Diversity

[cadyctslover]

I read with interest the recent accusations that Neighbours does not promote diversity, with its all-white cast, but what about H&A?

Leah has been a regular on the show for almost 15 years and the character's Greek heritage has been touched upon several times. Recently there has also been the introduction of Tai Hara as Andy Barrett, and as I strongly believe that producers shouldn't cast roles based on racial attributes I'm really glad that it was cleverly explained early on that Andy and Josh are from different fathers.

However, is this enough? Again I don't agree that actors should be cast based on their race (it should be the quality of their acting) but have no black actors auditioned for regular roles in the past 15 years that have been decent actors? Really?

From what I could see when I recently visited Australia, the population is largely white with a large proportion of Asian residents also. This is a fair point which would clearly affect casting. However, there are no lesbian or gay characters on the show, and I don't think they can use the same excuse of there not being many in Australia! There was the guest character Joey during that akward point in 2009 when Charlie was a lesbian for a few episodes, but that was almost 5 years ago.

So recently I was interested to see Louise Bowes (script producer on H&A) retweet something from Christine Milne, an Australian senator and leader of the Australian green party:

Christine Milne ‏@senatormilne11 Dec
High Court has made it clear that fed govt has power to legislate for same sex marriage. So let's make it happen. #auspol

So I tweeted Louise as follows:

cadyctslover ‏@cadyctslover13 Dec

@Louise_Bowes great, how about lesbian/gay characters on H&A?

cadyctslover ‏@cadyctslover14 Dec

@Louise_Bowes (this was supposed to be in reply to your retweet from Christine Milne on December 11th btw)

cadyctslover ‏@cadyctslover18 Dec

@Louise_Bowes OK then, no plans for greater diversity.

And I haven't had any further response.

[Light of the Bay]

After 2009, I was left really offended at how Home and Away portrayed gay/bisexual people. Utterly shameful.

I'm just not convinced that the writers have enough effort in them to realistically portray real life and represent real people and their struggles.

[gutterboy]

That's one storyline that really annoyed me that was just "brushed aside" with Joey. The story line was great, but I also really liked Joey as a character.

[b2sb09]

I’ve been left with the impression for a long time that Home and Away has little to no interest in same-sex storylines or really representing society much at all, despite so many claiming that was the aim of the show. Their last attempt at same-sex had potential but all it just ended up being was the usual stereotypical and totally unimaginative TV lesbian storyline - straight girl falls for lesbian, freaks out, has sex with man and lesbian disappears, never to be seen of again while the bi-girl (Cameron Welsh said at the time that Charlie was bisexual from then on) having zero interest in women ever again and goes back to dating guys. In this case, Charlie ended up with a cop killer and then a violent drug dealer who treated her without an ounce of respect and little regard, yet she was made to act like he was the greatest which just made the treatment of the whole Charlie/Joey storyline even worse, because perception wise, even an utter lowlife creep like Brax who continually lied to her and humiliated her, is shown to be better than having Charlie interested in a woman again. I doubt the writers gave it much consideration, but with the way Charlie was written, when you actually look at the men in Charlie’s lives - Roman, in jail and Hugo, Angelo and Brax who should all be in jail for extremely serious offences - then Joey really was the only non criminal person in this police officer’s life. I wonder at times the way this show portrays not just gay/lesbian/bisexual characters, but also it’s female characters with the way it uses them to redeem or just fawn over men most women with an ounce of self-respect would steer clear of.

After Angelo, there was certainly the opportunity to explore that part of Charlie, but doubt it was even considered, despite them saying how important this issue was and the need to reflect society. At least, those were the lines they were using when promoting the Charlie/Joey storyline. Perhaps they didn't really believe that and were just spouting those words because they were trying to convince us it wasn’t just a publicity stunt for ratings when it clearly was just that. It was labelled a controversial storyline, which was just ridiculous even for 2009, they ran a Today Tonight segment on this controversial aspect of the storyline to drum up the storyline by citing those who viewed it as the wrong thing for a family show to be showing, then proceeded to treat their relationship with such contempt and inequality. While we saw Leah and Roman in bed together, all we got from Charlie and Joey was one kiss, while everything after that was hidden by ridiculously darkened rooms and little to no intimacy was allowed to be displayed between the actresses. No wonder people said they had no chemistry when they weren't even allowed to sit next to each other on the couch - there was always a distance kept between them. Then they gave us Charlie throwing herself at a man, Joey running away for three months before we had Charlie jumping into yet another guy's bed (a man she claimed she wanted nothing to do with after he killed her friend) - the 3 months weren't even up when that happened. Aside from the odd bone thrown to the audience about Charlie being into ladies (ie. throw away line during online dating, you wouldn’t have known that Joey had ever existed with the speed it was brushed under the carpet and forgotten.

Then to add insult onto insult, the show used the reaction to the controversy (which Channel 7 themselves deliberately stirred up), to make excuses as to why they didn't follow through with the storyline (ignoring the months when the filming would have already ended in it's entirety to when it was even shown and illicited the so-called controversy) and why there are no gay characters on the show - the public just aren’t ready for it, blah, blah, blah (pretty sure Out of the Blue with it's regular same sex couple was shown that year just before dinner time on the weekends without any controversy that I heard of) and ratings suffered. Also from memory, ratings went up for the kiss episode and ebbed and flowed throughout the storyline, just like it ebbed and flowed throughout the entire year as it always does, so that’s no excuse.

