HOW WILL AND GRACE CHANGED THE COURSE OF TV FOR THE LGBTQA+ COMMUNITY

I now make it very clear that this show does not fully represent the LGBT people. It has been completely disinfected and has definitely contributed to heterosexual girls who have been striving for gay best friends for years. Like Grace, they want someone they can trust, spoil them, and experience a lot of emotional work that the men they date may not be able to deal with. They want gay men to go shopping with them. They want gay men as accessories, whether they're gay men like Will or what Jack is for Karen. Will & Grace did not address key issues such as analyzing the nuances of gay masculinity or examining how classes affect sexuality perception.

After all, it's probably just a sitcom, not intended to be used explicitly to educate people, but it certainly has a platform not found in other shows. What really worked for

Will & Grace was that they treated gay characters like any other character on television at the time (except for a lesbian-made show called Ellen in the 90's, all cast members were straight. I've never heard of her. Before).

For most shows featuring LGBT characters, gay stories always seem to have to be very dramatic and emotional. There is always a conflict. Usually someone dies or is shunned. Will & Grace shows that LGBT life does not have to be a life that constantly revolves around tragedy and misery. At Will & Grace's

, gay characters had a pretty relaxing time. For the first time, people have seen that homosexuals can be like others. They live their daily lives jokingly with their roommates. When the story of Will and Grace with their babies comes up, it's hard to say that either one will be a bad parent.

Will & Grace paved the way for a modern family-like show that featured gay protagonists but did not explore their sexuality as their main theme. To be fair, queer people are not always overwhelmed and guided by sexuality in every decision they make in life. You never wake up thinking about the homosexuals you will do every day. no. This is a weekend only.

Will & Grace was a groundbreaking television moment. People's prejudices against minorities are often fueled by ignorance. For this reason, the viewer's relationship with the characters on television, whether fictional or unilateral, is a tool for deepening the understanding of different groups.

In the case of Will & Grace, despite the fictional character, Shaw wanted to prove that the show gave people who had little or no open contact with gay men the opportunity to get to know the people of the gay community better. rice field. When actual contact is not possible under the above conditions, parasocial contact is often the second best way to connect with other groups and agree on their prejudices.

Opposition to Will & Grace's Prejudice

1998-2006 Emmy® TV show Will & Grace challenges a gay male stereotype depicting the friendship between gay lawyer Will Truman and straight interior designer Grace Adler. did. They were often accompanied by their gay friend Jack McFarland, a struggling actor, and celebrity Karen Walker. Will & Grace was one of the first television shows to openly portray gay characters in a major role. In fact, only 0.6% of all characters that appeared on television in 1995 were gay or lesbian. According to the 2018 GLAAD report, the percentage of LGBTQ series regulars in prime-time scripting programs reached a record high of 8.8%.

There were some early suggestions that Will & Grace actually raised the heteronormativity. However, these claims were based on the conceptual idea of ​​what the show was, rather than the actual interaction with the content or the actual impact on the viewer. When researchers talked to viewers and collected data on how the viewing experience actually affected people, they found the opposite.

In the revival though, some pretty important issues are tackled like sexual assault, HIV, xenophobia,etc.