LGBTQ+ people on French-speaking TV | A “superficial” and “cliché” representation

A new report criticizes French-speaking television when it comes to the representation of LGBTQ+ people. According to this study, Quebec series “tend” to depict homosexual, transgender and queer characters in a “superficial”, “cliché”, “reductive” or “prejudicial” manner.

Published in June by Pink Triangle Press, a Canadian organization that works to “improve the visibility of LGBTQ+ communities on screen,” this first Rapport rose highlights the marked differences between English-language and French-language television offerings in Canada.

Although at the opening of the 122-page document, we note an improvement in the image of LGBTQ+ people on the small screen over the last five years, we specify that this is often an approximate or “stereotypical” representation .

According to research by Pink Triangle Press, conducted with support from the Canada Media Fund and Telefilm Canada, “popular French-language television is three times more likely to portray LGBTQ+ characters in a one-dimensional manner” than in English-speaking Canada.

Additionally, French-language television is “much more” likely to portray 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 likely to be 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.

By email, Pink Triangle Press President, CEO and Publisher David Walberg describes the Rapport rose of “probing to measure the progress made and identify the challenges that await us”. “Let’s be clear: this report is not intended to point fingers, but rather to understand and provide 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.”

“Astonishing” conclusions

André Béraud, the first director of dramatic broadcasts and feature films at Radio-Canada, is surprised by the conclusions of the Rapport rose. “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: Six degrees (ICI Télé) at FEM (Unis TV), via Lou and Sophie (ICI Télé), In Memorial (Crave) and Mont-Rouge (HERE 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 Rapport roseespecially when he thinks of the work of Marie-Andrée Labbé, who signs STAT et Without an appointmentwhich revolves around a lesbian nurse-sexologist played by Magalie Lépine-Blondeau.

In his next fiction expected on Crave next fall, entitled The return of Anna BrodeurRichard 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 mentions in particular Sort of (in French, Somehow), 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 English.

“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. »

“We feel an effort”

The report’s findings are based on a methodology that combines three factors: interviews with nine people in the screen industry (including seven French-speaking people), a bilingual survey of 479 LGBTQ+ people working in the industry, and 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 programs included STAT, Runaway, The voice, Club Soly, The fault, This is how I love you, The night Laurier Gaudreault woke up et Portrait-robot.

In English Canada, fictions like Schitt’s Creek, Transplant, Murdoch Mysteries, Letterkenny et Heartland were part of the lot.

A doctoral student in communications at UQAM, Juliette Lavallée studies the representation of queer women on Quebec television. Rapport rose confirms her research, she says.

“I see an improvement, a diversification. We feel an effort. We want to break away from certain norms. But when you look at the queer women’s characters, 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 desires, 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 to me 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. »

Read the full study