Queer Reflections: Unveiling the Impact of Media Stereotypes on Adolescent Well-being

Abstract

Queer women are repeatedly stereotyped and portrayed negatively, reinforcing negative societal prejudices toward Queer women, having a lasting effect on women who identify as queer or are a part of the LGBTQ+ community. This research unearths the implications of media portrayals that depict lesbian/queer characters as dehumanized and othered bodies and investigates how members of the LGTBQ+ community react to these depictions. In order to facilitate this, mainstream media clips depicting lesbian/queer characters and women-loving-women interactions were shown to adolescent girls aged 14-18 who identified with the LGBTQ+ community through a survey. The participants were asked to respond to a series of questions in order to gauge their reaction to the clips shown. The data revealed that the lasting negative effects of these representations on adolescent girls within the LGBTQ+ community, range from body-dysmorphia and low self-esteem, to feeling the need to live up to the oversexualized standards that society imposes on lesbian/queer women. Because the queer female perspective is often not taken into account by media studies scholars, this research contends that the scholarly and public focus should insist on lesbain/queer screen diversity, grounded in the concept of visibility, as a key lens for understanding the value of representation. In other words, nuanced portrayals of lesbian/queer representation matter as it provides a point of identification and reassurance to viewers within this community who might not experience visibility in other contexts.