Queer TV

Queer theory and identity politics function in co ordinance with one another and they subsequently operate to correspond and contradict with media representation in various ways. This paper will endeavour to identify the tensions played out between identity politics and Queer theory in relation to gender and Sexuality. While attempting to identify the conflicts between identity politics and Queer theory, I will subsequently concentrate on accentuating the inconsistencies that operate between these two movements in relation to the medias representation of Queer. The Queer media identities examined are the television program Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and the pop icon Madonna. While the medias representation of Queer identities are seemingly flawed in relation to Queer theory and identity politics, I will sub sequently articulate that these representations function accordingly with individual audience members who have the ability to read such texts polysemically. I will endeavour to highlight that while a contestation exists between such movements and the medias definition of Queer, there is the possibility for some media texts to highlight and promote the objectives of Queer theory and identity politics.

The television program Queer Eye for the Straight Guy may function to some degree to represent the causes of Queer theory in a cultural studies sense. The program may be read polysemically by the audience as a way of destabilising the norm, which is one of Queer theories premises. Traditionally, homoSexual identities have been denied by the elite parts of society the opportunity to exist within popular culture mediums such as television and the existence of such identities have generally been portrayed as the deviant or victimised character and rarely portrayed in a positive light. In Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, however, these Queer men are empowered throughout the program over the heteroSexual male as the Fab Five teach the heteroSexual male how to dress, what or how to cook, and where they should shop. This program subsequently has the ability to operate on a polysemic level and subsequently read by the audience as a way of disrupting and reversing the traditional binaries of power and dominance.

During Madonnas performance with Britney Spears a t the 2003 MTV Music Awards, Madonna dresses as a male and takes on the role of the groom. While Butler does not solely identify drag with the notion of performativity, it is worthwhile examining how such a performance functions to represent Butlers theories. During the performance, Madonna is dressed as a man while Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears portray themselves as hyper-feminine, dressed in white lacy lingerie, pearls around their neck, and who represent the figure of the bride. The performance functions to blur the traditional boundaries of how a man and a woman should perform their gender. Madonna, Spears and Aguileras performance can be read by the audience as an attempt to mock gendered identity by accenting the fragility of patriarchal and fixed concepts of identity and highlighting them as fluid and unstable. Their performance appears to defy the strict codes and conventions that are enforced through a normative framework by penetrating the mainstream popula r culture with a performance of transgressive bodies. Through Madonnas performance of the traditional notion of masculinity and Spears and Aguileras representation of a parodied and exaggerated form of hyper-femininity, their performances transport non-normative gendered bodies to the fore, which may also play a role in improving the visibility of transgendered bodies by improving their acceptance within mainstream society. In this sense, Madonna as a Queer media identity may function to represent and highlight identity politics while also working in unison with the concepts deployed by Queer theory.

Madonnas Blonde Ambition tour also represented transgressive bodies through male performers with large breasts and female performers with prosthetic penises which Douglas Kellner suggests subverts previous boundaries between men and women. The representation of transgressive bodies within the media signals alternative ways of being within society by opening up the idea tha t gender and Sexuality are never fixed or stable and that they can change from one day to the next. Transgression within media identities may operate in contestation with identity politics as it fails to develop a sense of community or a fixed group with similar situations, which may limit the political progress that identity-politics-based groups seek to generate. As a result, the representation of transgendered bodies within the media may be seen to take away the Queer communities sense of unity. However, from a Queer theories standpoint, the performance of transgendered bodies within popular culture may function to be representative of it aims through the portrayal of non-normative bodies.

The meanings derived from some sectors of the audiences may in fact illustrate that such Queer media identities oper ate in unison with the aims of Queer theory by disseminating non-normative Sexualities into a frequently heternormative realm, which can then function to disrupt traditional power relations and binaries. Similarly, these Queer media identities can operate in accordance with identity politics in that the portrayal of non-normative Sexualities within the media realm can open up a space for identification and which may signal the promotion of political empowerment and visibility for a traditionally stigmatised group.

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Author:: Sharon White
Keywords:: Queer, Straight , Sex
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