Sexuality on MTV's The Real World

This week’s discussion in class about homosexuality in the media made me think about the way in which homosexuality and sexuality in general have been depicted on MTV’s The Real World. In all twenty-two seasons that have aired since the show’s inception, there has always been a gay cast member to appear in the house. In doing some research on the topic, I discovered that The Real World was the first reality show to portray the life of a homosexual on national television. In 1992, during the first season of the show, the gay cast member’s coming out was first seen as a shock; however, as his fellow cast members and viewers at home got to know the gay male on a more personal level, they were able to relate to him as a person and not just single him out as “the homosexual”. The trend that The Real World has continued to use since its first season over seventeen years ago is to lure viewers into the lives of seven strangers, with each season bringing with it the promise of a new gay or lesbian character that the viewers will come to know.

While there are overt similarities and differences in the way homosexuality on the show has been portrayed, the portrayal has definitely evolved. During the third season in San Francisco airing in 1994, the show gained a lot of attention with cast member and AIDS activist Pedro Zamora. Zamora’s life was featured significantly, highlighting his character as someone living with AIDS. He was one of the first openly gay men with AIDS to be portrayed in popular media, and after his death on November 11, 1994 (mere hours after the final episode of his season aired), he was lauded by then-President Bill Clinton.

More recently, the twenty-first season of the show in Brooklyn, was the first season to include an openly transgender cast member. The show revealed that she first realized her gender variance in high school and began living as a woman at seventeen. She began her transition almost five years prior to moving into the Real World house and completed her gender reassignment surgery in Thailand in July 2008, only a few months before the season began filming.

While some seasons have featured the gay topic more heavily than others, it has always been a theme that has brewed conflict on the show.