Sexual Orientation- Xandire from Drawn Togeather

  The LBGRTQ community has always been one of the tough subjects in media.  Whether it was representation in radio, television, or in videogames, it always seemed to be offensive.  As time went on, there have been more accurate portrayals of the LBGTQ community on television.  Such positive portrayals include Kurt from Glee, whose “coming out” story has been central to his character.  Other positive portrayals are Will from Will and Grace, who was a professional business man. Reality shows, such as The Real World, often have at least one openly gay cast member.   It is from this reality show, that a rather offensive LBGTQ character was born.

   The animated show Drawn Together was produced by Comedy Central, as an animated Real World.  It featured parodies of famous animated characters all set in a reality show.  One of the characters was based on Link, the protagonist from the Legend of Zelda series.  It has always been rumored amongst fans that Link was gay.  As such, the character based on him was openly gay.  The character, Xandir, started the series “in the closet.”  By the third episode, he started to notice that he was not interested in any of the attractive women that he was now living with; in fact, he was acting like the women that he was living with.  After being in denial for most of the episode, Xandir accepted that he was gay.  This then lead to offensive behavior on his part.

  After Xandire “came out,” he began to throw his sexuality around.  Everything he said had a suggestive meaning to it.  He would also hit on any man that he saw, regardless if they were homosexuals or not, going as far as tricking straight men into having sex with him.  This made his character a stereotypical gay man as perceived in the media.  He was promiscuous, and effeminate.

 

  While I was a fan of the show, this character was very offensive to me.  I was dealing with the pain of coming out to my family at the time that this show aired.  As such, I thought that if I did come out, then I was going to be expected to act like Xandire.  I am not promiscuous, as I view it to be immoral.  While I do talk suggestively at times, it is only when appropriate for humor and not everything that I say.  While the show was made with the thought of being funny, there was nothing humorous about being misrepresented.

 

Wikipedia. (2011, November 26). Drawn Tpgeather. Retrieved 29 November, 2011, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xandir#Xandir_P._Wifflebottom