Political Correctness, LGBT Representation and ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine''

As a little throw-back, I’ve decided to share an academic piece I wrote in 2017 as my last project in university, all centred around quite a relevant issue in today’s media world - political correctness. I decided not to shorten its original 3000-word length, but I have taken the liberty to put the most important parts in bold font, for your easier reading pleasure.

Political Correctness, LGBT Representation and ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine''

Political correctness as a movement which generally aims to ‘[correct] prejudicial attitudes’ (Hughes, 2010, p.7), has bled through many fields of today’s popular culture and has slowly found its way into the genre of comedy. In this essay, a discussion will be set up around LGBT representation in television comedy, and how that corresponds with political correctness. The movement and the negative criticism towards it will be examined from a historical and cultural perspective, accordingly to the context of television comedy, which would then pave the way towards studying the primary text example of ‘‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’’ (2013).

To begin this discussion, Hughes offers a definition of political correctness which he describes as a system that determines ‘what is regarded as “acceptable” or “appropriate” in language, ideas, behavioural norms, and values’ (2010, p.4). It can be said that this process of categorisation is strongly connected to connotations of language and use of specific words and phrases which indirectly demonstrate our beliefs and ideologies. Cameron underlines this link between political correctness and language and states that it is ‘our capacity for reflecting on language and our tendency to make value judgements on it’ (1994, p.18) which results in the creation of this movement and the decision to practice surveillance over our spoken and written word. Stuart Hall further contributes to this topic by emphasising the connection between these two concepts: according to him, political correctness is a result of ‘the recognition that our relationship to ‘reality’ is always mediated in and through language’ (1994, p.167). Hall continues the discussion by examining the historical context of political correctness and presents ‘the rapidly shifting political landscape of the 1990s’ (1994, p.166) as one of the main reasons behind the growing popularity of this movement. According to the author, the main influential shift which contributes to this occurrence is the rise of individualism (1994, p.169): this new social era is characterised with the emergence of ‘identity politics’ (Hall, 1994, p.167), where the focus falls on the individual self and their personal qualities and identity. Furthermore, according to Pratto, ‘individualism leads people to look for power in personal choices’ (1999, p.77): thus, through placing the singular self in a central position, this contributes to the open discussion of identity and representation issues such as racism, sexism and homophobia (Hall, 1994, pp.167-168). As demonstrated by these statements, from an ideal perspective, political correctness aims to present a solution to end the ‘war against chauvinism, racism and all manner of discrimination- (...) it is a mark, in fact, of what it means to be a civilised and progressive member of humankind’ (Stourton, 2009, pp.13-14). However, a key fact in that statement is the usage of the word ‘ideal’, and the reason for that is the almost exclusively subjective nature of political correctness: according to Epstein, who also discusses the focus on the individual within this concept, ‘the identities that have become the main basis for radical discourse are often uncertain and fragile’ (1992, p.153). To expand upon this idea, it can be argued that the concept of political correctness is extremely subjective exactly because it cannot rely upon one solid understanding of an ideal world-view, due to the fact that there exist ‘individual difference variables’ (Lalonde et al., 2000, p.320) regarding the issues political correctness aims to battle. However, despite its abstract character, it can still be said that this movement ‘is what is required to criticize, and ideally transform, a culture that is deeply imbued with racism, sexism, and homophobia’ (Epstein, 1992, p.149).

The political correctness movement can be witnessed in many fields of popular culture, including comedy and all its subgenres and fields. In order to fully comprehend the relationship between comedy and political correctness, Freud’s theories and examinations of this concept need to be introduced. Those said studies revolve mainly around exploring the purpose of laughter and comedy, which as expressed by Freud, have a much deeper meaning linked to notions of social relations and hierarchy. According to Merchant (1972, p.9), who cites Bentley (1965), in his writing, Freud not only examines the ‘innocent and harmless’ humour, but he also specifically focuses on the type of humour which ‘has a purpose, a tendency, an end in view’.  According to him, there can be identified two separate purposes behind this style of comedy: ‘to destroy and to expose- to smash and to strip’ (Bentley (1965), cited by Merchant (1972, p.9)) - statements which set up the foundation for the discussion of political correctness in comedy. In order to expand upon them, it can be said that through these functions, the purposeful humour exits the boundaries of a simple meaningless joke and enters the territory of a statement heavily-loaded with meaning. Through this process of destroying and exposing, this humour outlines the relations between the individuals who participate in it, thus inevitably marking one of them as the victim of the joke and the reason for the laughter. As Freud (1960), cited by Merchant (1972, p.10) states, this style of comedy ‘expresses a pleasurable sense of this superiority which we feel in relation to’ the subject of the joke. It can be argued that in the centre of this superiority lies a feeling of power and control over the subject of the humour, which allows for the joke teller to rely on offensive and derogatory images and language in order to achieve a comedic effect, which is exactly where political correctness comes into play.

