queer representation

A blog dedicated to looking outside of the literary canon.

[queerlit12u]

Closing Statements

During the course of this project, our group had many similar findings about the condition of LGBT+ representation. Often, it is a constant portrayal of white gay males, coming out, and character tropes that have been repeated infinite times. While there is quality material written by, and about, by other queer people, it is even further removed from the literary cannon. 

There needs to be more recognition of stories that centre around the experience of queer females, bisexuals, transgender, and non-binary people, as well as stories that are more then coming out stories. Today’s content has taken certain steps towards including stories from this demographic, but people who identify as a part of the LGBT+ community are still looking for better representation. 

Often representation relies heavily of stereotypes.  Many tropes we saw in our investigation have been rehashed countless times, such as the promiscuous bisexual, the theatre gay, or the man-hating butch lesbian. This is extremely damaging, as it further marginalizes queer people, limits their ideas of who they can become, and limits are culture’s view of who queer people really are. Queer people are people of colour, women, come from all economic and cultural backgrounds. It is vital that our diversity is seen by the world. 

In order for this to happen, queer people must be visible in all genres. In almost all LBGT+ literature, being queer is the central element to the story. This causes these stories to be restricted to the LGBT+ section and as a result, restricts who is exposed to them. It is incredibly important to normalize queer experiences and the only way to do that is to have them seen in all art forms, across all genres. Only then will we have fair representation that brings the LGBT+ community into the mainstream. 

In order to offer a sense of comfort for youth growing up in a world that considers them to be “other”, it is vital that LGBT+ representation is improved in our culture. A flourishing arts community is one where every voice is heard, and canon is not dominated by one race, one sexual orientation, and one gender identity.  

[queerlit12u]

Recomendations

TV

Comedy:

- Modern Family

This series involves an extended family including a married gay couple. The couple also adopt a daughter later in the series and the conflict in the show is based on their characters not their sexuality.

Sci-Fi/Fantasy: 

- Buffy the Vampire Slayer

While the show centres around Buffy, the teenage vampire slayer, the 90′s show displayed early queer female representation through her best friend Willow. In season four, Willow comes out as a lesbian. Buffy has been criticized for bisexual erasure, as in earlier seasons Willow is in romanic relationships with male characters, but this can also be viewed as showing how romantic pasts don’t dictate ones current identity. 

Animation:

- Legend of Korra

A squeal to Avatar: The Last Airbender, a kids TV show from mid 2000′s, takes a lot of risks in character development and in writing style. In this series two of the main characters are confirmed bisexuals and end up dating at the end of the series. Not only was this one of the first children’s TV shows to have bisexual main characters, but the character’s sexuality was not part of their story conflict.

Film

Comedy:

- To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! by Julie Newmar

A fun road trip comedy about three drag queens from New York City who set out to Hollywood for a drag queen pageant. Their car breaks down and they end up stranded in a small town. The movie does a good job of breaking down prejudices as people from a small town learn to become friends and accept the drag queens for who they are after getting to know them. 

-Hurricane Bianca, Directed by Matt Kugelman

Hurricane Bianca is the story of Richard Martinez - a high school science teacher. When Richard is fired for being gay by the Texas high school where he works, he decides to reapply as his drag persona: Bianca. 

Drama: 

- Carol 

- Moonlight 

Literature

Fiction:

- Huntress by Malinda Lo

This story has two gay female leads. It’s set in a fantasy world involving magic and prophecies. In this book the main struggle of the two leads is not their sexuality but the journey they must undertake to save the world. Any struggles in their relationship have nothing to do with being a gay couple, and more to do with their conflicting life choices. 

-Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson 

The semi-autobiographical by Jeanette Winterson tells the story of her religious upbringing in England. Winterson was raised in the Pentacostal Church, and intended to become a missionary. She came out as a lesbian at 16, and the novel deals with her struggle in her strict, Christian environment.

-Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz 

A young adult novel set in the 1980′s about two Mexican-American boys named Dante and Aristotle. The story focuses on their friendship, struggles with race and ethnicity, and sexuality rather than coming out. 

