Bury Your Tropes or How Queer Characters Get Confined in Their Portrayals - A Content Analysis of Recent Films Produced in the West

Aug 24, 2026

Mainstream entertainment media has increasingly included LGBTQIA+ characters in the 21st century, yet coverage may still rely on recurring queer stereotypes and restrictive narrative tropes. This study performs a quantitative content analysis of popular Western films released in 2015-2016 and 2020-2021, examining both the frequency of featuring queer characters and the use of queer tropes. Grounded in cultivation theory, parasocial contact, and minority representation analysis, results indicate no overall increase in queer character appearances and no proliferation in queer-trope usage, followed by discussion of explanations and study limitations.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages74

Reading Time3 h 6 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Attesting recent changes in queer representation

Research rationale for focusing on films

Need to address differences between TV and film industries

Bury Your Tropes or How Queer Characters Get Confined in Their Portrayals: A Content Analysis of Recent Films Produced in the West Julia Gornostajeva (12110310) Master’s Thesis University of Amsterdam Graduate School of Communication Master’s programme Communication Science Thesis supervisor: dr. Irene van Driel Word count: 7615 (supervisor approved due to two research aims present, the study method, i.e., content analysis, and clashing findings found) Date: 30/06/2022 Abstract As studies investigating mainstream entertainment media in the 21st century suggest, queer characters have lately been included more often. However, some research and LGBTQIA+ organisations report that, while the overall number of portrayals of queer characters has increased, using queer media tropes has proliferated too. To attest these claims, a quantitative content analysis of popular movies produced in the West and released in 2015- 2016 and 2020-2021 was conducted. Based on the cultivation theory, parasocial contact hypothesis, as well as a minority media representation analysis, the frequency of featuring queer characters and using queer tropes were investigated. The results showed that lately queer characters have not appeared in movies more often, neither has the frequency of using queer tropes proliferated. Potential reasons, explanations, and the current study’s limitations are discussed. Key words: LGBT+; LGBTQIA+; queer; queer tropes; film; Lexa; content analysis Bury Your Tropes or How Queer Characters Get Confined in Their Portrayals: A Content Analysis of Recent Films Produced in the West As studies investigating mainstream entertainment media in the 21st century suggest, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and other (LGBTQIA+; further used interchangeably with “queer”) characters and stories lately have been included more often (Bond, 2015; GLAAD, 2020; GLAAD, 2021). In ten years’ time, the frequency of featuring queer characters has grown from 3.9% to 9.1%, with occasional slips in between (GLAAD, 2011; GLAAD, 2021) . This constitutes a rather positive change for the LGBTQIA+ community as queer characters have long been excluded from popular culture (Bridges, 2018; Raley & Lucas, 2006; Shugart, 2003; Waggoner, 2018), but are now carving out their place on screen. However, the situation is not as rosy as it may seem. Some research and LGBTQIA+ organisations report that, while the overall number of portrayals of queer characters has increased, using queer media tropes has proliferated too (Bridges, 2018; Edwards, 2020; GLAAD, 2021; Guerrero-Pico et al., 2018) . This means that employing widely used, often stereotypical and/or one-sided portrayals of queer characters has recently become more frequent. Perhaps, the most prominent examples of queer tropes are “Camp Gay” and “Butch Lesbian” that highlight how gay men and lesbians are portrayed in ways adjacent to the opposite sex, i.e., effeminate and flamboyant for gays and masculine and butch for lesbians. Another prominent queer trope is “Bury Your Gays”, which emphasises the disproportionate rates of queer, especially lesbian and female bisexual, characters’ deaths on screen (Bridges, 2018) . However, this trope received a backlash in 2016 after death of a lesbian character Lexa, one of the “The 100” television series’ heroines, as it exemplified queer characters’demise on screen. At least allegedly this scandal has made the screenwriters of “The 100” and others torethink the ways they portray queer characters (Butler, 2016; Levin Russo, 2017; Ryan, 2016). After that, some entertainment producers have become more careful when depicting LGBTQIA+ stories. E.g., not only have producers ofthe Netflix’s series “Sex Education”(Campbell et al., 2019 –) portrayed asexual and non-binary characters, who are represented even less often than gays/lesbians (GLAAD, 2021), but they have also avoided using direct queer tropes, like “Gay Best Friend

FAQs

What question does the thesis investigate regarding queer portrayals in films?

It investigates how often queer characters are featured and how frequently queer media tropes are used in popular Western films across two time windows.

Which films and time periods are analyzed?

The quantitative content analysis covers popular movies produced in the West released in 2015–2016 and 2020–2021.

What theories guide the analysis?

The study is informed by cultivation theory, the parasocial contact hypothesis, and a minority media representation analysis framework.

What do the results suggest about recent changes?

The results indicate that queer characters have not appeared in movies more often and that the frequency of using queer tropes has not increased.

Aug 24, 2026

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