As previously discussed, the movement aims to reject such attitudes and language, in this case particularly in the genre of comedy, but regardless of the positive shifts it aspires for, the responses and opinions on this movement are highly contradictory. It can be said that while a large part of professionals view it as the progressive way towards justice and equality in the creative field, many argue against it and believe it poses a threat upon our language and free cultural environment. According to Cameron, who discusses the debate revolving around political correctness:

[T]he main charges against the so-called ‘politically correct’ are on one hand that they are abusing language, and on the other that by privileging ‘trivial’ questions of language they are moving away from real politics into a world where it seems to matter more what you call things than whether you can do anything about them. (Cameron, 1994, pp.16-17)

Thus, Cameron summarises the main rejecting arguments in the on-going dispute regarding political correctness, which supposedly only aims to limit our written and spoken word and place a much larger significance upon it than it truly possesses. Furthermore, during the discussion of the debate, Cameron emphasises the former of these statements through saying that this movement supposedly ‘poses a threat to free expression’ (1994, p.23), which is underlined by another author as the biggest claim against political correctness. According to Lalonde, ‘the PC crusader is portrayed as a person who threatens values such [as] individualism and freedom of speech’ (2000, p.320), thus suggesting that the way this movement is viewed by society is extremely subjective and polarised.

However, as an expansion of the author’s statement, it can be argued that the opinions presented by the rejecting side in the political correctness debate are based on either lack of complete knowledge on what the movements’ aims are, or the refusal to accept responsibility for our language. While it is evident that many view political correctness as a sort of ‘self-censorship’ (Epstein, 1992, p.151) and restraint, which prevents an individual from free expression, it is an important fact to underline that political correctness does not target free speech, but hate speech. As explained by Hughes (2010, p.8), ‘[t]he emphases on offensive language, prejudiced attitudes, and insulting behaviour towards the marginalized are central’. However, according to Cameron, the source of the problematic conflicts regarding this movement lies in society’s inability ‘to imagine that our linguistic choices are inconsequential, or to suppose that any group of people has an inalienable right to prescribe them’ (1994, p.33). The author further describes society’s fear of accepting the deep meaning their language carries which leaves them no choice but ‘to declare a position in respect of gender, race or whatever’ (Cameron, 1995, p.120). Trough these statements, Cameron manages to fully debunk the two main clauses in the anti-political correctness debate, thus solidifying that ‘[t]here is nothing trivial about trying to institutionalise a public norm of respect rather than disrespect’ (1994, p.26). In the field of comedy, political correctness exists as a system which once more tries to discourage stereotypes and prejudiced mindsets, which stand in the centre of superiority and the purposeful humour discussed by Freud, thus provoking and encouraging for a more creative and original approach towards comedy.

In order to demonstrate the previously discussed statements, this essay’s primary example of the police sitcom ‘‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’’ (2013) will be examined from the perspective of political correctness in relation to LGBT representation on the screen. The American crime comedy show, which first aired on September 17th 2013 on the popular network FOX, was created by Dan Goor and Michael Schur- two names which already earn the police sitcom a place high up the hierarchy of TV comedy. The reason behind that is the reputation of these two figures: having worked as a producer, director and writer on NBC’s ‘‘Parks and Recreation’’ (2009-2015) and ‘‘The Office’’ (2005-2013), Schur, along with Goor, whose creative history includes popular formats ‘‘The Daily Show’’ (1996) and ‘‘Late Night with Conan O'Brien’’ (1993-2009), as well as ‘‘Parks and Recreation’’ (2009-2015), immediately place ‘‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’’ (2013) amongst some of the most prominent titles in worldwide television comedy. According to Sepinwall (2016, para 2), who examines the creative background of ‘‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’’ (2013) and compares it to its most famous predecessor, ‘there’s always been a fair amount of [Parks and Recreation] DNA in this show’, which results in numerous similarities between these texts: with the use of a single-camera set up, ‘‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’’ (2013) is released through weekly 22-minute long episodes, thus correctly labelling the show’s format as a sitcom. Furthermore, there can be identified some resemblances in the narrative structures of these sitcoms: similarly to ‘‘Parks and Recreation’’ (2009-2015) and ‘‘The Office’’ (2005-2013), ‘‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’’ (2013) takes a work community and explores their personal and professional lives and relationships, thus resulting in comedic situations within different social environments. The narrative of the show (Goor, D., Schur, M, et al., 2013) deals with the squad of Brooklyn’s 99th police precinct, with detective Jake Peralta (played by Andy Samberg), who is skilful but often immature member of the squad, which often results in humorous situations revolving his work and personal life and places him at odds with the precinct’s captain Ray Holt, whose story line will be in the centre of this study. Played by the actor Andre Braugher, the character of Ray Holt is a stern, serious and devoted policeman, as well as a black homosexual man, whose professional history involves years of sexual discrimination and harassment from his fellow colleagues (Goor, D., Schur, M, et al., 2013).