- The Colour Purple by Alice Walker

Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel centres on the self growth and sexual awakening of a young black woman living in the post-Reconstruction South.

- Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mashima 

Published in 1949, Confessions of a Mask follows the young Kochan as he grows up in Imperial Japan. Kochan has difficulty following the norms of society, due to his obsession with masculinity and his inability to achieve the masculine himself. As a results, he constructs a new persona, a mask, to fit in.

- The City of Devi by Manil Suri 

Set in Mumbai on the edge of nuclear destruction, a Hindu woman, Sarita, meets a gay Muslim man, Jaz. Together, they journey through the nearly annihilated city in search of keys to their own serenity.

- The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith 

A lesbian love story that contains a rare happy ending. 

- Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai

A love story set in 1980′s Sri Lanka, Funny Boy explores the relationship between a young Sinhalese Buddhist and a Tamil boy growing up amid the violent clashes between the two groups. 

- I’m Trying to Reach You by Barbara Browning

A novel that blurs the lines of fiction and reality, I’m Trying to Reach You portrays the connection between a male ballet dancer turned graduate student and an online performance artist.

Non-Fiction:

-Whipping Girl by Julia Serano 

This book is a collection of essays by Julia Serano, who reflects on the many misconceptions about trans women, sexism, sex, and gender. She argues that transphobia is not just a result of trans people “transgressing binary gender norms”, but is also a form of misogyny. 

-Blood, Bread, and Poetry by Adrienne Rich 

A series of essays by Adrienne Rich, influential feminist writer. The book includes her essay “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence”, which explores the constraints of heteronormativity on women. 

[queerlit12u]

A Case of Repeating Representation

Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament by Willa Sibert Cather, is a short story written in 1905. It tells the story of Paul, a rebellious teenage boy who longs to leave his monotonous community. While the story never discloses the protagonist’s sexual orientation, Paul can easily be read as gay by the reader. This is because Paul’s character exhibits many stereotypes of gay men and through this he becomes an early literary depiction of the classic “musical theatre gay” archetype that exists in fiction today.

The “musical theatre gay” trope is a recurring representation of gay men that exists in all forms of media today. A “musical theatre gay” is a stereotypical gay male, who is usually white, extremely flamboyant, and loves theatre. Typically, they are rejected by their families and peers, and find theatre is the only place they can express themselves. This archetype has been repeated many times in characters such as Kurt Hummel from Glee, Maxxie Oliver from Skins, and many more. Paul’s character fits this mould in many ways.

The first aspect of this trope depicted in Paul’s Case is Paul’s association with femininity. The story begins with Paul wearing a red carnation in his buttonhole, a symbol for his defiant nature and feminine presentation. This association continues throughout the story, as Paul is portrayed with flowers, jewels, and other feminine symbols. Since Paul’s sexual orientation is never overtly disclosed, the reader must interpret his gayness through his actions and these symbols. However, this preys upon the reader’s preconceived notions about gay men, reinforcing the stereotype that all gay men are extremely effeminate. This is unfortunately the way queer males are still portrayed in media today.

Another common aspect of gay representation apparent in Paul’s Case is his social exclusion and familial rejection. Paul is an outsider in his uniform environment, and as a result sees himself as superior to those around him. This causes his rebellious nature and a wealth of conflict in school and at home. He is fearful of this father and this can be seen when Paul is too afraid of his father to come home when he stays out late after work. He sneaks in through the basement window and thinks, “Suppose his father had heard him getting in at the window, and come down and shot him for a burglar?” (4) While social and familial rejection is a common aspect of LGBT+ experience, it’s representation has not changed since 1905.

