In 2003, NBC launched on one of its cable channels, Bravo, a reality-makeover show that became a national obsession. The show was "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." Two years earlier, in December of 2000, Showtime produced what was to become one of the most controversial and popular television shows in the network's history: "Queer as Folk," inspired by the BBC original of the same name. Queer was here- in a big, bold way. These two pop culture phenomenon set up a discourse for the pivotal word in each title,
"Queer." Examining both in the context of their own, self-prescribed language, begs the question, how is the term shaped by its invoker, and how in turn is the invoker shaped?
"Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." Obviously, there are not a lot of queers queuing up to exchange eyes with the heteros. The eye is a queered object; it is the queer gaze that looks at the straight male. However, the queer gaze is disembodied and unattached
to an actual queer man; it is directed not to the "straight guy" specifically, but to his apparel and lifestyle. The queer eye is juxtaposed with what it is not- it is not straight- and it is not fully human. In this way, it is a relational category which I will call "passive-relational" because the disembodied gaze cannot actively engage in a relationship with the embodied male.
The "queer eye," ironically, makes the "straight guy" more straight, by creating a more sexually desirable figure for the purpose of a heterosexual gaze, embodied in the wife/girlfriend/female blind date. Essentially, the men get packed off to Queerville
for an afternoon and taught the fine art of being an attractive human being. Queer desire is completely denied. The "queerness" is lighthearted, witty and enjoyable; there is no looming presence of AIDS, no hint of "queer-bashing," no sense that the "Fab Five" are
victims of repression or persecution- it's an illusion the nation craves.
"Queer as Folk." Folk? Like Ani? Or like people from the Midwest? Or like everyone if you're Bush? The name sets up a relationship between these "everyman" figured "folk" and queerness- setting up an inclusional relationship. The name implies that these "folk," whosoever they be, are the epitome of queer. This relationship I will call "active-relational," as the term queer is being actively applied to an embodied, autonomous group. The closest we can come to understanding the term in this context is to look at
Many may argue that the gay lifestyle was hidden from society until recent years, however, many books argue otherwise. It is surprising to know just how massive and significant gay society was in the beginning of the twentieth century. It is also important to understand how society’s acceptance of the gay lifestyle has changed over time. All four books I reviewed speak on gay society and how it flourished on its own, separate from “regular” society despite existing within it. Much of the content in all books is presented with an oral history methodology. Accounts of interactions between gay individuals are presented and described to validate points made by the authors. Overall, the books help modern readers understand the history of gay society
Queer Theory goes against the standardized norms that we are socialized to believe is “normal.” Men are associated with the behaviors of assertiveness and dominance. Theorists questions, what is normal? Given that we have these expectations on how people should behave, we mock their behavior to let them know it is unacceptable. For example, homosexuality is seen as unacceptable and abnormal.
Gordon, L. R. (1996), ‘Fanon’s Tragic Revolutionary Violence’ in Denean Sharpley-Whiting, T., Gordon, L. R. and White, R. T. (eds.) Fanon: A Critical Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, pp. 297-308.
The first character we meet is Ruth Younger. Ruth is a hardworking mother who has had a thought life up until this point. The Writer opens up describing her by saying that “she was a pretty girl, even exceptionally so, but now it is apparent that life has been little that she expected, and disappointment has already begun to hang in her face.” (Pg. 1472) This description bears a strong resemblance to the line in Harlem, “Does it dry up, like a raison in the sun?” (Line 2) We immediately are thrown into the madness of her life. She wants desperately to have a happy family and is in constant disagreement with her husband’s ideas. We see how her living arrangements have made her believe that there will never be anything better in this world for her. The saddest part is that she believes that bringing another child into this sad existence is something she cannot do. When she makes the decision to visit the abortion doctor, it immediately brought me to the final line in the poem where Hughes states “Or does it explode?” (Line 11) There had to be an explosion of desperation for a w...
Smith, C. (2009). How things work: Canada's oil sands. United Nations University, Vol.1, No. 110. Retrieved on December, 24, 2013 from
In a structured society, as one we’ve continued to create today, has raised concerns over the way society uses the term queer. Queer was a term used to describe “odd” “peculiar” or “strange” beings or things alike, but over the centuries societies began to adapt and incorporate the term into their vocabulary. Many authors such as Natalie Kouri-Towe, Siobhan B. Somerville, and Nikki Sullivan have distinct ways of describing the way the word queer has been shaped over the years and how society has viewed it as a whole. In effect, to talk about the term queer one must understand the hardship and struggle someone from the community faces in their everyday lives. My goal in this paper is to bring attention to the history of the term queer, how different
...s. 90’s television has taken the issue of homosexuality and instead of being melodramatic and too serious, comedy was used to represent homosexual lifestyle. For example television shows such as ‘Queer Eye for Straight Guy’ as well as sitcoms like ‘Will and Grace and ‘Ellen’ made light of gay culture and allowed audiences to associate with the humour without necessarily being homosexual.
