WTNV's Mainstream Representation of Homosexuality
In
June 2013, the darkly comedic podcast “Welcome to Night Vale” had lurked in
ITunes’ peripheries for almost a year. Without much warning, however, this
satire radio show exploded all over the public eye. The previous year’s number
of downloads doubled over the course of a single week; the podcast soon became
the #1 downloaded podcast on ITunes, ahead of “This American Life” and
“Freakonomics Radio” (Carlson). Considering Jeffrey Fink and Joseph Cranor’s beautiful
writing—and the fact that the podcast is completely free—it’s no surprise that
“Welcome to Night Vale” (WTNV, for short) has evolved into a monster franchise
with international tours, merchandise shops, a newly published book, and a
recent appearance by the writers on the Stephen Colbert show. Within weeks, WTNV launched out of obscurity
and landed itself in the middle of popular culture. The most remarkable aspect
of WTNV’s rise to fame is not its astonishing speed, however; it is the fact
that WTNV successfully broke into mainstream media while featuring a main
character in a blatantly homosexual relationship.
Unlike
other queer relationships in media, Cecil and Carlos’s central love does not
destine WTNV to an exclusively LGBTQ genre grouping with “Brokeback Mountain”;
nor does the relationship typify the stereotypical, overly-effeminate “gay personalities”
in media like “Modern Family” and “The Simpsons”. Over the course of twenty-five episodes,
Community Radio Host Cecil Palmer and Carlos the (Perfect) Scientist fall into a
spontaneous love even the writers didn’t plan for. “We know these characters
very well, “ Fink states, “…and… we just made the choices that seemed most
honest” (Carlson).
This
organic relationship is built on a foundation of non-stereotypical character
development that even heterosexual relationships have difficulty achieving.
Media often portrays women as weak and needy, or overly independent, while the
men use and abuse their masculine powers to get what they want out of relationships.
Too often, the humanness of portrayed relationships gets lost under the shroud
of stereotypical boy/girl dynamics. By removing the preconceived ideals of
heterosexual relationships, Cecil and Carlos become a pure, timeless example of
budding love. Their homosexuality effectively strips them of gender roles, and
they better reflect real, human relationships.
The clarity of Cecil and Carlos’s relationship endears them to a public
who—no matter their sexual orientation—can relate with their love.
WTNV
manages to take an incredibly unconventional love story and normalize it in the
eyes (or rather, ears) of their audience. Cecil describes a world where a giant
glowing cloud occasionally takes over the city, where mountains are a myth,
where vague yet menacing government agencies constantly monitor people’s lives,
and where Radio Intern jobs have the highest occupational mortality rate.
Carlos and Cecil’s relationship, as put by voice actor Cecil Baldwin, “…is the
least weird part of the storyline” (Carlson).
Night Vale’s incredible oddities are directly contrasted by the easy
domesticity of Cecil and Carlos. The couple takes classic relationship
steps—first kiss, first date, buying a condo (almost), becoming disillusioned
with each other, having their first fight, etc. Cecil and Carlos aren’t
terrorized by hate crimes, they don’t have “coming out” scenes, and they don’t
experience any negative feedback from their community. Fink and Cranor make
Cecil and Carlos’s relationship as normal as they possibly can—they don’t
preach the acceptability of homosexuality, simply because their characters live
in a world where homosexuality was never unacceptable. As Erin Hill of TechGeek wrote, “Many of the things that
Cecil reports goes against our idea of normal, but [everything] is presented in
a manner that makes it seem mundane” (Carlson). The writers seamlessly connect
a controversial issue into their show and by doing so make it noncontroversial.
Cecil and Carlos have a normalized homosexual relationship, and the audience
accepts it without question.
The
acceptance of WTNV’s normalized homosexual relationship is also due largely to
a fairly liberal, politically opinionated, fandom-obsessed social blogging
platform called Tumblr. Notably sarcastic and satirical, WTNV interlaced
perfectly with the darkly witty website. Already notorious for “shipping” (or
wanting relationships between) gay couples, Tumblr users latched on to the
canonic union between Cecil and Carlos and promoted WTNV all over the Internet.
Thousands of pro-gay activists found and shared WTNV through their blogging
platforms as an example of how media should represent homosexual relationships.
Additionally, WTNV vaulted into popularity one month after the 2013 Supreme
Court ruling against DOMA, again legalizing same-sex marriage in California. Reveling
in the glory of their political victory and as thirsty for new media as ever,
Tumblr bloggers latched onto WTNV and pulled it into the mainstream.
The
well-written and entertaining podcast certainly earned its place in the
spotlight. WTNV is just strange enough to be interesting, and just mundane
enough to be normal—much like the relationship between Cecil and Carlos. WTNV
managed to attach itself to a society of quickly changing norms and ideals,
effectively becoming the first normalized representation of homosexuality in
mainstream history.
Works
Cited
Carlson, Adam. "America's Most
Popular Podcast: What The Internet Did To "Welcome
to Night Vale" The AWL, 24 July 2013. Web.
11 Jan. 2016.
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