Essay Proposal

Possible (Working) title: 

The contemporary representation of LGBT+ community through art and mass media.

Relevant Discourses: 

Sexuality, Gender, Class, Sexism

Significance:

Representation is important to all groups of people. I want to know if the LGBT community is really being represented fairly through media or if it needs to be changed.

Methods (May change has I'm writing the essay): 

I'm still having some trouble really pinning down my essay, although here are some ideas I'd like the follow up on and research:

Outline some examples positive and negative contemporary representations of LGBT+ individuals through art and mass media and say how it's obviously changed from past representations of LGBT people.

There is a big divide in the LGBT+ community between gay men and the rest of the members, there seems to be a social inequality to it as gay men are the most recognised and most represented part of the community despite only being only a subsection of it. I want to know why the most prevalent and most popular image of the community is the gay male and why the media has decided this part of the community is to be the best represented.

Finally see how LGBT representation is often "made more palatable" for the comfort of hetrosexual audiences.

Primary and Secondary Sources:

Butler, J. (1999). Gender trouble. New York: Routledge.

Gamson, J. (1998). Publicity Traps: Television Talk Shows and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Visibility. Sexualities, 1(1), pp.11-41.

Weiss, J. (2011). Reflective Paper: GL Versus BT: The Archaeology of Biphobia and Transphobia Within the U.S. Gay and Lesbian Community. Journal of Bisexuality, 11(4), pp.498-502.

Limitations: 

I think a very big limitation of this project is when looking into the how the gay male dominates the LGBT community is that because they do seem to dominate the community it makes finding literature about the alienation of the other groups a little difficult.

It's also very hard to find much LGBT+ illustration so linking it back to my topic and trying to find specific illustrations to show my point will be very hard.

Essay Plan: 

a) Introduction (??? words)-Introduce essay by outlining the general things I've explored writing the essay.

     b) Main Body - (??? words) -Start with talking about how LGBT representation and discrimination have improved, then bring in how LGBT community as a whole is seen. Next talk about how gay males fit into the community and their exposure compared to other LGBT community members. Talk about why this may be. Then talk about this in relation to hetrosexual audiences.

     c) Visual Examples (??? words) - Discourse analyse on some visual examples to support my arguments

     d) Conclusion (??? words) - Condensing my conclusions of each of my arguments down and finish by suggesting how LGBT representation could be improved.

Peer Feedback

Mother's Day The New Yorker Cover by Chris Ware- Critical Analysis

This piece was a cover was drawn by Chicago based artist Chris Ware, who also wrote the editorial piece to accompany it. The piece discussed the evolving nature of US politics, and the growing support for equal marriage measures, within the larger context of moves towards full equality. He concludes his article by saying that the “evolution” towards equality represents a larger move forward in human nature. 

The New Yorker is an American magazine focusing on the cultural life of New York City, The New Yorker has a wide audience outside of New York. It publishes articles commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It is widely known for its illustrations and topical covers, its commentaries on popular culture and eccentric Americana. The target audience is predominately middle aged, well off people living in the big metropolitan cities of the US, but mostly New York.  

The piece was made digitally appears to be made digitally, however looking into Chris Ware you see his precise, geometrical layouts and lines are actually hand drawn, only employing a computer to color his work. The flat computer generated colour gives the piece a modern and spacious feel, allowing the hand down lifework to breath and also draw attention to the space between the two focal points in the picture.

The image is of a space, well lit, modern kitchen where two women in dressing gowns are reading a card. On the table in front of them is a vase of flowers with a blow wrapped around it. In the background three children are peering around the arched entrance to the kitchen. There are family portraits of everyone portrayed in the image on the wall. These visual queues obviously suggest that these people are a family and the closeness of the two women in the informal setting gives us the idea that these children belong to the two women, and that the gifts are from them as they take a sneak peak around the door. The two women are close and their dressing gowns suggest that they have just got out of bed. The way they lean in to both look at the card indicates closeness, telling the viewer that these two women are partners.

The pieces represent the slow normalisation of same sex marriage in the US. The issue of same sex marriage mirrors the plight of interracial marriage years previous."Attitudes toward interracial marriage have changed dramatically over the last quarter-century. Although still unacceptable to many Americans,social approval of interracial marriage has increased.Many gay couples today also seek social acceptance and legally sanctioned marriage. The majority of Americans, however, disapprove of gay marriage. couples therefore lag behind interracial couples by several decades in gaining social acceptance."1  

The couple is represented in a normal and understated way, just as any other couple would. Their three children also indicate the rise in same sex couples adopting children in the US, and the way these children are growing up perfectly normally and happily in these “modern” families. Their spacious kitchen with the sunlight shining through gives us a feel of the family being happy and well off, a perfectly acceptable place to raise children in. The pictures on the wall to the children's coats by the door to the dishes in the sink, it’s easy to see this illustration is here to represent that this family with same sex parents as perfectly normal as any other middle class american family. Many recent studies show same sex couples are just as good, if not better at raising children than heterosexual couples. "[It was] found that children from same-sex families scored, on average, 6% better on two key measures, general health and family cohesion, even when controlling for a number sociodemographic factors such as parent education and household income." 2

Fig 1

Fig 2

Fig 3 

 

Fig 4

Fig 5

fig 1, Carroll, E. (2010) "Untitled" [Illustration] 

fig 2, Mcgrath, D. (2009) "Queer Youth" [Editorial Illustration]

fig 3, Mornet, P (2010) "Untitled" [Illustration] 

fig 4, Legrand, L (1891) "Two Women" [Etching] 

fig 5, Unknown (1972) "The Ladder" [Advertisement] 

1: Trosino, J. (1993) "American Wedding: Same-Sex Marriage and the Miscegenation Analogy", Boston, Boston University 
2: Crouch, S. (2014). "Kids from same-sex families fare as well as peers – or better." Available: http://theconversation.com/kids-from-same-sex-families-fare-as-well-as-peers-or-better-28803. Last accessed 5th November 2014.

Study Task Two

Emily Carroll

 

Devin McGrath

  

Chris Ware  

 

Unknown (?)

 

Mitch Blunt

Library Research Task

 

301.412 

I picked this book because I'm interested in looking at the connection between Feminism and Queerness and how in some cases they are inseparable allies. I am interested in both the topics and would like to investigate further how both topics mirror and compliment each other both in history and theory.