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Positive Representation of Gay Characters in Movies for Reducing Homophobia

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Abstract

This study addresses the effect of narratives offering a positive depiction of gay men on the audience’s change in attitude towards homosexuality. Specifically, it analyzes the relationship of character identification, inter-group contact, religiosity and gender with homophobia reduction. One hundred and fifty students of a Serbian University (MAge = 22.13, SD = 2.28) filled in a questionnaire measuring socio-demographic information and the instrument H25 assessing homophobia. Two months later, they watched a movie depicting gay men in a positive manner and completed a questionnaire containing the homophobia scale and questions related to identification with the main character, inter-group contact and religiosity. The results showed that watching the movie is related to a reduction of homophobia and that character identification and inter-group contact are negatively correlated with homophobia, whereas religiosity is positively correlated with it. Results also show that there is a negative correlation between religiosity and the attitude change induced by the movie, and that men express higher level of homophobia than women. The study contributes to the knowledge of the mechanisms reducing homophobia through media.

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Notes

  1. Berlin Film Festival (2012), Pula Film Festival (2012), Tirana Film Festival (2012).

  2. The theoretical range of the homophobia scale was from 1 to 5 and theoretical mean was 3.

  3. The Serbian version of the identification with the character scale is available to researchers upon request to the autors of this article.

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The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on the manuscript.

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  1. Departament de Comunicació Audiovisual i Publicitat, Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona, Campus UAB, Edifici I, Bellaterra, Barcelona, 08193, Spain

    Goran Madžarević & María T. Soto-Sanfiel

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  1. Goran Madžarević
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Madžarević, G., Soto-Sanfiel, M.T. Positive Representation of Gay Characters in Movies for Reducing Homophobia. Sexuality & Culture 22, 909–930 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-018-9502-x

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