Homosexual couples on TV, on the front pages of magazines, on social networks or even in fiction… Ten years after the adoption of “Marriage for all”, the union between people of the same sex seems to have returned to mores. By showing concrete examples of happy couples, the media have indeed helped to normalize this reality and make it more visible in society.
“What we have seen in recent years is a political positioning of same-sex couples who express themselves in the public sphere, which has changed radically compared to previous decades. These people claim the right to live the life of everyone else, and to enjoy the same rights as such. With this idea of showing that they are no different from the others”, explains Jerome Courduriesanthropologist and professor at the Jean-Jaurès University in Toulouse, author of Same-sex parents. The family in question?published by François Bourin.
“The more we make homoparental families visible, the more we trivialize them in society”
Many couples have thus decided in recent years to make their relationship public in the media or on social networks, “in a dynamic which consists in finally trivializing homosexual couples”, specifies the anthropologist. When the facilitator Christopher Beaugrand chose to reveal their union in the press in 2018, photos of a gay couple on the front page of a newspaper were a very rare thing. “It was the first time that a ‘known’ homosexual couple published photos in the press. I wanted to share these “normal” images in a magazine [Gala] read by a wide audience. A magazine that hangs out in hairdressing salons, in the doctor’s waiting room…”, explains the host, author of Daddy’s boy(s), published by Plon editions, in 9 p.m. Media on TMC.
“I realize today that it has helped to advance mentalities. At the time, I was asked a lot of questions. Some have asked me why I need to show off. We would never have asked the question to a straight host who would have presented his wife in the press. And yet it happens very regularly, ”says the presenter of the show ninja warrior on TF1, today dad, with her husband Ghislain, of a little Valentin.
Other couples have since taken the plunge, like Laurent Ruquier, who last February also posed for the front page. from the magazine Gala with his companion Hugo Manos. Until then rather modest about his private life, the host of Big heads also chose to expose his relationship in the open. “Times have changed. And me too: I am less restrained than ten years ago. […] It’s also good to show, as Marc-Olivier Fogiel and Stéphane Bern did with their companions, a happy and proud homosexuality. Without being in a militant approach, which has never been my case, “explains the host to Gala.
This desire to express oneself in the public sphere, to be quite simply visible, “is also something that was done in reaction to everything that was heard and read during the mobilizations in 2013 against Marriage for all, by the Manif pour tous”, specifies Jérôme Courduriès. “At that time, we heard speeches that consisted in stigmatizing homosexuality and homoparental families, which were only defined through the field of perversion. The political context of the 2010s is essential to understand this development today”.
Life experiences shared on social networks
Beyond simple unions, it is also the media coverage of life experiences of homosexual couples with children that has changed opinion. Social networks have thus played an important role in allowing homoparental families to share their stories. Stéphanie, who runs the Twitter account with her wife Marie-Charlotte “Ask your mothers”, has seen an evolution over the past few years. “Some, at first refractory, realized that we were finally like the others. By recounting our daily life, our joys, our disappointments, etc. through photos, anecdotes, we succeeded in convincing a segment of the population who had formed an opinion on banal prejudices. Or who were simply afraid of what was different from them, ”explains the mother of Alix and Samuel, who is expecting a happy event.
The messages she receives today are much more benevolent. “People attach themselves more easily to us today, and we see it through certain testimonials that we would never have imagined receiving. Some tell us: ”I really like your little family. I understand now that I was wrong. Showing the little things of everyday life, gently, is sometimes more convincing than bludgeoning a message, ”notes Stéphanie, whose account, which she created in 2017, is followed by nearly 23,000 subscribers.
The initial reprobation has therefore often changed into approval upon contact with homosexual families. “You could say that these are simply prejudices that have fallen in contact with real people, analyzes Jérôme Courduriès. Their testimonies, in particular that of children who have become adults, have helped to show people that there is no major problem, that these children are generally happy. This is the result of all the surveys that have been carried out over the past twenty years all over the world. »
“Different representations of homosexuality”
By finally putting a spotlight on same-sex couples and homoparental families, society has realized that there is a diversity of marital and family models. “Today, there are many models, different representations of homosexuality, which was not the case a few years ago. In the 2000s, we didn’t know what a gay couple was, let alone a homoparental family, we just had a few very stereotypical representations. What has changed is that now there are stories available that provide keys to understanding and acceptance,” explains Jérôme Courduriès.
Like Sonia and Lunatwo young women in their twenties who talk about their romantic relationship on a TikTok account (@soka.luna) followed by more than 100,000 subscribers, the many stories of couples of all ages and from all walks of life have made it possible to change mentalities in recent years. “It is important to change public opinion, but it is above all essential to reassure the youngest, those who discover their homosexuality and who need to have benchmarks, references”, adds Stéphanie, who recalls that homophobia is still very present in our society. Because if the lines have moved a little in recent years, prejudices and discrimination persist. According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, homophobic acts (anti-LGBT crimes, misdemeanors and fines) have even more than doubled since 2016.