“But they’re gay though”: how LGBTQ+ audiences are queering contemporary drama
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Date
08/07/2019Author
Davenport, Alexandria Douglas
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Abstract
Previous research and the existing literature on LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
Transgender, Queer) representation in the media has neglected to examine how LGBTQ+
audiences are actively queering media in order to fill gaps in representation and to find
relatable characters and experiences in the media they consume. While we have seen a rise in
research looking at increased representation, especially on television, and the online
presence of fans, including LGBTQ+ audiences and their reactions to media
representation, and the results of queering media (or “messing up” media for their own
purposes), we have failed to see a rise in research examining how audiences react to this lack
of representation and how they come to queering. My contribution to the literature
provides empirical evidence of how people are actively queering media. This study uses
purposive snowball sampling to gather participants, and the combined methodologies of
participant observation and in depth semi-structured interviews, which were carried out in
Edinburgh, Brighton, and London from 2014 to 2016. The resulting thesis argues that
LGBTQ+ audiences are queering contemporary drama to address a lack of representation
and for their own personal enjoyment. We can understand their queering practises take the
form of careers that progress through time, many of them reflecting major life changes and
life stages, starting in adolescence and discovering their sexualities and gender identities,
changing as they go away to university, and then again when they start or settle into
adulthood. Their queering practices are done according to personal ethical guidelines,
which prohibit practices they find taboo, but also maintaining intersectionality in
representation and queering. Their practices are also emotional; allowing them to explore
their identities and interpersonal relationships, as well as examine emotional events in their
lives; this is not reflective of the previous assumption that fans are crazed, but that they
experience a range of everyday emotions. Finally, they expand the domains of queering to
expand representation beyond dyadic relationships, which dominate LGBTQ+
representation in the media, to include more romantic and sexual orientations such as
aromatic, asexual, and polyamorous, as well as trans and non-binary identities. This study
points to the need for continued research in this area to fully understand how and why
LGBTQ+ audiences are queering media, and the need to broaden the exploration of
queering outside of urban centres in the UK, and across all backgrounds and age groups.
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