FirSt PaRaGrAPh...

How are Lesbians presented in Sugar Rush and do they conform to Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory?

Media educators Larry Gross and George Gerbner argue that the media participate in the "symbolic annihilation" of gays and lesbians by negatively stereotyping them often consigning them to the margins of entertainment media, playing either "colourful" and "flamboyant" characters or dangerous psychopaths, by rarely portraying them realistically, or by not portraying them at all.

Society is changing and homosexuality is being accepted by communities. In comparison to the 60’s and 70’s where homosexuality was frowned upon and seen as a horrid sin to commit as man was made for woman and not for the same sex. This no longer stands, and channel four television programme can vouch for that. Sugar rush, is channel fours adaptation of Julie Burchill’s teen novel, Sugar rush of where each episode is a different journey inside Kim's world as her wry observations take us into the mind of a screwed up, loved up, lustful adolescent experiencing the bright lights of Brighton and the rush of forbidden love for the first time. This essay will be discussing how lesbians are represented and whether key theorist Laura Mulvey theory about male gaze applies to this text.

Laura MulVey's a key theorist argues that there is a the active male hero and the passive female characters who's mere purpose is their quality to be looked at ness and they are objectified as sexual objects and become objects of the male gaze. She declares that in a patriarchal society ‘pleasure in looking has been split between the active man and the passive female’. She also talks of the female being the object of the male gaze
This theory can be applied to 'Sugar Rush' in many ways as Sugar rush is a show that focuses on the representation of Lesbians and Women in society today. The show portrays a drastic change between the 1970's where women were usually shown to be play passive and helpless roles compared to now where they play more dominant leading roles. However, Mulvey's theory can be subverted but still referred to.