The Kids Are All Right: Gender Analysis

707 Words2 Pages

Purpose and Objectives
My primary aim is to identity how hegemonic discourses of gender and motherhood in pop culture construct knowledge of butch lesbians and the potential social consequences of such discipline. This will bring together under discussion a range of research fields which have been fragmented, to make a contribution to the development of contemporary feminist, lesbian, queer, motherhood studies. Secondarily, this research adds to the discussion of how knowledge is subverted. I argue that representations of butch lesbian mothers disrupt the institution of motherhood because they exist outside of and are not contained by a feminine gender expression and heterosexual relations. Precisely, they disrupt the coherency of the heterosexual …show more content…

This dissertation explores those questions through the analysis of two mainstream pop culture productions that feature lesbian parents: the television series The Fosters and the major motion production The Kids Are All Right. While consideration of The Kids Are All Right is given to the film in its entirety, analysis of The Fosters is limited to the initial pilot episode. This is to keep the analysis within scope, but also because television pilots are data rich sources from which a series develops (Paisner 2016). They are indicators of where television has been and where it is going and suggestive of the capabilities of creative and production teams (Paisner 2016). I examine how dominant scripts of gender and sexuality, motherhood and family, blood and citizenship shape representations of butch maternal …show more content…

My research is informed by post-structural ontology and queer, feminist epistemology. To this end, queer theory provides a conceptual framework to the feminist critical discourse analysis methodology utilized. As a theoretical framework, I draw on the scholarship of Judith Butler, specifically relying on her concepts of gender performativity and the heterosexual matrix. Following a Foucauldian framework uncovers the relationship between power, gender and sexuality, and the circulation of norms. Approaching queer theory from a Foucauldian perspective, I employ his theories of discourse, knowledge, and power in relation to representations. Permitting a broad interpretation of discourse beyond the linguistic, a Foucauldian perspective responds to how verbal and visual texts simultaneously produce discourse and thus, representations. It is fitting that CDA be used in a discussion of social identity because it studies the “linguistic construction” and reshaping of group membership (Kroskrity 1999, 111). Moreover, discourse is always dependent upon context, as Foucault suggests in The Archaeology of Knowledge, “nothing has meaning outside of discourse” (Foucault 1972). Discourses represent a network operation of knowledges and powers that take cultural and historical form. CDA uncovers power entrenched within discourse and, adding to this analysis,

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