Despite his rejection, Paul finds his place as an usher in the theatre. He is in his element at work, and when the show starts the reader sees the impact it has on Paul:

“When the symphony began, Paul sank into one of the rear seats, with a long sigh of relief. It was not that symphonies, as such, meant anything in particular to Paul, but the first sigh of the instruments seemed to free some hilarious and potent spirit within him— something that struggled there like the Genius in the bottle found by the Arab fisherman. He felt a sudden zest of life; the lights danced before his eyes and the concert hall blazed into unimaginable splendor.” (2)

Finding refuge in theatre is a quintessential element of the musical theatre gay trope. The connection between dramatic arts and the queer community is one that has been explored many times since this story’s publication. However, this stereotype does not ring true for all LGBT+ individuals.  

Since this story was published in 1905, LGBT+ representation is still somewhat limited to the character outlined in this story: a young, effeminate, while male who is loud, flamboyant, and emotionally troubled. This one view of who queer people can be is extremely damaging, as it does not reflect the vast majority of those on the LGBT+ spectrum. The same tropes are rehashed over and over, and producers of media get to pat themselves on the back for telling the same stories. This prevents the experiences of queer females, people of colour, transgender, and nonbinary individuals from being represented. After over one-hundred years, it is time to update the representation of the LGBT+ community.

[queerlit12u]

Paul’s Case Summary

Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament by Willa Sibert Cather, is a short story writen in 1905 about a defiant teen-aged boy who resents his monotonous, working class environment. Paul is facing suspension, accused of “disorder and impertinence” (1) by his teachers. His trouble at school stems from his rebellious and flamboyant personality, which leads Paul to get into conflict with those in positions of authority.

Later that night, Paul goes to work as an usher at Carnegie Hall. While at work he is animated, and the music frees him from the restrictions he feels in other aspects of his life. He longs to join the ranks of wealthy performers and leave his dull school-masters behind. After the concert, Paul waits outside the sauve hotel near the theatre. He stands in the rain, watching the stars of the symphony enter the exotic world contained in the building. Paul watches late into the night, dreading returning to his bland, respectable home.

Paul feels extreme dissatisfaction in his monotonous, everyday world of schoolwork, cookie cutter houses, imposing parents, and dull teachers. He finds his escape in his job as an usher at Carnegie Hall. There, Paul feels at home and befriends an actor named Charley Edwards. However when Paul’s father discovers the trouble Paul experiences at school, he is forced to leave his job and Charley.

Years later, Paul is working as a businessman in New York CIty. He is finally living the wealthy life he always dreamed of. His apartment is filled with beautiful clothes, bouquets of flowers, and expensive jewels. Despite all his lavish possessions, something is still missing from Paul’s life, leading him to take drastic measures.

Willa Sibert Cather, the author of Paul’s Case, was an American author from Black Creek Valley, Virginia. She was born in 1873, and in her lifetime she published twelve novels and nine collections of short stories and essays. Among these collections was The Troll Garden (1905), which contained Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament. While Cather never openly declared herself a lesbian, she never married and it is apparent that all of her close emotional relationships were with women. However, her sexual orientation can never be accurately determined.

Krista 

[queerlit12u]

Proper Representation

Unfortunately, in today's media it is very rare to come across material that represents sexualities that aren't homosexual. Sexualities like bisexual and asexuality are often criticized not only by straight people, but gay people alike who often deny the legitimacy of their sexualities. 

While some television shows in the recent years have come forward with characters that are bisexual, there is still a lack of proper representation when it comes to writing them. Bisexual characters on television are often pushed towards having relationships with either the same sex or opposite sex to perhaps avoid 'confusion' from the audience. Some writing has even lead to a bisexual character's same sex lover to get killed off in the show just to clear the way for the bisexual character's relationship with an opposite sex character. 

There is also problems with asexual representation, where in most media today is ends up being non-existent. Even when a character has been written as asexual in their text format, when it comes to adapt the text into media, their sexuality is lost through the adaptation. For example, the recent hit teen show Riverdale is based off the Archie Comics, which in recent years has developed the character of Jughead Jones into an asexual. The television show Riverdale has decided to neglected to acknowledge this revolutionary change in the comics, and has the television version of Jughead date the character of Betty Cooper.

