how a character’s sexuality or sexual tendencies can be perceived differently depending on the reader's personal background.

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1397 Words | 6 Pages

Not only does this episode bring attention to many influential African Americans, it provides a lens for a younger audience to see and understand the racism in the past. Using Martin Luther King Jr’s actual words was very

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The bi-partisan government in the United States of America is further divided by the ways of the internet. The internet only makes it more readily available to find false information to prove your side of the arguement right. In the article titled “The Things People Say: Rumors in an age of unreason,” published in The New Yorker (November 2009), staff writer Elizabeth Kolbert discusses The spread of rumors across the internet and how it further divides the bipartisan government and argues that due to the filtering of ideas people are more likely to go against evidence when there are people that support their opinions. The author supports this claim by providing examples such as the study done in 1970, quoting multiple sources beyond her political

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993 Words | 4 Pages

Even to this day, shame about one’s sexual orientation remains a prominent topic. Whether one identified themselves as gay, lesbian, and transgender, society viewed them and their actions as a sin, a crime, and a disease, which only increased the amount of shame–a painful feeling of distress or humiliation caused by the consciousness of wrong or fooling behavior–they saw within themselves. Then changes began to occur as a group of gays, lesbians, and transgender people confronted police in an event known as the Stonewall Riots or the Stonewall Uprising, which became a turning point for gay liberation. Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home is a 1980s, family tragicomic-graphic memoir that addresses this perspective turning point through the use of the labyrinth

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615 Words | 3 Pages

Williams states, "Kathy Witterrick and David Stocker sent an e-mail to their circle of friends", Storms parents wishes we're to not share the childs sex with anyone. This leading the message getting out and going viral, to then leading to negative comments and reactions; using the words, "creepy" and "freakish' then adding "Others called for the couples children to be removed by social services. " She does not unveal her feelings as a mother, but continues to project herself as a writer. Williams states in the article the phrases "they were so gosh darned adorable" and "smiled warmly" then changing her phrases to "center of an international controversy" and "a full fledged commitment to life-long gender suppresion or neutered identity. " The diction Williams used here really pulls in the readers and then brings in the truth about how society views people based on their sex.

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1794 Words | 8 Pages

I. Introduction Parenthood, a drama television series, attends to the adversity of an extended and imperfect family. The Bravermans are a blended California family who face a series of both fortunate and unfortunate events but together find a way to get by (Katims, 2010). Television consumers have been introduced to many fictional families overtime and continue to fall in love with family related television shows. Historically, the media has transformed and continues to adapt to the changes in present day family types. “Writers often take seeds from real life experiences and plant then in their scripts,” consumers both consciously or subconsciously attend to cues on television and want to apply what they see to their lives.

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What if you did something amazing by putting your mind to it? It would be awesome, right? But what if lots of people did this at the same time? This is what happened during the Age of Reform. Tens of thousands of Americans joined into different movements made to improve the state of being of the U.S.

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The article reveals the racism that gay men and women deal with within the black culture. It speaks on, an unspoken action that is ignored in the African American community. Lorde (1984) speaks about the African American women smuggles as a lesbian, Icard (1986) speaks no how the African American male is seen an inferior. Loiacano

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The phrase "parenting in order to keep NDN kids safe" resonates with a broader human instinct to protect and care for young individuals, regardless of cultural background or identity. By drawing attention to the vulnerability and need for protection, the passage encourages readers to examine their own roles and responsibilities in creating a safe and inclusive environment for all children. Additionally, Belcourt uses personal storytelling as a way to subtly represent his queer identity and individuality. The line, “There’s a photograph of us from Halloween in the late nineties; I’m dressed as Tinky Winky, the purple teletubby, and Jesse is dressed as the blue Power Ranger. This artifact is regularly invoked as evidence of our disparate identities (and my nascent queerness).”

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917 Words | 4 Pages

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2921 Words | 12 Pages

However, Tara’s experiences as a witch and as a Queer woman are very different from Willows'. Growing up in different environments, each young woman has individual coming-to stories, while still having many shared circumstances. Their different experiences speak to the truth that each LGBTQ-identifying person lives a unique life with unique relationships to their identity and

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814 Words | 4 Pages

With this character coming out, it cause wonder and curiosity on what else is going to be revealed in a single episode. Each episode has its own message and story to tell the audience. The messages are told through the music. When Jussie Smollet’s charcter revealed his sexuallity, he sung a song called You’re so Beautiful which says that it does not matter whether it’s a female or male, and what size that person is, that they are always

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720 Words | 3 Pages

Despite the creator’s of Modern Family effort to portray a progressive view of American families, the show still accentuates outdated female stereotypes and gender roles; reinforcing gender characteristics, patriarchy and hegemonic masculinity. In contrast to its title, Modern Family promotes traditional gender roles and stereotypes of women, which result in the portrayal of an inaccurate image of the female, and weakens the stance of women in today’s U.S. society. Gender stereotypes are prevalent throughout the Modern Family; the women are all portrayed as wives and mothers, promoting a continued male dominant family ideology. Claire and Gloria are throughout the show acting on our society’s “assumptions about women’s ‘appropriate’ roles” (Dow 19).

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