An insidious trend that will not go away
The British media, for all its faults, must be praised for its backlash against homophobia. Over the past 10 years we have seen the majority of the British print and broadcast media shed its cloak of bigotry regarding the gay community, and we now see a fair representation of gays and lesbians from the Guardian to Eastenders, but scratch the surface of some of Britain’s media giants and you will find that attitudes are far from enlightened. Whether it’s the vitriolic outbursts of the Daily Mail’s bigot in-chief Peter Hitchens, his second in command, the ever smarmy Quentin Letts, or from the propaganda outlets of the charming Rupert Murdoch, namely the Sun, there is still a long way to go in regards to completely ridding the British media of this culture of needless prejudice.
“Liberals may feel that now, in 2009, they can finally rest on their laurels in terms of putting a stop to homophobia.” Yet it has been in the past few years that Britain has seen a slow and quiet rise in homophobia, along with anti-Semitism and sexism. As the media has changed so dramatically, becoming bigger and more accessible, hate filled acts of homophobia are starting to go unchallenged.
With the advent of the blog, bigots are free to be as homophobic, sexist and racist as they like, we need only look at some of the responses on the blogosphere to Peter Mandelson’s return to the Cabinet. An outpouring of venomous and offensive comments on his sexuality came thick and fast, yet nothing was done about it. It is not just in new media that challenging homophobia is being regarded as someone else’s problem. When reporting on Ben Bradshaw’s expenses, the Daily Telegraph was consistent in referring to Mr Bradshaw’s civil partner as his boyfriend. The use of just one word could have been severely detrimental to his political career, as the Telegraph made it appear that Mr Bradshaw had no right to certain claims on his expenses, yet again nothing was done. It wasn’t just gay Labourites who took the brunt of abuse, but many gay Tories such as Alan Duncan and Nick Herbert had to face their fair share of subtle homophobic jibes from certain members of the right, and left, wing press It is clear that this rise in homophobia going to get worse before it gets better. With the likelihood of a Conservative government sweeping to power next May - cue the image of old men sporting tweed and hubristic grins - there is a nagging doubt in the minds of left wingers such as myself that little to no intervention rom the new government will happen when it comes to homophobia in the media. After all the Tories’ efforts to gain a new caring and loving façade we still have, in the words of Frankie Boyle, the image of Tories saying they want to repeal the legalization of homosexuality so that they can feel dirty again.
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