The reason I chose But I'm a Cheerleader, despite the fact it has mainly homosexual characters, is because the film manages to have accurate representation of its gay characters. It depicts loving relationships between its gay characters, especially between the main couple Megan and Graham. The film also manages to make fun of the stereotypes gay people are given while not limiting those characters to their given stereotypes. 

The film even comments on the danger of presuming sexuality based on stereotypes. The butch character of Jan, who is a girl with a shaved hair style. Jan is determined to be gay by the adults around her because she was molested as a child and plays softball. However, in a twist, Jan comes out as heterosexual to the other campers and a counsellor at the conversion therapy camp. Her confession is denied by the counsellor, who argues that it’s impossible for her to like guys based on how she looks and acts. 

It also manages to communicate to the audience that there is no right way to be gay. When Megan has the chance to talk to two adult gay men who are comfortable with their sexualities and are in a committed relationship with each other, they explain to her that there is no wrong or right way to be a lesbian. All Megan has to do is continue to be who she is. This is a very important message, especially for the queer youth who might come across this film and watch it. It is extremely important to encourage queer youth that they shouldn’t think of the stereotypes given to them, and should just be who they are and love who they love. 

Another topic that I think this film appropriately addresses is the relationship between the parents and their child. Throughout most of the film, it sticks to the narrative that most of the gay teens have parents who don’t accept their sexuality and are forcing them to change who they are. For Megan, the main character, her parents also don't accept her sexuality and force her to change. However, in the end they take a turn when Megan grows comfortable with her sexuality and decides she is no longer going to deny it. The film ends with the brief scene of her parents attending a PFLAG meeting, which indicates they are making steps towards accepting their daughter's sexuality in hopes of having a better relationship with her.

For me, it is very important to have the kind of queer representation in media that shows youths accepting who they are and their parents learning to accept who they are. There needs to be more films that depict healthy and loving relationships between queer people. There needs to be more films that defy gender roles and heteronormativity. Overall, the most important factor in media is to promote a healthy identity with queer sexualities. Representation in the media needs to change not only for homosexuals, but for other marginalized sexualities too. We need to have more films like But I'm a Cheerleader that features not only homosexual characters, but bisexual and asexual as well. Marginalized sexualities have the right to have their voice heard in the content that we consume today as a society.

[queerlit12u]

Perpetuating Heteronormativity

Throughout her novel, Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution, Shiri Eisner explores the "bisexual experience" and the specific oppression of Bi people (Biphobia). One has to question however if her book is not only an advocate for change, but an effective method for change. As a bisexual young woman this book spoke to me and my own experience. I found often that the struggles that Eisner unapologetically "called out" were ones that I faced regularly in my own life. Her anger at Biphobia and the ignorance that often surrounds bisexuality seemed justified to me, because like her I had experienced it.

The issue I have with this text is it is very much written for a Bisexual reader, and although I understood many of the issues and topics in the book I'm not sure if a straight audience would. 

The point I mean to address is, is it our duty as bisexual activists to write for each other, or to have our art and work used for the purpose of educating those around us?

This isn't an easy question to answer, and Eisner is very clear in the beginning of her novel that she is a radical activist, and that her text is meant to push boundaries and not meant to be a slow dip into the world of activism. This points to a clear divide in literature and media. The difference between "queer material" and then normal content.

The most obvious place to see this is on sites like Netflix. On Netflix you can search through many categories of movies and television, including genres like, comedy, action, gay, romance, and crime.

This issue is touched on in many different "queer" novels, and it's called heteronormativity. The idea that being heterosexual is perceived as the standard and any other sexuality is a deviance from the norm. 

The main problem with the ideology that we should define normal as straight, and gay as other, is that it isolates us into two groups. It separates people based on sexuality, even if it's not meant in an antagonistic way.

Going back to our Netflix example, if queer films are in their own separate genre, then where are straight films? Why is there no genre for straight films? That’s because every other film on Netflix is a straight film. Straight people in film are considered normal, hence the amount of genres in straight films, but queer films are considered different. They are not the normal straight film and therefore are labelled as a subcategory of straight film.

