The Office's "Gay Witch Hunt" Has Gotta Go

            I’ve always been somewhat of a fan of “The Office,” but for some reason, this week I’ve been binge watching the show. Something about the dry sense of humor in a sitcom without a laugh track really seems to appeal to me in the most stressful of times. Maybe I’m just getting in touch with my cynical side. But anyway, I was really taken aback by an episode that I watched this week and its remarkable insensitivity to the gay population.

            Season 3 Episode 1 is entitled “Gay Witch Hunt,” and just from the title itself we get the vibe of insensitivity. ‘Gay Witch Hunt,’ are you serious? If a drama had an episode with this title, we would’ve seen an incredible amount of backlash, but because it’s “The Office” we’re presumably just supposed to brush it off as a joke. But the problems aren’t just in the title; they reverberate throughout the entire episode. During this episode Michael apologizes to Oscar, a gay man and Dunder Mifflin accountant, for using a gay slur, but ends up outing him in front of the entire office. This entire episode essentially makes light of the gay struggle, and in the process introduces an approach to homosexuality that marks difference instead of accepting it.

            It’s really when thinking about the implications of this episode that I get disturbed and unsettled. As noted in the Bradley J. Bond, Veronica Hefner, and Kristin L. Drogos study “Information-Seeking Practices during the Sexual Development of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Individuals: The Influence and Effects of Coming Out in a Mediated Environment,” “Understanding and appreciating one’s own sexuality can be an arduous process creating grief and complications for many adolescents” (Bond, Hefner, Drogos, 2009, p. 32). They go on to identify the coming-out process as a five stage model of: pre-coming out, coming out, exploration, first relationships, and integration, also acknowledging and emphasizing the “importance of media during the sexual self-realization of LGB individuals” (Bond, Hefner, Drogos, 2009, p. 34). Their research found that “LGB youth who do not identify with the characters available to them” may “‘feel increasingly excluded from the mainstream’s understanding of what it means to be gay or lesbian’”(Bond, Hefner, Drogos, 2009, p. 42).

            Looking at this show then, a show that aired during primetime when it was on, likely reaching a large number of adolescents, I couldn't stop thinking about what adolescent gays would have experienced. The intention behind Oscar as a character seems genuinely good; he’s not an overly flamboyant or stereotypical gay character. However, what would a gay youth make of someone making light of the difficult coming-out process they’re going through? Personally, I think this would likely lead to heightened identity confusion and disillusionment with society at large. This representation becomes even worse when we pay credence to the very real importance of media in forming LGB adolescents’ ideals of their sexual identity. As shown, they clearly engage extensively with the media in this process, which renders the comedy behind the scorn of a gay character so problematic.

            Basically this episode is a manifestation of the Heterosexual Script's notion of male-oriented homophobia. Seemingly all of the male characters in this episode, with the exception of Oscar, the brunt of the jokes, seem to exemplify this concept. According to this idea, “men must avoid behaving in a manner that could be construed as homosexual. Accordingly, men who are “caught” in such situations express discomfort or embarrassment” (Kim, Sorosoli, Collins, Zybergold, Schooler, & Tolman, 2007, p. 148). This dimension of the Heterosexual Script was central to the humor in this episode, but I’m prone to think, isn’t finding the reinforcement of male-oriented homophobia funny just reaffirming the ridicule of homosexuality? I think it’s plain to see that the answer is, yes. After all, it is a subset of the Heterosexual Script…

            But then the question becomes, how can we get away from these problematic representations? Personally, I think a good first step would be to stop making light of the plight of homosexuals in today’s populace. I understand producers want to create viable and consumable media, but we need to get to a point where the idea of the “Gay Witch Hunt” is not viable and consumable, but is recognized as being wholeheartedly ignorant and disrespectful. 

References:

Bond, B. J., Hefner, V., & Drogos, K. L. (2009). Information-seeking practices during the sexual development of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals: The influence and effects of coming out in a mediated environment. Sexuality & Culture: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, 13(1), 32-50. doi: 10.1007/s12119-008-9041-y

Kim, J. L., Sorsoli, C. L., Collins, K., Zylbergold, B. A., Schooler, D., & Tolman, D. L. (2007). From sex to sexuality: Exposing the heterosexual script on primetime network television. Journal of Sex Research, 44(2), 145-157. doi: 10.1080/00224490701263660