To make matters even worse, we had Cameron Welsh, the man who labelled Charlie as bisexual, continually brush aside any questions about whether they were going to revisit that side of Charlie, by talking up Charlie with Angelo and then later, with Brax - just another sign of the way those in charge of the show are happy to listen to some fans while being dismissive of others. We’re all fans, but only some of us have voices which is continually frustrating. For all it’s faults, at least Neighbours takes on board the opinion of those fans who are critical of the show - they wanted a gay/lesbian character, we have Chris, who is a popular character, then there were a lot of complaints about losing it’s soul, in comes Richard Jasek who takes the show back to its roots by off loading a lot of the free loading characters with no real connections to the street and bringing it back to families and the show has rated a lot better since, even for a digital channel.

When you have a G rated show like Neighbours having no problem with same-sex storylines, even introducing different boyfriends for Chris so he’s not just gay in name only, I just find it disappointing that a show like Home and Away, which has been so happy to glorify characters like the Braxtons, have so much drugs, violence and crime in the show and ignore all the complaints about this, yet is too scared to introduce a gay/lesbian full time character - there’s not even a guest character in sight. Thought Rosie could have been a lesbian, but no, couldn’t even do that.

If they did have the courage to take on a same-sex storyline, I’d prefer they introduce a new regular character than make an existing character gay, but honestly though, with the way this show is these days, I just don’t know if I’d trust these writers to portray an honest same-sex couple. While I imagine writing for the Braxtons is easy (over the top storylines where no matter how many crimes they commit or people they hurt or get hurt because of them, everyone else is made to see them as the good guys and then you just rinse and repeat over and over and sit and back and bask in the praise from the Facebook and Twitter followers), when it comes to a same-sex couple, it would require some effort on their part to make sure the storyline avoided looking like it was just a token attempt (the character has to have a purpose in the Bay so as not to be seen as the token gay/lesbian character and not be bisexual, because the writers wouldn’t be able to resist them going back to Straightsville) and to keep it interesting without resorting to the usual stereotypes this show always falls into. I also can’t see them having the ability to keep this storyline at the forefront or being on equal footing with any of the other relationships - it’d likely be pushed to the background like Irene’s cancer storyline, another story that was sold as an important one to tell, but obviously not as important as the River Boys drug dealing and Charlie being conned so easily by Brax. Perhaps once the Braxtons start to go, other characters might get a fair go and it would be the perfect opportunity to move forward with some fresh storylines, like a same-sex one. Not hopeful of this happening though.

For a long time now, fans have been asking the question of TPTB and for a long time now, they clearly aren’t listening - at least to this section of their fan base. It just seems that some shows, not just in Australia, are good at listening to all sides of their fan base and take it on board, while others prefer to only listen to those who enjoy the show.

It will be 2014 when the next episode is shown, so isn’t it about time this show joined the 21st Century and actually started to do what it purports to do - reflect society?

[Red Ranger 1]

I think there's a bit of a faulty memory going on here:People remarked at the time they were shocked at the amount of physical intimacy we saw between Char;lie and Joey, with lingering kisses in pretty much every episode they apopeared during their relationship.Okay, we didn't see them in bed together but I'm not sure that was entirely necessary.The problem wasn't the hanbdling of the relationship, it was the fact that once it ended there was no real follow through.

I do agree though that the fact that Neighbours, after a slightly faltering start, has ended up doing a pretty respectful portrayal of a gay character means that there's no reason Home and Away shouldn't do the same.It doesn't have to be something big and controversial, just introducing a same-sex couple and treating them the same as everyone else would probably say more than making it a big issue-led storyline.

As for ethinicities, people seem to have forgotten about Elijah, which admittedly isn't hard to do.You get the occasional non-white face on the show, I couldn't say how representative that is of the cross-section of society in a place like Summer Bay or not but it would be nice if, when the script allows it, the producers do cast colour blind.

[elikell]

Okay, I may as well add my two cents worth in.
I agree with what everyone has said regarding a same-sex couple...
But that's not all we're talking about here. Diversity is more than just that. Apart from Elijah, when was the last time there was a "black" person, an "asian" person, or anyone that's not "white" on the show? Every community has people who look different and act differently to other people. Why is Home and Away the only show that doesn't seem to understand that there are many places where people aren't all "white". I'm sure that there are actors chomping at the bit to get onto shows such as Home and Away but don't get the part because they don't look "Australian" enough. Wake up, life isn't like this..!
I live in a small country town in Australia with about 500 people living in town and we have so many varied and wonderful people in town. We have same-sex couples (yes that's right, more than ONE), a "black" doctor, an "asian" couple who run the milkbar/cafe, a single mother running the supermarket, many backpackers who call our town home who come from across the globe, we even have Indian nurses at the hospital. And I'm sure there's others I can't even think of right now.
Where's the diversity in Summer Bay, a town no larger than my own? Get with the program.

[Jezz]

But that's not all we're talking about here. Diversity is more than just that. Apart from Elijah, when was the last time there was a "black" person, an "asian" person, or anyone that's not "white" on the show?

I might be wrong but I'm thinking Jai Fernandez!

[Red Ranger 1]

It depends if you're counting non-regulars.We saw a few Indonesian characters during the people smuggling storyline, Elijah's adoptive parents were an Asian couple and his short-lived new family were African, Bianca's first fiancé and Angelo's mother were Latino, and Dexter's short-lived girlfriend from early in the year was of South American origin.There haven't been many though, I admit.

[cadyctslover]

Focusing on the regular cast members rather than the guesties, there was Elijah (yes I completely forgot about him), Jai, and now Andy.

It was well before my time but old clips of the show from circa 1996/1997 seem to show a young black actress who fell off a cliff. Was she a regular and was she the last (only?) black regular actor?

It really would be interesting to see a character like Neighbours' Chris Pappas, whose character is not defined by his sexuality, he just happens to be gay.

[Red Ranger 1]

Yes, Stephanie was a regular.