Shortly after Lexa's death, I wrote a short article about the bury your gay's trope for my friends University project, I recently came across that article on my laptop and unfortunately it was still relevant, so I updated it a little, added a few more facts and figures and ultimately made it more relevant to 2018. Here it is...
Stating that it’s very rarely positive can sum up a brief lesson in the history of queer representation throughout the media. It’s no secret that queer people are not treated equally in society, and this unfortunate truth echoes in every aspect of modern media; from film to television, books, and video games.
LGBTQ+ characters scarcely receive the same treatment as their heterosexual counter parts and are almost never given the happy ending we want. This is made even more apparent by the existence of the ‘bury your gays’ trope. Used mostly in TV, this trope is as its name suggests; the killing off of a TV shows queer characters, often in brutal and unnecessary ways. This age old trope has always overshadowed even the most positive of queer representation in fictional media and it has been present since the dawn of media itself, particularly the days of the haze code.
Herein lies the main problem: the constant killing off of gay characters for either shock value or the progression of another (often straight) characters’ narrative arc is no longer shocking, and quite frankly it is offensive.
In a possible attempt to mirror reality, homosexual male characters during the 1980s and 90s more often than not died after contracting the AIDs virus. Characters such as Eddie in Hill Street Blues (1981-87) and John in General Hospital (1963-) have all suffered this fate. However, during recent years, gay character deaths have become drastically more violent. Some examples of this being Vito Spatafore Sr from the hit show The Sopranos who fell victim to a horrific hate crime, and Jack Downey, a 14-year-old character in The Fosters who was beaten to death by his foster father. Parallel to this, 18.6% of hate crimes reported in America in 2015 were attacks against members of the LGBT community. So is this art-imitating life again? I ask this because the number of LGBT characters killed on TV can only be matched by the alarming number of our community that are killed on our streets.
The distressing bury your gays trope is vastly more prominent in regards to lesbian and bisexual characters, who make up only 0.6% of all characters on American Television. Of these characters, around 89% are killed off; six of which occurred over just one week in 2016 on shows such as The Vampire Diaries, The Walking Dead, and The 100.
With over 250 noted deaths to date, this phenomenon is often referred to as the lesbian death trope and sadly it’s been particularly saturated in recent years. Characters such as Tara in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Maya in Pretty Little Liars met violent ends. But it was the death of Commander Lexa (Alycia Debnam-Carey) on The 100 which became a game changer of sorts. Since Series 3 Episode 7 aired on March 3rd 2016 showing Lexa’s death, there has been an intense backlash from fans and the community alike. A reaction like this has never been seen before in any fandom. Out of Lexa’s death a movement arose that lead to over $100,000 being raised for The Trevor Project, helping LGBT youth in need and the creation of the biggest multi fandom event in the world, Clexacon; which is aptly named after Clarke and Lexa’s ship name. Following 3x07, The 100’s show runner Jason Rothenberg lost a mass amount of followers which then lead to him issuing a public statement in which he discussed his decision to kill Lexa, whilst also half-heartedly apologising for knowingly furthering a damaging trope.
The LGBT community has understandably become increasingly distressed by the mistreatment of the characters they relate to on screen, with some stating that it sends out an extremely dark message; if you are queer, there is no happy ending out there for you. Whilst there is no denying that queer representation has improved immensely over recent years, this trope still dominates the discussion in regards to LGBT+ treatment in the media. With the death of Lexa, the community finally began to fight back against the senseless disregard for queer characters. Now, almost three years on from Lexa’s death, we have to continue the fight for better representation in the media and hold those in charge accountable for how they chose to tell our stories. To echo words spoken by our legendary commander; “our fight is not over.”
-Sara.
Check out the amazing work the kru over at LGBT Fans Deserve Better are doing.
https://lgbtfansdeservebetter.com
