Will+&+Grace

**Intro to //Will & Grace//**
Will & Grace is a television sitcom that debuted in the fall of 1998 and ended in the spring of 2006. Will & Grace was seen as, “breaking new ground, offering the first gay male lead on U.S. broadcast television,” (Battles & Hilton-Morrow, 2002). The show follows the lives of four good friends, mainly characters Will and Grace, showing their personal highs and lows dealing with their relationships and friendship. The sexual nature of the show was always a main focus in the series and in the media. The two supporting characters are best friends Jack and Karen, known for their overt sexuality and wild shenanigans.

**Romantic Lives on //Will & Grace//**
**Will** Will Truman is the leading gay male on the series. He is mostly known for being a more private, put-together individual. Will primarily keeps his private life private, only talking to his best friend Grace about it all. Will’s character would always become shy and slightly awkward around men he was interested in pursuing or found attractive. His bad jokes and giggling would sometimes deter him but in the end he would sometimes redeem himself.

Will is more of the relationship type, searching for men that he saw a future with and those that held his same values. He and Grace would always approve or disapprove of their interests. If one disliked the other’s partner, a break up would likely follow, showing that their friendship was not only a strong one but also a co-dependent one, which at times wasn’t the best part about them. Will’s sex life was often not put on display. The viewer, more often than not, would not be able to see his private moments with partners, which is noted by Cooper (2003) when he says that the program doesn’t really show, “either Will or Jack in bed with a man or even kissing another man romantically.” He goes on to say that there is an, “almost complete lack of physical affection between Will and his boyfriends.”

**Grace** Grace Adler, Will’s best friend and roommate, is the other central character. Grace’s personal life is more out there than Will’s personal life. Grace often shares these details with either Will or Karen, who is her secretary and assistant. Grace’s love interests on the series are often attractive men who seem attracted not only to her looks but also her personality. Her dating endeavors are often wacky and uncomfortable but her relationships are depicted as more rocky and complicated.

Will often makes fun of Grace when she meets a new man because she turns on a false façade that makes her seem sweeter and more feminine than she actually is when around Will. She is always on the search for a husband, often accidentally finding men when she least expects it. She can be forward with her flirtation. As said by Cooper (2003) Grace is more likely, “to end up embarrassed or shamed by the show’s end because of her insecurities and moral lapses.” She even has trouble distinguishing between gay men and straight men, seeing as she is usually attracted to a gay man and thus becomes the butt of the jokes for this reason.

[[image:tumblr_lgiy6s7rGs1qgikv9o1_400.jpg width="253" height="372" align="left" caption="Jack and Karen "touching stomachs""]] **Jack and Karen: Friends with //some// Benefits?**
Often seen as a dynamic and hilarious duo, Jack and Karen, who are mutual friends of Will and Grace, have a dysfunctional friendship of their own, but they often seem blind to their idiocy. They are sexually promiscuous with each other, often groping one another for no apparent reason. Jack is gay and sexually promiscuous and Karen is a wealthy socialite known for her crude humor and alcoholic tendencies.

Jack McFarland is overtly sexual, often talking explicitly about men he has been with, men he wants to be with, and the man or men he is currently seeing. Jack is often regarded as the audience favorite (Cooper, 2003). Will often takes for granted his relationship with Jack, sighting that Jack can be “too gay”. Jack tends to brag about sexual encounters, sometimes being with complete strangers. He clearly isn’t the relationship type even though he will be in one or multiple relationships at a single time. Jack is extremely forward when it comes to pursuing men, even going as far to pose as a man who is no longer gay to get close to an old flame who declares to be the same. At the end of the episode, Jack convinces him they should take a shower together. In later episodes, the viewer learns Jack has a son. He had donated sperm many years ago and his son, Eliot, becomes a part of his life for the rest of the series.

Karen Walker, who is married to Stan Walker (whom we never see), is sexually aggressive but never manages to actually sleep with anyone. It is clear that she would rather sleep with other men but for some reason she just can’t do it to Stan. She chooses to express how she feels sexually with her words, often eliciting many laughs from the audience with her sharp, witty tongue. Her outlet is Jack, whom is her best friend but they also like to do what can be seen as sexually awkward actions, such as dirty dancing and “touching stomachs.” Her marriage with Stan seems to be completely business, but the viewer gets to see that Karen devotedly loves him and even gets emotional when she talks about him after his passing (he later comes back after it is revealed he faked his death). Karen often talks about her sexual past with men and it is even revealed that she at one time had done porn.

**Will and Jack “Coming Out”**

During Will & Grace’s run, the viewer is able to observe both Will and Jack many years ago. During these flashbacks, Will is seen as a more shy version of himself, hiding his homosexuality from his friends and family, which includes Grace, who he is engaged to marry. He proposes because he wishes to put off having sex with her even longer. They soon break up, seeing each other a year later only to become best friends after that. Will expresses that he, “has always loved Grace, but that he has never had any sexual feelings of any kind for her,” (Dines and Humez, 2003). Grace does learn that Will had sex with a woman only to make sure that he wasn’t straight and this news upsets her. He does tell her, though, that it meant nothing and that he never had any interest in her. In another episode, we learn that Will’s dad got in a car accident when he found out that Will was gay.

 Although Jack had been out for quite some time, he had never gotten the courage to tell his mother. He fears that she won’t accept him. Everyone wonders how she didn’t know, seeing as Jack is flamboyantly gay. Gairola (2000) discusses how Jack, while a progressive character for American television, portrays a stereotype of gay men. The idea that he, “might have been attracted to a woman is so obviously ludicrous that the very idea,” draws a hysterical laughter from the audience (Dines and Humez, 2003). When he does come out to his mother, “she observes that, in retrospect, there were ‘clues’,” (Gairola, 2000). While there is a sense of humor with both stories being told, they are done with respect and are handled with care.

**//Will & Grace//****//’s//** **Social Impact**
In a study conducted in 2006, it was found that Will & Grace has had a profound effect on society’s views of gay men. It found that viewers “perceive the portrayal of gay characters on //Will & Grace// as positive,” (Shiappa, et al., 2006). The study points to signs that viewing the show lowers the prejudice on homosexuality and that the depictions are positive if viewed more. While they say that the study can’t definitely show that this is the case with everyone, it gave an idea as to how a television series, like //Will & Grace//, can influence persons to think of homosexuality in a positive light. Overall, the depiction of the gay characters on the show has been applauded by many and has shed a new light on homosexuality.

Citations: Battles, K., Hilton-Morrow, W. (2002). Gay characters in conventional spaces: will and grace and the situation comedy genre. //Critical Studies in Media Communication//, 19, 87-105. Cooper, E. (2003). Decoding will and grace: mass audience reception of a popular network situation comedy. //Sociological Perspectives//, 46, 513-533. Dines, G., & Humez, J. M. (2003). Gender, race, and class in media: a text reader. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Gairola, R. (2000). Watching with ambivalence. //Pop Matters, volume number//. Retrieved from []. Schiappa, E., Gregg, P. B., Hewes, D. E. (2006). Can one tv show make a difference? will & grace and the parasocial contact hypothesis. //Journal of Homosexuality//, 51, 15-37.