Outward

Twinks, Bears, and U-Haul: TV’s Bizarre Version of “Gay Culture”

In the last few years, television has gotten better at including LGBTQ characters, but its representation of gay culture is still rather limited. While some shows—like Difficult People, Happy Endings, and The Fosters—reveal an understanding of the way queer people live now, others seem content to repeat outdated stereotypes and to obsess about gay men’s sexual types and lesbians’ use of U-Haul as a verb.

This video looks at what television talks about when it talks about “gay culture,” all the way from Melissa Etheridge to Cher and from twinks to bears.