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….