Chilean Gays and Lesbians and the Televisual Representations of Homosexuality: Interpreting Changing Images as “Packages” of Information

Abstract

This article offers an analysis of the ways in which 25 Chilean gays and lesbians interpreted national television’s representations of homosexuality. Through a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews, it is shown that participants were highly critical of this visibility as they considered that national TV has historically depicted homosexuality in a limited and simplified manner formed by a set of fixed patterns of representation. With the help of examples of how participants described these patterns, it is argued that they not only interpreted representations as limited but also as polarized as they organized them in two opposed groups in which certain features—for instance, a working-class position and a gender nonconforming behavior—are naturally and necessarily connected, making other intersections unthinkable and thus revealing what emerges as possible in terms of a gay/lesbian existence in contemporary Chile.