Television has always gotten a lot of credit (or, depending on your perspective, blame) when it comes to helping to drive change in the culture. Most often, this comes in the form of sitcoms. When the issue is race, we often think of All in the Family or The Jefferson's. When it’s gender equality, we think of shows like Mary Tyler Moore or Murphy Brown. And when it’s homosexuality, we think of shows like Ellen and Will & Grace. Even though the moves away from bigotry were already in progress, the shows still did a lot to impact public opinion, and expedite those advances, just by the nature of how widely they were viewed.
But in all of those cases, the message was very deliberate. That is, the shows were trying to make a point to address the social issues in question. While such shows, and such methods, continue to be effective, and in many cases earn rightly-deserved praise, there are unsung heroes in this ongoing fight for equality, especially but not exclusively for same-sex couples, and they live on basic cable. More specifically, they live on channels like HGTV, DIY, and Fine Living; to a lesser extent, they live on channels like Food Network and The Travel Channel. I see it on shows like House Hunters and Landscaper’s Challenge and What You Get For The Money. And from where I sit, they’re doing an even more effective job than the sitcoms I’ve listed.
Why do I say this? Because where the sitcoms are dealing with fictional characters in contrived situations, the shows on the basic cable networks are showing real people in real scenarios. More importantly, they’re showing them not in extraordinary circumstances, but in every day circumstances. And even more importantly than that, whether they’re dealing with single (especially female) parents, mixed race couples, unmarried couples, or same-sex couples, they simply ignore those scenarios and the social baggage that comes with them, and present a show about the issue in question, whether that’s landscaping or home improvement or travel or cooking or whatever. In other words, the same-sex or mixed-race couple is treated no differently than any other.
Presented in this context, you’ll see a same-sex couple taking bids to improve their home, but the fact that they’re a same-sex couple isn’t even mentioned. You’ll see a single mom working to make her home work better for her needs, and there may only be a passing mention that she’s a single mom. You’ll see an unwed couple taking landscaping bids. The list goes on and on. They’re presented as homeowners like any other, because for all intents and purposes, they are homeowners like any other. And that’s what’s so uniquely powerful about this sort of television. It acutely underscores the fact that these people are just people, like you or me or anyone else, and that although their circumstances or preferences may be different from yours or mine, they’re still just ordinary people.
One of the most powerful drivers of equality on any issue is the recognition that others are more like us than unlike us. These shows and these networks are presenting a myriad of people in exactly that way, and this, to me, does a tremendous amount of good in advancing those goals.
"tgirsch" may want to hire a good Body Guard Service, especially if the Foaming-at-the-Mouth Religious Nazis read his post.
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