Le Bocage International School

CAS project

My sample written task for CAS Project on helping students to understand

the English syllabus
My written task is about Stereotyping the gays in media. Since the 20th
century, homosexuality has gain more freedom and rights. Nevertheless,
the population of this community face prejudice because media makes
excessive use of them in advertisements because they believe it produces
more revenue. It is a stereotype that the gay community likes fashion and
therefore why media does this.
As written task, I chose to write an article about the stereotypes that the
gay community faces. My targeted audience is the general public in the
United states. My newspaper will be called the Daily Herald. The writing
conventions present in my task are a header, different columns and an
informal tone. This written task falls under the second part of the syllabus
which is language and mass communication mainly focusing on
stereotypes in advertisements.
My aims are that people would realise the amount of harm they cause to
the gay community when they do negative advertisements but also to
make them realise that it is a fake stereotyping to associate the gay
community to fashion. To make my article a stronger one, I will use
famous people as reference but also include quotes which are relevant to
the subject. Also, I will focus on the context to understand why the gay
community faces prejudice around the world.
(220)

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The Daily Herald

The portrayal of gay men in media. Stereotypes the are
prejudiced with
Shocking how the gay community can be
perceived! Before the 1980s the gay
community was usually associated to AIDS
as there was a high percentage of the
population having it. Doctors, accused the
LGBT community of the widespread of this
sickness. But as time passed, people
realised that AIDS was not only a sickness
targeting the gay community but also the
world in general. From then, the gay
community was associated to negative
perceptions and thoughts. But it changed
until the 1990s.
In the 1990s and 2000s , advertising
discourse on or to sexual minorities
boomed , which caused the linked to
positioning of some advertisers in the "fight
against discrimination" Or brand strategies
playing on the transgression of gender
norms and sexuality, but also to the
emergence of the practice of " gay
marketing". The history behind the gay
marketing was in 1973 when Coors
Brewing Company was the subject of a
boycott by the LGBT. The LGBT community
joined to protest Coors' hiring practices,
since Coors used a polygraph test when
going through the hiring process and
specifically asking an employee of their
sexual orientation. Coors ignored the
boycott for several years, but made some
concessions in 1978, and in 1995 began
several countermeasures, including
dropping the questions regarding
homosexuality and extending domestic
partnership benefits to its LGBT
employees.
Since this people realised the strong impact
of minorities like the gay community is this
developing world. This therefore led to
great development in the fashion industry
making brands focus more on them since
they had a strong impact on the economy
as they had a large income and revenue

Typically, the representation of a

male gender in advertisements
would be someone with abs, large
built arms and legs, mass muscles,
a big package and very virile and
manly attitude. He is the dominant
figure in this society and is above
the female gender. On the other
hand, stereotypes associate the gay
figure to be very weak, effeminate
and passive.
Indeed, a woman is the one who
should be staying at home and do
the cleaning. But in a same sex
couple, who should be the woman?
This is the question which many
people cannot accept. Therefore,
publicists tend to hide them, So
instead gay people in advertising
feature in background or sideshow
roles roles that the general public
are comfortable with. Gay people
can raise a smile and add light relief
to adverts with some sharp
comments and a flourish of glitter.
According to research, it was seen
that straight men actually enjoyed
denigrating the gay figure. Gay men
are perceived as sex toys and have
a very low opinion. As seen in the
picture down, their mouth is open
as a sign of sexual practices. This
shows how denigrated they are
through media. Also, the media

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Just like females, the gay figure is also

portrayed as passive. In fact, they are
perceived as easy people who can be
used, abused and played with.
They are here to satisfy their partner
and they have to accept their fate. On
the other hand, advertisements also
target them in the sense that if they
buy a specific type of cloth, they might
attract straight males and therefore
make the advertiser boom in sales.
This can be portrayed in the Dolce
Gabbana advertisement where the gay
figure is lying down naked ready to be
abused. Lastly, another interpretation
could be that the Dolce & Gabbana is
so chique and luxurious that any man
would fall in front of such beauty. They
would be ready to be submissive and
used in order to be able to experience
this expensive product. Hence, the gay

Nevertheless, we see that the gay

community is still not accepted in
communist countries or in
patriarchal less developed
countries like India. This is
because Section 377 states that
whoever voluntarily has vernal
intercourse against the order of
nature with any man, woman or
animal shall be punished with
imprisonment for life, or with
imprisonment of either description
for term which may extend to ten
years, and shall also be liable to
fine. If people promote LGBT
advertisements, the population
might be more willing to express
themselves and go for these but
also because it encourages a
violent nation and thus why they
ban these advertisements or
extremely censor it. But it is
controversial since the Indian
government imposes harsh
censorship on LGBT
advertisements because it
promotes violence but has the
highest number of rapes
worldwide.
Therefore, we were able to see the
Bibliography
Academia.edu. (2016). A thin line
between being straight or gay:
Portrayal of lesbian women in
advertising. | Magorzata Kolling
(Skorek) - Academia.edu. [online]
Available at:

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https://www.academia.edu/1106393/A_thin_line_between_being_straight_or_gay_Portrayal_
of_lesbian_women_in_advertising [Accessed 13 Sep. 2016].
The Drum. (2016). Advertising's representation of LGBT people is still behind the times.
[online] Available at: http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2015/07/07/advertisingsrepresentation-lgbt-people-still-behind-times [Accessed 13 Sep. 2016].
Freedom Of Thought. (2016). Freedom Of Thought. [online] Available at:
https://richaobs.wordpress.com/ [Accessed 13 Sep. 2016].
genrimages. (2016). stereotypes. [online] Available at:
http://www.genrimages.org/media/pdf/Exercice-Stereotypes-Introduction-Genrimages.pdf
[Accessed 13 Sep. 2016].
Wikipedia. (2016). LGBT marketing. [online] Available at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_marketing [Accessed 13 Sep. 2016].
Wikipedia. (2016). Media portrayal of LGBT people. [online] Available at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_portrayal_of_LGBT_people [Accessed 13 Sep. 2016].