Queer Theory

Tv Dramas or Films with gay characters:
Brokeback Mountain
Game of Thrones
Bad Education
Family Guy
Simpsons
Soaps
Bruno
Bend it like Beckham

Stereotypes in the shows:
Many women- Short hair, muscles
Over the top stereotypes
Camp men, Weaker

ANDY MEDHURST (1998) 

Magnification

Men: Screaming Queens

Women: Butch Dykes

In the REAL world you cannot ‘see’ sexuality. Unless someone tells you they are homosexual you have no way of knowing.

 “Films and television comedies are full of images of gay men as effeminate screaming queens…It chooses that aspect of gay male behaviour (SELECTION), inflates it into the defining male characteristic of male homosexuality (MAGNIFICATION), then establish it as the most easily recognizable image (REDUCTION).”

"The image of the screaming queen does not just mean ‘all gay men are like that’, it means ‘all gay men are like that and aren’t they awful’, which in turn means ‘and they are awful because the are not like us.”

"Hence the recurring presence across media texts of the screaming queen and his female equivalent the butch dyke.”

Michel FOUCAULT (where it all began)

"The appearance in nineteenth-century psychiatry, jurisprudence, and literature of a whole series of discourses on the species and subspecies of homosexuality, inversion, pederasty, and "psychic hermaphroditism" made possible a strong advance of social controls into this area of "perversity"; but it also made possible the formation of a "reverse" discourse: homosexuality began to speak in its own behalf, to demand that its legitimacy or "naturality" be acknowledged, often in the same vocabulary, using the same categories by which it was medically disqualified."

Michel Foucault (The History of Sexuality: An Introduction)

Queer Theory- Fingersmith

Medhurst said, in 1998, said that ‘across media texts of the screaming queen and his female equivalent the butch dyke.’

The extract opens with a medium long shot, at eye level, showing a young woman reading a book while in bed. The extract then cuts to a wide shot of another young woman getting undress. It cuts back again to show the first watching and back again a couple of times. This shows already that the extract breaks Medhurst’s theory, as it is not showing the women as ‘butch dykes’ but rather it shows them as attractive young woman. This does however support the Medhurst’s idea that ‘in the real world you cannot ‘see’ sexuality’ as this does not show them supporting gay stereotypes and so would be seen as invisible. During these shots there is non-diegetic music playing, used as a soundbridge, the music is a higher pitched music of a type, which is usually found in romantic scenes.

There is then a high angle shot looking down on the two women, wearing only a nightgown, in bed together. This high angle shot shows that the audience should look down on them and judge them, in this situation, because they are shown as gay.

This shows them as being supporting the idea of Medhurst’s saying ‘they are all awful because they are not like us.’ The mise-en-scene also shows they are gay, but possibly invisible, as they are wearing normal clothing, not associated with stereotypical gay people, however they are wearing this little clothing whilst lying together in bed.

In the scenes showing them in bed there is a soft lighting coming from a fire. This, along with the ambient diegetic sound of the fire, creates a traditional romantic scene that would be found in a period drama such as this, however most of the time this would be of two straight people. Here different non-diegetic music begins, this time of more sensual piano music. This type of music is also classically used in romantic scene of period dramas and so would be used to show that this activity is shown as normal as it uses music and lighting shown in scenes with straight people as well as these two gay women. This supports the theory of Foucault as he says that homosexuality ‘demand that its legitimacy or “naturality” be acknowledged.’

This section uses close ups as the women are talking, seducing each other, with lines like ‘You’re a beautiful young girl’ this line shows again that they are two gay women, but also shows they are not over the top. This disrupts Medhurst’s idea that homosexuality is magnified as it shows it more subtly as well as not following the stereotypes and going over the top with them. As the two begin to kiss, in a close up, the lighting moves from the maid to her mistress, putting the maid darker, showing she is worse and so supports this theory….

Gender

Mulvey, 1975:

 Mulvey, summarised the role of female characters in traditional cinema through saying that they simply function on two levels:

“As erotic objects of desire for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic objects of desire for the spectator within the auditorium.”  (Mulvey, 1975).

