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.