This is not Netflix's fault, and I applaud Netflix for not only distributing so much queer content but for putting it under a very accessible and searchable category. 

So why does this happen? Why is queer material labelled as "other". This brings us back to the harmful concept of heteronormativity.  The idea that we can define the "normal" sexuality is not only insulting to queer people, but also very dangerous.

Heteronormitivity is perpetuated by a straight society that has set rules and definitions for Queer people dating back to Victorian times, but this concept is also perpetuated by queer people themselves.

Almost all of the queer material I read is about coming out, or dealing with the adversity of being gay in an unaccepting world. There seems to be a lack of material where the main characters just happen to be gay. It feels like in literature and in media there is a definite divide between queer and straight.  

The stories about coming out and dealing with the hardships that so many queer people face in their lives are important. They are unheard voices, they are important voices, and they should never be silenced. But by defining the voice of queer people as a voice of suffering and struggle we define our own genre. We give a reason for their to be a queer section on Netflix. Because all of our stories are made for each other, they are made to relate our experiences, to shout as loudly as possible that this is our voice and that we will not be silent, because we have fought for so long to be heard.

And we should never stop shouting to be heard and respected.

But I would like to believe that the world has developed enough for us to have more then one voice. There should be the stories of coming out and hardship that we have as a community, but we should also have voices of romantic comedies, of action movies, and crime novels. We need to stop defining our genre as "other", as something that is different from the normal. 

Because yes, we are different from straight people, but we cant define the "normal" sexuality as straight. Our experiences may be different; straight, cis people will never have the same history of hiding their sexuality, or of being attacked and persecuted for it. But that's not a bad thing. The solution to violence is not to use more violence to let the other side know how it feels. It is to educate and love, no matter how hard that may be.

Queer material written for queer people like Shiri Eisner's Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution, are important, but we need to evolve past defining ourselves as the other. We need to embrace the friends we have in this world and stop defining the enemy as straight people, and start defining it as ignorance and bigotry. 

Queer people are more then their struggles, we are not only our own genre, we are every genre. We are romantic comedies, we are musicals, we are fantasy adventure, we are science fiction, we are children's TV shows. The "Queer" section on Netflix can not be the only section in which we are represented. We are not different from the norm, we are part of a bigger picture of humanity.

[queerlit12u]

Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution

Shiri Eisner is a feminist, bisexual who lives in Tel Aviv. She is a writer, a researcher, and an activist and her book Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution is a clear demonstration of her passion in the the subject.

As well as writing this book she also runs a bisexual organisation called Panorama – Bi and Pansexual Feminist Community. She keeps up multiple blogs, including one in entirely in Hebrew, and participates regularly in feminist, animal rights, Palestine solidarity, and transgender movements.

Eisner goes into depth in her book about the history of the definition of bisexuality, the history of the bisexual movement and its relations with other LGBTQ+ movements, and the specific experiences of Bi people including Biphobia, monosexism, and Bi erasure.

At the beginning of her book Eisner states that it is a book full of radical ideas, and she unapologetically lives up to that statement.

Throughout the book she gives helpful definitions of words that come up often in the LGBTQ+ movements and includes a glossary at the end of the novel.

As I will touch on later, Eisner’s history and theories are often very interesting to a queer audience, but a straight audience may have trouble relating and enjoying the text.

Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution is an educational and interesting read, but one has to put it down once and a while and step away from Eisner's heated words. While a queer audience will understand and relate with the struggles in the text, a straight audience might feel attacked and even frustrated with it.

[queerlit12u]

“But I’m a Cheerleader” Introduction

My media text piece is a film from the year 1999 called But I’m a Cheerleader. This film was directed by Jamie Babbit, who also created the story, and its screenplay was written by Brian Wayne Peterson.

The story revolves around high school cheerleader, Megan Bloomfield, whose parents send her to a conversion therapy camp to ‘cure’ her lesbianism. Despite the therapy, Megan begins to embrace her sexuality and fall in love.

