The hip HBO television series, True Blood, has quite the indirect parallel to the lifestyle of today’s gay community. If you are gay and have the misfortune of living in various locations in the world, chances are you are not going to be able to get married, adopt kids, and many other things that straight couples take for granted. That is another reason gay people and True Blood vampires have chosen to stay in their respective closets or coffins. If “coming out” means enduring limitations on, or even the complete loss of societal rights and privileges, then in fact, hiding who one truly is may seem like the best option. The fight to marry, a primary concern of homosexuals in mainstream American society, find an almost exact parallel in the argument over human-vampire unions in True Blood.
As discussed in class, one of our anchoring keywords, which help describe culture, would be, rhetorical. Without blatantly saying it, True Blood has a way of constantly arguing for how homosexuals should be, feel, think, and live. If one can identify an entire group or class as supposedly ‘unnatural’ or less than human, based on their lifestyle and actions, then one might conclude that their lives don’t have the same value as others, leading to hatred. The vampires on True Blood have a national agenda, including Washington lobbyists pushing the Vampire Rights Amendment, similar to gay Minnesotans lobbying and fighting for the right to marriage equality. The show echo’s the reality of hatred toward people who are not living the ‘traditional’ lifestyle. It is clear that just as vampires have to fight for their limited civil rights, so does the gay community.
Another anchoring keyword discussed in class was, social construction. It is apparent that a main focus of this term revolves around individuals and groups participating in the construction of their ideal reality; however, we see in True Blood, and the parallels to today’s gay society, that working to construct, build, and live in an equal, ideal community is far from possible. Stuart Hall’s Circuit of Culture shows representation at the top connecting to identity, regulation, consumption and production. True Blood is that main representation; it acts as an underlying signifier for those who utilize this indirect message and take action. The show, intentionally but indirectly, is making the argument on behalf of the gay community, as well as other minorities, in enduring and contesting the fight for equality among all people and all cultures.
So, “how can 400 billion blood suckers be wrong?” and the answer is, it cannot be. People are born the way they are and embrace the culture they grew up around. Because cultures might stray from the traditional lifestyle, that does not make it wrong. Although True Blood is a fiction example, it’s connotation and message is real.
I personally have never viewed this show. I wonder if they also incorporate the fear with the same irrational ideals that people build on stereotypes. Such as minorities are always the base of crime, or that homosexuality is destroying the thread that ties families together.
ReplyDeleteI have also never watched the show, but it is a few of my best friends' favorite show, so I hear about it a lot. I like how you took the concept of blood suckers in the ad, or vampires in the show, and extracted the meaning of injustices to minorities and used the lives of gay people to illustrate this idea. I think it helps illuminate some of the meaning behind the series for people that don't watch it.
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