Season 3 of “Hearstopper” dropped at the start of October and the consistently well-rated show enjoyed another good run and earned a 100% critic score. The Netflix show is an English coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama that features same-sex relationships. It joins other popular media such as “Schitt’s Creek,” “Queer as Folk,” and more that highlight members of the LGBTQ+ community. The shows’ success begs the question if queer media, which is defined in this article as TV shows/movies specifically created about an aspect of the LGBTQ+ experience, have entered the widespread sphere.  

Sociology teacher Michael O’Toole said, at present, he doesn’t believe so.

“I don’t know that we would still continue to emphasize it as ‘queer,’ so I would say mainstream culture has made improvements to be more accepting, and that’s very necessary—I want to emphasize that but there’s still a long way to go.”

To that point, O’Toole made comparisons to the shows and movies he grew up with and said the type of queer representation was much different. Besides “Will & Grace,” which he said, to its credit, was one of the first to make an attempt at progress, the media overwhelmingly utilized LGBTQ+ characters for punchlines. 

“In the ‘90s there was very little; it was mainly a gay (supporting) character or two,” he said. “And the actors themselves, I have a hard time believing that they were queer. And they were always the butt of jokes. They weren’t actually represented, and if they were, they were extremely stereotypical.”

“Will & Grace,” a sitcom that debuted in 1998, was the first to portray gay lead characters on U.S. television. It’s also widely credited with decreasing taboo surrounding queer people.

Yet, O’Toole said while there exists a stark improvement, such improvement and the breakthrough of LGBTQ+ media into mainstream pop culture are not one and the same. He references specifically-queer film festivals and award shows as an example and said these events are still crucial for queer media and actors to receive recognition and acclaim, whereas their official importance would be less if LGBTQ+ content was included within the general scope of media. 

But senior Cole Dangler possesses a differing opinion and said he does think queer media is a part of the mainstream now. 

“I mean, honestly, ‘Heartstopper’ is huge,” he said. “Everybody knows about it, so I definitely think it has. It’s kind of weird, but I think people are realizing they can make money off of the queer community. They’ve realized we are a demographic to cater to and so people will see themselves more represented in the media.” 

Dangler added that this transition also has implications for the amount of criticism queer media receives.

He said, “I also think stepping into the mainstream means you step into more criticism; you step into people’s different opinions, you step (opinions of) people that don’t agree with being gay (on a fundamental level). So they’re like ‘Why am I seeing this?’ ‘Why is this being shown?’ ‘Why is this valued in our society?’” 

“Sometimes you want to keep it to yourself, like in the community where, you know, it’s accepted and it isn’t really judged for being queer,” he added. “It’s judged on how good it is as a film or TV show.”

O’Toole used the contact theory as an example of how queer content can spur social change. He explained contact theory as the idea that people who are more exposed to different backgrounds and identities than their own become more accepting overall. O’Toole said this theory is often seen in the difference of beliefs between urban and rural settings as people in rural areas have less access to diversity on a variety of levels and popular culture can remedy some of that disparity as TV networks and streaming platforms are universal across the country. 

Senior Aaron “AJ” Lehikoinen said he stands more in the middle on this topic, he said he thinks queer media is moving into the mainstream and that what is especially crucial is encouraging everyone to watch and interact with it. 

“Based on my experience, I can’t say most of my friends and family necessarily go out of their way to expose themselves to queer media, (but) I’ve found that they’re open to (watching),” he said. “Although most of this media is predominantly aimed at making LGBTQ+ individuals feel they have an outlet to watch queer media, I’ve found that most people are very open if they’ve got a good friend or family member giving them a little push, but in general, I’d have to say the exposure is still relatively low.”

Looking to the future, Dangler said he hopes to see more casual representation and especially the end of the monopoly of coming-out stories.

“I would love to see one where it’s just people who happen to be queer doing things totally unrelated to their sexual orientation,” he said, “I think you can have queer people in straight presenting relationships and all that.”  

Dangler said casually queer characters and storylines are just as important to exemplify the humanity and depth of people who are included within the LGBTQ+ demographic. 

He said, “I feel like people push me into a stereotype, you know, and they try to put me in a box that I don’t think I really fit. Yeah, I’m queer, but that’s a very small part of who I am; I don’t wake up every day and think about it. So I think having characters that also don’t wake up every day and think about how gay they are, I think that’s important to have.”

Lehikoinen shared a similar sentiment and said, “I believe as queer media continues to enter mainstream media, it’ll continue to trickle into all areas of media. A lot of queer media is almost over the top, in my personal opinion, in an attempt to make LGBTQ+ individuals feel heard. I believe as we continue to stray away from a strictly traditional approach to our media, we’ll continue to see queer media more and more, and feel less need to make content specifically aimed at members of the LGBTQ+ community and rather reach out to all individuals.”

O’Toole said, “We never want to create a non-queer society, or (something that resembles) a color-blind society. So that kind of parallel; where people say, ‘I don’t see color.’ It would be like, ‘I don’t see queerness.’ But if you’re describing a character and can leave that detail of their sexuality out while describing that character because it has nothing to do with that individual episode or whatever they’re doing, then I would say that would be further progress.”