A new report slams French-language television for its portrayal of LGBTQ people. According to the study, Quebec series “tend” to portray homosexual, transgender and queer characters in a “superficial,” “cliché,” “reductive” or “harmful” manner.
Published in June by Pink Triangle Press, a Canadian organization that works to “improve the visibility of LGBTQ communities on screen,” this first Pink Report notes the marked differences between English- and French-speaking television offerings in Canada.
Although the opening of the 122-page document notes an improvement in the portrayal of LGBTQ people on the small screen over the past five years, it is noted that this is often an approximate or “stereotypical” representation. .
Additionally, French-language television is “much more” inclined to present LGBTQ characters as antagonists or victims. Pink Triangle Press reports that in Quebec, LGBTQ characters are “almost evenly split between protagonists (or heroes) (36%), antagonists (36%), and victims (27%).” By comparison, in English Canada, LGBTQ characters are much more often protagonists (88%).
Positive point: Quebec television includes, all things considered, more LGBTQ representation than in English Canada. However, “this representation is perceived as significantly less precise and authentic”, it is emphasized.
Via email, Pink Triangle Press President, CEO and Publisher David Walberg calls the Pink Report “a survey to measure progress and identify the challenges that lie ahead.” “Let’s be clear: this report is not about pointing fingers, but rather about understanding and providing the industry with some facts to fuel important conversations. It’s time to move beyond stereotypes […] to make way for more authentic, complex and inclusive 2SLGBTQIA representation. »
First director, drama programs and feature films at Radio-Canada, André Béraud is surprised by the conclusions of the Pink Report. “Quebec television has always been progressive in breaking taboos. But indeed, we can always do better. »
André Béraud mentions several recent series to demonstrate the efforts made to integrate LGBTQ characters: from Six degrees (ICI Télé) to FEM (Unis TV), including Lou et Sophie (ICI Télé), In Memoriam (Crave) and Mont-Rouge (ICI Tou.tv Extra).
Author of several series including LGBTQ characters, such as New Address (Olivier Lapointe, played by Patrick Hivon) and Cerebrum (investigator Simone Vallier, played by Christine Beaulieu), Richard Blaimert also admits to being surprised by the conclusions of the Pink Report, especially when he thinks of the work of Marie-Andrée Labbé, who signed STAT and Sans rendez-vous, which revolves around a lesbian nurse-sexologist played by Magalie Lépine-Blondeau.
In his upcoming fiction series, Le retour d’Anna Brodeur, expected on Crave next fall, Richard Blaimert gives “a lot of space” to LGBTQ characters, notably through Patrick (Benoit McGinnis), the heroine’s best friend, defended by actress Julie Le Breton. “It’s not something I think about. But because I’m gay myself, it’s like an extension,” the screenwriter says in a telephone interview.
To explain the gap between the French-speaking and English-speaking offerings, Richard Blaimert points out the different reality of the two solitudes. He notably mentions Sort of (in French, In some way), this CBC series which paints the portrait of a young non-binary person with multiple orientations. More confidential, this Sphère Média production was nevertheless exported to the United States, with the help of the English language.
“It’s a neat, loose and super interesting series that sheds new light, but it would be difficult to produce in French in Quebec. At Radio-Canada, TVA and Noovo, audience ratings are of great importance. You want to reach as many people as possible. The rules are different in English Canada. »
The report’s findings come from a methodology combining three factors: interviews with nine people in the screen field (including seven French speakers), a bilingual survey of 479 LGBTQ people working in the industry, as well as a content analysis of 22 hours of English-Canadian (14 hours) and French-Canadian (8 hours) television. Determined by Parrot Analytics, a firm specializing in audience data, the group of Quebec shows included STAT, Fugueuse, La voix, Club Soly, The fault, C’est comme ça que je t’aime, La nuit où Laurier Gaudreault woke up and Portraiture.
In English Canada, dramas such as Schitt’s Creek, Transplant, Murdoch Mysteries, Letterkenny and Heartland were among the offerings.
A doctoral student in communications at UQAM, Juliette Lavallée studies the representation of queer women in Quebec television. The Pink Report confirms her research, she says.
“I see an improvement, a diversification. We feel an effort. We want to get away from certain norms. But when we look at the characters of queer women, it was often the same stories: they were all women who cheated on their partners. Their sexual identity was trivialized: they had the same desires, the same wishes, the same interests as any heterosexual woman.”
Juliette Lavallée brings a downside to the report. She would have liked a greater diversity of series to be considered in the content analysis. “Twenty-two hours of Canadian programming seems like a few hours of viewing time to be able to count characters as “multi-dimensional” or “one-dimensional”. »
For his part, David Walberg of Pink Triangle Press hopes the study will help accelerate change. “As a gay man, when I see a demeaning depiction, it always feels like a punch in the gut, because I know these depictions fuel behaviors in real life. I feel this urgency every day when I read the news. »
