Queer Theory Presentation (2004)

Queer Theory COMM 4P30 Presentation Armando Alfaro & Joanna Robinson Friday, October 29 th 2004

Agenda/Key Issues
What or who exactly is queer? (& what is queer theory?)
Concerns addressed by Queer Theory:
Issues of representation/misrepresentation
Ideology & Hegemonic forces regarding gender & sexuality
Mainstreaming/commercialization of Queer culture
Subversive modes, audience reception & changes in mass culture representations
Queer readings of popular text
Camp as a subversive mode of opposition

Queer Theory
Revolves around sexual minorities within mass culture/media
An intellectual extension of the Gay & Lesbian rights movement.
Recognizes Queers as a disadvantaged class in society whose voices are obscured, misrepresented in, or omitted from mainstream popular culture.

Queer Theory
Thomas Waugh (1997) terms this school of thought “Gender/Queer Theory” in Between the Sheets in the Streets , which examines Queer documentary.
Social Constructionism vs Biological Essentialism
Question: Do you believe Gender & Sexuality is completely constructed by societal forces?
Question: What are some of the ways this can be seen as taking place?

Alexander Doty (1993) Something Queer Here
Aligns his analysis with Audience & Reception Theory
Queer positions
Queer readings
Queer pleasures
Articulates concern for youth audiences since the realm of mass culture greatly “influence[s] our identity construction”.

What or who is Queer?
“Queer” = Unity + Diversity
Queer as inclusive of Gay & Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender communities
Making Things Perfectly Queer: Interpreting Mass Culture
Question: “Whose text is it anyway?”

Larry Gross – Out Of The Mainstream
- Sexual minorities and their place in mass media
- television upholds mainstream values (dominant ideology) and “normalizes” them
- minority positions that challenge status quo are not ignored, but discredited
- homosexual/queers positions challenge societal gender roles

Larry Gross – Out Of The Mainstream
Stereotyping present in depictions of queerness
ie) TV movies aimed at straight audiences
Resistance and Opposition:
1) “Ignoring” mass media
2)Subversion
3)Self-representation

Critiques of Queer Theory
Terminology – Gender Theory
Reading too much into things?
Heterosexual assumption that a same sex pair of screen characters that have a bond must be gay.
Homosexual undertones/humour used to reinforce the “rightness” of heterosexuality.
Exclusion of other disenfranchised lifestyles?

Concerns addressed by Queer Theory
Issues of representation/misrepresentation
Exclusion/omission
Stereotypes
Mainstreaming of Queer culture
Big Gay Al
Austin Powers II: The Spy Who Shagged Me

Ideology & Hegemonic forces regarding gender & sexuality
“Normalizing” gender roles
White, male, heterosexual as the norm
Institutionalized – politics, church, education, the traditional family etc

Vern & Bonnie Bullough (1993)
Gender roles are equated with masculinity and femininity, male as provider, female as nurturer
These two concepts can help us understand how gender is a social construction directly linked to heterosexual roles.
Gender Identity – Self conceived
Gender Role – As it is perceived by others
According to dominant ideology, these should both be equal or the same.
This ideology about gender roles and sexuality is constantly reinforced throughout the majority of mass culture.

Camp as a subversive mode of opposition
Gay subtexts – pre-Gay rights movement
Camp as the intellectual subversive presence in mass culture
Rabbit In Drag
Gender play/bending – David Bowie, Prince

Queer Readings of Popular Text
Audience & Reception Theory
The study of how audiences interpret by looking at the social setting and context.
Denotation - Encoding
Connation – Decoding of the message
This view places the audience as an active participant within mass culture, sometimes challenging the status quo.
The Odd Couple, Buddy films
Billie Holiday
Identifying with strong, independent female celebrities Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, Janet Jackson

Media Texts about Queer experience
Paris Is Burning
Texts about Queer experience, often made for a straight audience
Question – Is Madonna appropriating Queer culture or paying homage to it?

Mainstreaming of Queer culture / Appropriation
Lesbian chic/lesbianism made ok in media texts because of male fantasy alignment
Madonna & Britney, T.A.T.U., Dreamworlds II
Use of stereotypes and “blanching” of gay culture, toning it down
Will & Grace vs Queer As Folk
Queer Eye For the Straight Guy
Question – Are these positive or negative depictions of Queer culture & to what audience do they speak?
What are the implications of such depictions?

Media Texts by/for Queers
Dorothy Arzner - Dance, Girl, Dance
Wachowski Brothers - Bound
Questions conventions of film genres & depictions such as the Gangster film
Gangster film has been traditionally associated with negative depictions of female sexuality
Internet as site of new wave of bottom up resistance to metanarratives about sexuality
Brock Press & bulletin boards recent issue

Dorothy Arzner

Conclusions
Question: Where is Queer Theory now? Do you see movement toward the sorts of goals articulated by Doty and Gross?
Queer Theory has helped to bring about an awareness of the embedded nature of messages in media texts as well as looking critically at these messages about what is “normal”.
As an intellectual extension of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender movement, it is still seeking to improve upon the misrepresentation and lack of representation of diverse perspectives in mass culture.

Bibliography
Able, Sam. (1995). “The Rabbit in Drag.” Journal of Popular Culture, 29 , 183-202.
Adam, Barry. (1995). The Rise of Gay and Lesbian Movement. New York: Twayne Publishers.
Alexander, Jonathan (2002). Queer Sites: Studying the Construction and Representation of Queer Identities on the World Wide Web International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies, 7.2-3, 85-106.
Bullough, Vern & Bullough, Bonnie. (1993). Cross Dressing, Sex, and Gender . Philadelphia: University Of Pennsylvania Press.
DeCecco, John & Elia, John, eds. (1993). If You Seduce A Straight Person, Can You Make Them Gay?: Issues in Biological Essentialism versus Social Constructionism in Gay and Lesbian Identities. New York: Harrington Park Press.
Doty, Alenxander & Creekmur, Corey K., eds.(1995). Out In Culture . U. S.: Duke University Press.
Hanscombe, Gillian & Humphries, Martin. (1987). Heterosexuality . London: GMP Publishers Ltd.
Kinsman, Gary. (1987). The Regulation of Desire: Sexuality in Canada . Montreal: Black Rose Books.
Leap, William & Boellstorff, Tom, eds. (2004). Speaking in Queer Tongues: Globalization and Gay Language . Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Lorimer, Rowland & Gasher, Mike. (2001). Mass Communication in Canada . Ontario, Canada: Oxford University Press.
Waugh, Thomas, Holmlund, Chris & Fuchs, Cynthia, eds. (1997). “Walking on Tippy Toes: Lesbian and Gay Liberation Documentary.” from Between The Sheets, In the Streets .

Queer Theory Presentation (2004)

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