All-men men were concluded to be the “least supportive, responsive, or humane.” (paragraph 10) While on the other hand, androgynous men passed with flying colors. He not only knows about the feminine culture, but takes it to the next level and become a part of it. He is one who “cuddles kittens, and bounces babies, and has a sympathetic ear for someone in distress. For a sexual partner, Gross concedes that women would prefer the jock over the friend of an androgynous man. However, the masculine man would seem to portray a person resembling your opponent, having to try to “win you over.” The androgynous man would not be an “opponent” per say, but rather your teammate. Rather than a race to finish first, to the androgynous man, sensuality is a pleasure to
Strahan, D. (2009, December 8). Have greens got it wrong about tar sands? The Ecologist.
At this point, I’d like to define a few terms somewhat precisely, at least as I intend to use them in the context of this paper. In this paper, I use the term "queer" for two reasons: one of which is in the spirit of reclaiming a word that has traditionally been used to verbally abuse non-heterosexual people for decades, and secondly because in the heterosexual mindset there are no differences between bisexuals, gay men, lesbians, transgendered and transsexual people. Brett Beemyn and Mickey Eliason write: "We have chosen to use ‘queer’ because it best characterizes our own personal beliefs, and it potentially leaves room for all people who are attracted to others of the same sex or whose bodies or sexual desires do not fit dominant standards of gender and/or sexuality" (5). One of the first questions that must be answered, of course, is why is it important to look at literature from a queer perspective? Is a reader, such ...
The 1990s saw surge of gay characters in both television and movies. From Ellen Degeneres and her character Ellen Morgan coming out under much scrutiny on the TV show ‘Ellen,’ to Julia Roberts and Rupert Everett comedically playing off each other in the motion picture ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding.’ Sure, gays and lesbians have been around forever, especially in Hollywood. But never has there been a time to be more out. With the popularity of shows like Will and Grace, which feature leading gay characters, as well as Dawson’s Creek and it’s supporting character of teenager Jack McPhee, we are slowly seeing gay and lesbian characters creeping into the mainstream media.
In Alice in Wonderland, queer meant to be odd or strange to the late 1800s readers; there was no other meaning for the word for their generation. Time skip to the early 1900s, where queer was beginning to be used to address a person’s sexuality as being gay or lesbian. It didn’t start out as referring to homosexuality, but due to the amount of times the word queer was used in articles, newspapers and even among people about gay clubs or homosexuals, the word stuck. One notable example was the Los Angeles Times describing a gay club as “composed of the ‘queer’ people” (“Queer”). Queer was frequently used as a negative slur in the 1950s against homosexuals up till the 1980s, where the younger LGBT (the group name for people who fall under lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender) members started to use the word queer to identify themselves as a way of self-reassurance and to fight against rising homophobia and the AID crisis (even calling themselves “Queer Nation”). The 1990 New York pride march was when LGBT members decided to “reclaim the word as their own” (Marusic). Queer is still debated among the LGBT community as being offensive, but most members consider it a neutral term (“queer”). Queer has even widened its audience over the past few years as it’s developed less to refer to someone as gay or lesbian but to anyone who doesn’t fit the “norm” regarding gender or sexuality (Ogle). Due to the many forms of queer over the years, Alice in Wonderland’s queer has ambiguity to present day readers. When people of today’s culture see the word queer, they immediately think of gays and lesbians; because of the complexity of the definition of the word, people from 2016 and those of the late 1800s have different denotations and connotations (negative and positive), leaving a sense of confusion over the
LGBTQ audiences have refused to watch shows and movies that don’t do queer characters justice, forced producers to recognize the harmful depictions of queer characters through widespread negative media, and even begun creating their own content with queer characters they can actually relate
The concept of sexual orientation, which is a person’s romantic and emotional attraction to another person, is a modern sociological construct (Macionis, Jansson, Benoit, & Burkowicz, p. 190, 2016). The predominant classifications of this concept are heterosexuality, meaning the sexual attraction to someone of the opposite sex, and homosexuality, the sexual attraction to someone of the same sex (Macionis et. al., p. 190, 2016). With the large majority of society’s acknowledgment towards these two sexual identities, it leaves little to no room for those who find themselves in neither ends of these categories, to receive any sort of recognition. More specifically, the visibility for those who establish themselves as bisexual, defined as the sexual attraction to people of both genders, face misconceptions from a portion of society (Macionis et. al., p. 190, 2016). Whether it may be from heterosexuals or homosexuals, someone who falls in between the two identities seem to encounter greater difficulties in gaining social acceptance. Despite having its place in the term, LGBTQ, which is an abbreviation for the community of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and people of other sexual orientations and
The colosseum was where many events would happen. One of these was called Funeral Games. The Funeral Games were done in the honor of the famously deceased. Many of the games played were sports like chariot racing, gladiator battles, footraces, and archery. These examples are just a few of how many games were actually played. For every special event they would have many games and before they started the events they would have a parade for the opening, the most important people would enter, the emperor enters, and then they...