Jan Zita Grover writes about “the burden of scarcity” to explain the negative way in which underrepresentation can affect a group of people. Particularly focused towards lesbians, Grover notes the tendencies in North America to “downplay the sexual component in the lesbian community and instead emphasize its spiritual or emotional basis” (Grover 186). Grover also discusses an interactive photography exhibit, Drawing The Line, which displays assorted lesbian sexual practices desires that was poorly received even by lesbians who Grove claims objected to the photos due to a desire to monitor and censor other viewer’s experience. Grove notes that the desire to censor this work, for these lesbian women, stems from underrepresentation of lesbians in mainstream media, and particularly sexual representations of women with other women, making the current representations hold a much greater weight than they should. Grove calls for a wider range of lesbian women to be represented and also a wider range of sexual practices.
I do believe this burden of scarcity does exist in today’s media, particularly for LGBT people. Oftentimes minority groups are underrepresented or misrepresented in mainstream media, perpetuating stereotypes or simply excluding them from popular culture. Although there is more representation of LGBT people than ever before in film and to a certain extent, television, the burden of scarcity can still play into misconceptions about LGBT people, especially for those unwilling to seek out other media where LGBT people are more frequently represented. For example: someone who only watches ABC network television shows may think all gay men are like Modern Family‘s Mitchell and Cameron (effeminate, bourgeois, and melodramatic).