As a way to effectively examine the show in relation to political correctness and LGBT representation, ‘‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’’ (2013) must be placed in the appropriate context of its genre as well as its narrative setting. To begin with, as previously discussed, this comedy show belongs to the genre of sitcoms, specifically situated in a police environment, thus placing it in the same category as other popular examples of cop-comedy texts such as ‘‘Barney Miller’’ (1975-1982) and  ‘‘Car 54, Where Are You?’’ (1961-1963). The concept of sitcoms presents an interesting tendency, which needs to be underlined in order to conduct an accurate analysis of LGBT representation in this genre, and that is the tradition of relying on stereotypes as source of humour. According to Marcin, who studies this occurrence in this genre of comedy television, there can be identified heavy presence of stereotypes in sitcoms, which ‘provide an efficient tool in the hands of the comedian’ (2011, p.28). The reason for this occurrence is the need for ‘a shorthand way of presenting easily recognisable characters and character traits as a source of humor’ (Teer-Tomaselli (1994, p.54), which results in relying on generally accepted ideologically-created concepts and descriptions, specifically revolving around representatives of different minorities, as a way to generate a sense of familiarity and laughter. However, this inevitably results in producing offensive and derogatory images, which do not correspond with the main principles of political correctness. Particularly focussing on stereotypes regarding non-heterosexual male representation in these texts, in the film and television industry, ‘homosexuality historically has been defined in opposition to masculinity’ and specifically comedy has ‘historically reinforced and poked fun at this stereotype of the gay man’ (Battles & Hilton-Morrow, 2002, p.89). To expand upon this idea, the stereotypical image of the homosexual man in comedy usually includes traits ‘such as “walks like girl”, “feminine”, “emotional”, and “soft voice”’ (Blashill & Powlishta, 2009, p.786), with other characteristics like flamboyant, loud and excessive being able to be added to the list, thus comprising the complete crude figure of the gay man. Numerous popular sitcoms which feature non-heterosexual male representation or address the concept, fail to display a more progressive image of these characters, instead preferring to rely on the traditional stereotypical figure as a way to secure a comedic situation and the appropriate reaction from the general audience. Some examples from the same genre group as ‘‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’’ (2013) include the popular sitcom ‘‘Seinfeld’’ (1989-1998), where homosexuality is treated in a rather derogatory manner by the strictly heterosexual main male characters of Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza: in the 57th episode titled ‘The Outing’ (David, Seinfeld & Cherones, 1993), the two characters get mistaken for a gay couple by an interviewee from a magazine. As a result, Jerry and George become extremely protective of their heterosexuality, afraid that it has been compromised, thus fiercely denying any homosexual allegations, all while repeating the iconic phrase ‘… not that there's anything wrong with that’ (David, Seinfeld & Cherones, 1993) as a way to mockingly display support for the community.  Through these occurrences, the sitcom solidifies the previously discussed stereotype of homosexuality as completely unfitting with any norms of masculinity, while it also manages to reject it through the characters’ exaggerated behaviour and attitudes: as stated by Miller, in this genre of television comedy, ‘[s]traght male characters became aware of intimacy and gendered behaviour that could signify gay identity and were quick to dismiss that possibility with a joke’ (2006, p.148). In relation to a more direct representation of homosexuality through a particular character, which once more corresponds with stereotypes, ‘‘Parks and Recreation’’ (2009-2015) can be used as an example. Specifically the figure of Craig Middlebrooks who with his ‘overdramatic’, ‘intense’ personality, as well as some of his quite stereotypical interests (‘‘LGBT: Parks and Rec...’’, 2016, paras 49-50), is widely viewed as a personification of ‘every stereotype about dramatic gay men’ (Armstrong, 2016, para 4). All these examples serve as proof to solidify that in the field on non-heterosexual male representation, sitcoms exclusively rely on stereotypical and offensive portrayal, thus suggesting that without such derogatory humour, truly comedic content cannot be created.

