Queer Theory
-Emerged in the 1990s - when homosexuality became socially accepted
- Explores the way that heterosexuality is explored as normal
-Representation of gay men and women in the media
-Challenges the oppositional divide between gay and heterosexuality
Judith Butler 1999
-Suggests gender is not the result of nature but it is socially constructed
-Male and female behaviour roles are not the result of biology but are constructed by society (This could link to 500 Days of Summer Sid and Nancy)
-Sees gender as a performance
-Men in the audience may not align with Tom due to his femininity, whilst vice versa with Summer = negotiated oppositional reading. Aligned with Tom through the director and narrative, but maybe not due to his femininity.
-Any behaviour that disrupts notions of gender - preconceived notions of gender = gender trouble (feminine, damsel in distress etc)
History
-1950s police actively enforced laws that prohibited sexual activities between men
-Sexually abnormal and deviant = marginalised
-1967 homosexuality is decriminalised in UK - India 2009
-In parts of Africa and Asia today is still punishable to death
-1977 refers to homosexuality of as a mental illness - not taken down till 1990
Queer theory suggests there are different ways of interpreting contemporary media texts
Queer theory can be applied to texts when heterosexuality is the dominant.
Queer theory suggests a movement towards an increasing tolerance although heterosexuality is still a norm.
Brokeback Mountain, 2006
-Success of this Hollywood film is an indication of more progressive attitudes to homosexuality
-For some, the film challenges two quintessential traditional images of American masculinity - the cowboy and the fishing trip
-The queer gaze here becomes the dominant active gaze rather than the oppositional gaze.
Homosexual films = desire + empathy of coming out
Heterosexual films = desire
"...being’ a lesbian is always a kind of miming, a vain effort to participate in the phantasmatic plenitude of naturalized heterosexuality which will always and only fail (Butler, 312.)” Butler is arguing that homosexuality imitates heterosexuality’s defining gender roles. That a butch lesbian is imitating a man because of her masculine qualities that only belong to a man, so she must be a fake in order be in the gender realm. The same goes for feminine gay men and even butch gay men whose hyper masculinity is a play on heterosexual masculinity pushed to the edges. So gender must be a societal construct that constantly emulates the heterosexual definitions of masculinity and femininity in order to differentiate between the sexes. When homosexual people enter the gender binary, they must imitate these norms in their relationship, but will always fail." [https://yourboyfriendsucks.wordpress.com/2011/09/17/of-mulvery-butler-and-the-homosexual-gaze/]
Homosexuality imitates the heterosexual qualities, the gay woman imitating the man/homosexual relationships are based on heterosexual relationships
Butler: drag is the only way to show the performativity of gender
Homosexual Male Gaze:
Homosexuals must align with women in cinema, to do so they must be transexual, disregarding their gender and sexuality -> heterosexual male
Derek Rucas
"Rucas is claiming that the homosexual male gaze can only come through the female perspective in cinema that our gaze, because it is a male one, overpowers her and her desire becomes our desire. The homosexual gaze is not transsvestivism, but rather a channeling through an outlet of the female desire for the male character, thus objectifying him while he is objectifying her. Because the homosexual gaze overpowers the female gaze, we are essentially turning her into a commodity to look at heterosexual men with. A kaleidoscope, if you will, that alters the perception of the film in our favour to turn a sexual being whose gaze is stronger than the female counterpart and meeting that gaze with an equally strong gaze through the woman."
When the homosexual man puts himself as the woman, when the male gazes at her, he sees it as him being gazed at.
However, Rucas is criticised to being restricted to heterosexual films.
Homosexual films = not just sexual desire, but also emotional, when they explore the process of being gay
When a gay person watches a gay film, it brings about a much more emotional response, bringing about empathy of the coming out process.
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