Are Kurt and Blaine Real Life? Examining How Popular TV Shows Impact the Ways in Which Queer-Identifying Youth View Romance and Intimacy

Abstract

We are in a paradoxical time where, concurrently with legislation across the US targeting queer youth, more young adults identify as queer and TV shows have increasingly featured queer characters and relationships. This study seeks to understand how queer youth have perceived this disconnect, specifically focusing on how the prominence of queer characters on TV has influenced views on romance and intimacy. Interviews with undergraduates at Princeton University have revealed that despite roles TV shows may have had in shaping political discourse in the early 2010s, the overdramatized, hypersexualized, and unrealistic nature of these shows has detrimentally impacted these undergraduates, leading them to have negative self-perceptions based on the disconnect between TV and reality, or in some cases, disregard TV altogether when approaching identity and relationships. These results should set the stage for future studies that examine this dynamic in other environments and with more specific subsets of queer populations.