Framing Homosexuality via Archie

The comic strip Archie announcing that it would introduce a gay character to Riverdale was met by me with a yawn. But then I saw this video and this video



and then I realized the damage that media can do and that homosexuality is (and will always be) othered in our allegedly unbiased media culture.



The second clip, while tongue-in-cheek (I think), manages to further indoctrinate viewers to gay stereotypes: gays are neat and body conscious.  But it many ways, it's less offensive than the first video.  The first video starts by framing the introduction of a gay character as "provocative"rather than just reporting the news and/or just setting up the interview.  What is often disturbing is that words make all the difference in the interpretation of a news event.  The anchor makes the gay character provocative while also adding a "What about the Children?" refrain by saying that the gay character, Kevin, is being introduced to young readers.  In addition, the language of the commentator is coded by saying things like "Good old, Riverdale" and "innocent" which speak to the idea that Archie was racially homogeneous and subscribed to the idea of heteronormativity in the characters who made up their universe.  Interestingly, the reporter (who is a known conservative) frames the worry about Archie's introduction of a gay character alongside the idea that Archie was featured in an issue that featured an interracial kiss between him and Josie (of Josie and the Pussycats).

While the comic book consumers they speak to in the piece have no issue with the new character, conservative blogger, Warner Todd Huston,thinks it's a way to take away "good clean fun from 'the children'." The major problem is that Huston (and many other people) think of gay men and women as sexual beings (which we are, but there is far more to it than that).  In other words, a homosexual forces "normal people" to think about homo sex.  Just the very existence of Kevin causes concern.  There has been no indication that there is going to be a love interest for Kevin or that he is going to begin preying on the heterosexual men at Riverdale High or that he is going to set up a recruitment booth to increase homosexual membership (as some small minded people think we can and do).  Kevin (at least initially) seems to continue the tradition in mainstream media of castrated gay men who exist for the sake of being gay (and thus provocative and controversial) rather than to explore any real issues concerning being gay in America. 

Which begs the question, why are people already so worked up about it?  The answer: the children.  But parents need to worry less about their children being exposed to homosexuality in media and worry more about their (presumed) heterosexual teens (who are presumably reading Archie comics).  Consider this:  The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world. The Center for Disease control says that one-third of girls get pregnant before the age of 20.  So maybe we should stop worrying about homosexuality in media and start educating children beyond saying "Wait until you get married to have sex." That's a far greater problem than the alleged "homosexual agenda."