Sunday 15 September 2013

Sexuality - Will & Grace



Will & Grace is an American Sitcom lasting for 8 seasons, it depicted the lives of four friends; WIll, Grace, Jack & Karen living in New York and their lives as they each come from different levels of success in their careers and personal lives. Again it has a similar format as Friends and is filmed in easily identifiable locations like the apartment. Some of the situations and characters are un-relatable to the audience but the show uses this to their advantage to add comedy in the style that you will grow to know these people, and see how they deal with these situations - like when socialite Karen hires a makeup counter girl to be a surrogate in order to keep her marriage alive and because she is jealous of Grace getting attention for being pregnant.

The show features two openly gay characters from different sides of the dubbed 'spectrum' - Will is openly gay but has a extremely masculine character, whereas Jack his best friend is also gay but very flamboyant and feminine. It can be seen as positive and negative representation because of someone people describe Jack as being a stereotypical gay character by being incredibly style conscious and bitchy, However Jack is a powerhouse of humour with his one liners and incredible bond with Karen. Like New Girl,Will & Grace does not discriminate due to sexual preference this is made obvious as Jack eventually has his own show and works in the entertainment industry and Will is a successful lawyer. The show represents the gay community in a positive way an example would be that two of the lead roles are played by gay characters. Will & Grace aims its show primarily at the gay community because of some of the language and themes run throughout and the show capitalises on its market by having gay icons like Cher star in cameo appearances. Will is represented positively because of his intelligence and wit but also his serious and caring side to him, he also has a very important job of a lawyer but retains his charm and affection for all of his friends. 

The use of sexuality is easily identified throughout all 8 seasons of the show because of the characters and situations used. You can also get a positive reception from characters like Jack that make humorous comments towards the gay community which shows that he can have a laugh about his sexuality. The character of Karen has often been involved with bisexual tendencies to add comedic value to the show as she is married, but also to broaden its market - all of the characters have a certain sexual preferences which allows the show to reach a wide audience. 




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