How is gender represented in this extract?

Laura Mulvey said, in 1975, that woman were shown only ‘As erotic objects of desire.’ I will look at this extract, in terms of the cinematography, mise-en-scene, sound and editing, and discuss whether it supports or disrupts Mulvey’s theory.

The extract opens with a close up of clothed and unclothed legs overlapping each other. This then moves away with a dolly moving up. This shot changes, with a quick fade to a mid-shot showing a fully clothed man in bed with a naked woman. These shots are also shaking slightly, connoting excitement. These shots support Mulvey’s theory as it shows the woman naked, tightly wrapped with the clothed man showing her to be an object of sexual desire, both for the audience as well as for the man.

This then moves, using a sound bridge, into wide shots showing the three men with three women dancing around them. This dancing supports Mulvey’s theory as they dance in a suggestive way for the men, which shows they are of sexual desire for the men. This shots also shows the men watching them in a desiring way, this mis-en-scene of their performance supports Mulvey’s theory as they see the woman as objects of sexual desire.

Disability

Disability Representation-

In 1998, Evans talked about the representation of disabled people in media, he said that ‘Disabled people are seen as childish, dependant and underdeveloped and are regarding as ‘other’ and are punished by being excluded from ordinary life.’ This extract supports as well as breaks these ideas, through the use of

This extract, from Diary of a Call Girl, opens with a mid-shot of the woman opening the door, with the diegetic sound of this action. This shot then tilts down to more of a high angle shot showing the disable male in his wheelchair. This shot first establishes that the extract will be about this disable person, through both the camera and the mis-en-scene of his wheelchair. The tilt and high angle already show that the audience must look down on him, showing him as inferior to the others in the scene, already supporting the theory of Evans.

This extract uses many tilts in different situations throughout. Whenever it moves to look at the boy it tilts down to look at him, creating the high angle, and then tilts up to look at others, creating a low angle. This low angle connotes that these people are more important and should be looked up to, more than the boy in the wheelchair, which the audience is made to look down upon. This cuts between eye level mid shots of each person, as well as over the shoulder shots, mostly from behind the woman. These over the shoulder shots are used, like the tilts, are used to look down upon the boy, but from the perspective from the woman. This shows that not only the audience are to look down on him, but the woman does also.

Theories

Youth/Age-

Stanley Hall-1904-

 “Adolescence is inherently a time of storm & stress when all young people go through some degree of emotional and behavioral upheaval, before establishing a more stable equilibrium at adulthood."

Hall also argued that:

1. The common mood of teenagers is a state of depression.

2. Criminal activity increases between the ages of 12 & 24.

3. Young people are extreme and need excitement; “Youth must have excitement and if this is not at hand in the form of moral intellectual enthusiasms it is more prone to be sought in; sex, drink or drugs.”

Osgerby-1998-

“The portrayal of youth is not entirely pessimistic,” he argues that “Mixed metaphors” appear when analysing the representation of youth.

He claims; “Dual stereotyping of youth,” creates these mixed metaphors that Dick Hebdige (1988) termed; “Youth as fun,” and “Youth as trouble maker.”

Evans (1998):

“Old people in our culture are also segregated and treated as though they are waiting to die. There are close associations between dependency, illness, dying and death. It seems that increasingly in our culture there are pressures that encourage a reversion to infantile feelings which have to be madly defended against.”

Disability-

EVANS (1998), drawing on the works of Freud and other psychoanalysis, states:

“Disable people are seen as childish, dependant and underdeveloped and are regarding as ‘other’ and are punished by being excluded from ordinary life. Thus popular images and rhetoric of disabled people abound which comfort us with people who are imperfect, helpless, disgusting, shitty, dribbling – a threat to rigid ego boundaries."

In short, disability is portrayed as ‘otherness’ and as a weakness. Often it is not shown at all and when it is the disabled person (be that mentally or physically) is rarely seen as anything other than disabled (EVANS 1998).