Television conveys powerful messages about sexual identities, and popular shows such as Will & Grace, Ellen, Glee, Modern Family, and The Fosters are often credited with building support for gay ...rights, including marriage equality. At the same time, however, many dismiss TV’s portrayal of LGBT characters and issues as “gay for pay"—that is, apolitical and exploitative programming created simply for profit. In The New Gay for Pay, Julia Himberg moves beyond both of these positions to investigate the complex and multifaceted ways that television production participates in constructing sexuality, sexual identities and communities, and sexual politics. Himberg examines the production stories behind explicitly LGBT narratives and characters, studying how industry workers themselves negotiate processes of TV development, production, marketing, and distribution. She interviews workers whose views are rarely heard, including market researchers, public relations experts, media advocacy workers, political campaigners designing strategies for TV messaging, and corporate social responsibility department officers, as well as network executives and producers. Thoroughly analyzing their comments in the light of four key issues—visibility, advocacy, diversity, and equality—Himberg reveals how the practices and belief systems of industry workers generate the conceptions of LGBT sexuality and political change that are portrayed on television. This original approach complicates and broadens our notions about who makes media; how those practitioners operate within media conglomerates; and, perhaps most important, how they contribute to commonsense ideas about sexuality.
Multicasting Himberg, Julia
Television & new media,
05/2014, Volume:
15, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Paying particular attention to the ways in which lesbian consumers and programming are co-constituted, this article examines lesbian programming on cable TV as a strategic method for attracting ...audiences and branding networks. Drawing on interviews with TV industry practitioners and market researchers, I examine the impact of institutional beliefs and practices on the production of lesbian programming. Based on these interviews and investigation of the contemporary cable and marketing industries, I consider the use of lesbian programming as a method for targeting cable’s increasingly fragmented audiences. I use the basic cable network Bravo and the premium cable network Showtime as case studies, positing an emerging trend in television: cable channels use lesbian programming to tap into multiple markets. What I have termed multicasting, targeting several distinct audience demographics, provides a framework for understanding why lesbian images are commodifiable in the postnetwork cable TV landscape.
Equality Himberg, Julia
The New Gay for Pay,
01/2018
Book Chapter
“Here they come, here they come!” shouts a man standing in the crowd. A moment later, the camera pans to a young woman sprinting down the steps of the US Supreme Court building in Washington, DC. ...Following tradition, press interns wait for a decision to be handed down from the Supreme Court. Once they receive the ruling, they dash from inside the building to the television broadcasters positioned outside the building.
The date is June 26, 2013, and the documentary crew of The Case against 8 (HBO, 2014) awaits the Court’s decision in the case of Hollingsworth v. Perry. This
Diversity Himberg, Julia
The New Gay for Pay,
01/2018
Book Chapter
Dev: They just don’t want two Indians starring in a sitcom.
Ravi: But why?
Dev: Look man, Indians just aren’t at that level yet! Yeah, there’s more Indians popping up every now and then but we’re ...just set decoration, we’re not doin’ the main stuff. We’re not fucking girls and all that stuff. We’re just not there yet. There can be one but there can’t be two. Black people just got the “there could be two status.” Even then though, there can’t be three ’cause then it’s like a black show or a black movie. Indians, Asians, gays, there can
Conclusion Himberg, Julia
The New Gay for Pay,
01/2018
Book Chapter
At the historical moment I came to the end of this project, it became more difficult to conclude it. Since the presidential campaign and election of 2016, as a result of which Donald Trump became the ...forty-fifth US president—having defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in a historic upset—divisive and discriminatory rhetoric about anyone deemed “different” has increased on an unprecedented scale.¹ The Trump administration has arguably reignited battles and civil unrest about the hard truths of the nation’s pervasive and ongoing systems of inequality, unleashed and intensified by anger generated by President Barack Obama’s popularity. Obama’s eight years
Introduction Himberg, Julia
The New Gay for Pay,
01/2018
Book Chapter
It is February 12, 2016, and President Barack Obama is the guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show (NBC, 2003–), the afternoon talk show hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. Ellen profusely thanks Obama for all that ...he has done for what she terms “the gay community.” The studio audience erupts in cheers as Obama responds, “It’s one of the things I’m proudest of because my whole political career has been based on the idea that we constantly want to include people and not exclude people.… But I will say … as much as we’ve done with laws and with ending ‘Don’t