But I’m a Cheerleader is Babbit’s first feature film. She was inspired after reading an article about conversion therapy, and her own childhood memories of her mother who ran a rehabilitation program for teenagers dealing with drug and alcohol problems. Her mother’s program was called “New Directions” which inspired the conversion therapy group in her film “True Directions”. Babbit is an openly lesbian woman.

Brian Wayne Peterson, who wrote the screenplay for But I’m a Cheerleader, is an openly gay man. Babbit approached him to write the screenplay for her film after reading a story he wrote about a gay cowboy. He drew on his own personal experiences as well as Babbit did in order to write this film.

The main themes of this film are a comment on society's determined gender roles and heteronormativity. The set and costume designs on this film show often bright pinks and blues to reflect the roles our society give women and men. The title of the film is a direct reference to this as well, with the main character Megan often stating she could not be a homosexual because she was a cheerleader, got good grades, and went to church.

[queerlit12u]

Purpose

The literary canon is composed of authors like Shakespeare, Fitzgerald, Twain, Dickens, and T.S. Eliot. All talented and each with a list of works that are as impressive as they are recognizable, but the main connection between these authors are that they are white, dead, straight (although one is doubtful about Shakespeare and Eliot), men.

The lack of representation of openly gay, and/or female writers in the literary canon is one of the many reasons the “list” feels outdated. 

Not only does the lack of different voices in the literary canon exclude the incredible work by writers with a different background and life, but it narrows our idea of what is acceptable in literature and what we perceive as “normal”.

In this blog we are going outside of the canon to find text that represents a LGBTQ+ voice that is so often excluded from “classic” literature. More specifically we hope to look at gay and bisexual women whose voices are often harder to find.

As three out of four members of this group identify as bisexual, we hope to focus on exploring the specific representation of bisexual experience. Works about bisexualilty are extremely lacking, even within the LGBT+ genre. Unfortunately, many misconceptions exist of bisexuals: they are greedy, secretly straight, secretly gay or lesbian, just looking for attention, or confused. We hope to explore how the literary works we have chosen reflect or challenge these stereotypes. 

[queerlit12u]

Meet Krista

When I was in kindergarden, I drew countless pictures of myself with my “future husband”: a boy beside me who was always slightly taller, white, and had brown hair and eyes. By age four, I had learned from our culture that as a girl, I was supposed to end up falling in love with a boy. So when I started having early romantic feelings for a friend of mine in first grade, she would pretend to be my boyfriend, or a prince, or Anakin Skywalker. She played “the boy” in order for our juvenile romance (if you can even call holding hands in first grade that) fit what we had been taught was correct by our heteronormative society.

In eighth grade, I realized I was bisexual. I have been out ever since, but I’m often mistaken for straight due to my feminine presentation. I wasted years believing that who I am is wrong and that being able to love people of all genders was a bad thing. If I had seen LGBT+ representation as a child I may have had a more healthy idea of who I could become.

[queerlit12u]

Meet Araceli

Before I started high school, I didn't get the chance to recognize my sexuality. The environment I grew up in was one where heterosexuality is a the default setting. It was only until I entered high school that I got the chance to meet people of the LGTBQ+ community. I got to realize I’m bisexual in a safe environment. 

I wish I had been exposed more to this community when I was younger. I believe it would have given me a chance to accept my sexuality without feeling ashamed of it. 

As an artist, it is our job to express ourselves and connect to others. These marginalized voices are incredibly important to represent, in order to help these people feel safe and loved. Especially when they are young and figuring out who they are.

- Araceli

[queerlit12u]

Meet Katie

“As a bisexual female artist, growing up in Toronto was one of the most important factors in who I am today. I have been lucky enough to live in a city that is, on the whole, widely accepting, and with a family that is supportive. 

I first realized I was bisexual in grade 1 but didn’t have a name for it. For the next 8 years I struggled with what to call myself and even when I learned what bisexuality was I still struggled with trying to “fit” into the definition I had learned.

Bisexual and LGBTQ+ literature is important because it gives our community multiple voices and many experiences, and hopefully by exploring these texts we can encourage more voices to tell their stories.”

- Katie