Lisa Sherman ’79

Metzger-Conway Fellow, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Logo TV.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007Sherman poster
7:00 p.m. – Stern Center, Great Room

Changing Hearts and Minds: Media as a Bridge Builder for LGBT America

For the past several decades, the media has been an important and powerful tool for humanizing LGBT Americans, gradually replacing stereotypes and caricatures with authentic portrayals and depictions of LGBT people characters. In the past several years, media specifically for the LGBT audience has come to the forefront, notably with the launch of Logo, the new 24/7 ad-supported television and broadband channel from MTV networks. Lisa Sherman will discuss gays and lesbians in the media as well as the context for Logo’s place in the media landscape and how it is helping to advance a sense of an electronic community for many LGBT Americans. Co-sponsored by the psychology department.

Issue in Context

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are frequently excluded and misrepresented. Gay men are often represented as overly ‘feminine,’ while lesbian women are depicted as ‘masculine.’ LGBTs are also classified as excessively sexual, and it is assumed that they will make advances towards all members of the sex to which they are attracted. Such misrepresentations have been used as the basis for discrimination against members of the LGBT community. The media, as a medium accessed by many millions of people, has the power to influence and change the way people think about and understand gender in American society.

The conspicuous absence of accurate representations of LGBTs on American television led MTV Networks, in 2004, to launch Logo. Logo is a channel whose mission is to accurately represent LGBT on television. Logo’s programming includes popular shows such as “Noah’s Arc,” “Queer as Folk” and “Bad Girls.” In tonight’s lecture, “Changing Hearts and Minds: Media as a Bridge Builder for LGBT America,” Lisa Sherman will discuss the role that the “Logo” channel currently plays in the media, and how it is assisting LGBT Americans.

About the Speaker

Lisa Sherman plays a prominent role in bringing LGBT issues to American television. She is the senior vice president of Logo, an MTV networks-based channel dedicated to the accurate representations of LGBT in the media. Sherman is also a board member of God’s Love We Deliver, a humanitarian organization for people living with HIV/AIDS and other illnesses. She was an executive committee board member for the Human Rights Campaign. Sherman graduated from Dickinson College in 1979, and is returning to Dickinson as a Metzger-Conway fellow.

The Metzger-Conway Program was established at Dickinson College in 1982. Originally designed as a program for bringing distinguished female graduates back to the College, the program was expanded in 1987 to include both men and women of distinction. The goal of the Metzger-Conway Program is to provide Dickinson students with role models and to enrich the curriculum.

Please join us in “Continuing the Conversation”
Wednesday, October 31, 2007 – 4:30 p.m.
The Clarke Forum, 249 W. Louther St.
The discussion will be based on this program.