However, ‘‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’’ (2013) serves as proof that a sitcom can stray away from stereotyping, be politically-correct and still be humoristic and creative, thus disproving the allegations that the movement only aims to limit comedy. Not only does it feature positive and progressive male homosexual representation through the character of captain Ray Holt, who completely stands outside of the prejudiced stereotypes from the genre, but it also manages to showcase the accepting and open-minded community he is surrounded by (Goor, D., Schur, M, et al., 2013), once more contesting the sitcom traditions, which as previously discussed often include an unnatural or defensive and rejecting attitude towards the non-heterosexual characters from his surroundings. Creators and actors from the show are quite vocal on this topic and strictly stand by their decision to not rely on prejudiced gags regarding the character’s sexuality as a way to achieve a comedic response. Actor Andy Samberg states in an interview that Holt’s sexual orientation is more ‘just a character trait, than a vessel for comedy’ (TV Fanatic, 2013): a statement further supported by creator Dan Goor, who solidifies that it is ‘a part of who he is, but … mining his sexuality for comedy didn't make us comfortable’ (Brydum, 2014, para 4). What is outstanding about this occurrence is the narrative setting in which it takes place- a police precinct, which according to many authors is recognised as an explicitly ‘masculinist environment’ (Bernstein & Swartwout, 2012, p.1146), characterised with explicit homophobia and rejecting attitude towards non-heterosexual individuals. As stated by Miller & Lilley (2014, p.373), this work environment is marked by ‘strong anti-gay sentiment’, derived from the police’s duty to reinforce ‘[w]hite, heterosexual, hegemonic masculinity’ (Messerschmidt 1993, p. 184). According to Myers et al. (2004, p.18), who cites Shilts (1980), as a result, that makes ‘[e]mployment of lesbians and gay men as police officers (...) especially threatening to those in an occupation that values “traditional masculinity and middle-class morality”’. However, ‘‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’’ (2013) completely debunks those beliefs and showcases a work environment which expresses nothing but support towards their captain, treating him with respect and admiration. The sixteenth episode from the first season of the police sitcom perfectly outlines the show’s approach towards the character and his relationship with his squad: titled ‘The Party’ (Goor, Schur, & Engler, 2014), the episode features the whole team getting invited to the captain’s home to celebrate his birthday, and trying to make a good impression on his husband Kevin. Why the episode serves as a solidification of the sitcom’s progressive approach towards LGBT representation, is the fact that not only does it showcase the positive attitude of the captain’s colleagues towards him, but it also brings attention to the exact issue of workplace discrimination and homophobia. Throughout the whole episode, the squad are excited to enter the captain’s personal life and see him in a more intimate environment, and not once does the narrative depend on stereotypical gags regarding his character, nor does the audience witness any over-exaggerated reactions from the squad towards the captain’s relationship and home (Goor, Schur, & Engler, 2014). What the viewers are met with instead is the innocent attempts of the group to win Kevin’s sympathy, and their miserable failure to do so quickly turning into the centre of the humour in this episode. However, what makes ‘The Party’ stand out even more is the good balance between comedy and seriousness, which is solidified with the final scene between Peralta, the top detective, and Kevin (Goor, Schur, & Engler, 2014). Peralta demonstrates absolute understanding and consideration while discussing Kevin’s reserved behaviour towards the squad. ‘I can’t imagine it’s been fun watching the man you love marginalised, underappreciated and disrespected by the NYPD’ (Goor, Schur, & Engler, 2014), states Peralta, pinpointing that Kevin has every reason to dislike his husband’s colleagues. The ending of the episode speaks volumes: instead of relying on comically exaggerated support towards his captain as a way to prove that the 99th precinct is different than Holt’s previous colleagues, the squad decides to show, rather than tell. Through a romantic dinner for Holt and Kevin, organised by Peralta and the rest, the police sitcom solidifies the respect and equality it endorses and once more highlights its contrast from the rest of the genre (Goor, Schur, & Engler, 2014).

In conclusion, this essay explored political correctness from the perspective of television comedy and non-heterosexual representation, and contested the criticism against the movement, as well as the stereotypical traditions in the field, all supported by the primary example of ‘‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’’ (2013).

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