Pop Culture and Representation

Introduction

• This week's focus: pop culture and representation, examining their impact on societal perceptions and norms.

• Objective: to deeply understand how representations function within the contexts of justice, rights, and social equity. This includes analyzing how different groups are portrayed and the implications of these portrayals.

• Examples: Play School, Heartstopper, and other relevant media examples.

• Acknowledgment of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nations, recognizing their ongoing connection to the land.

Power, Knowledge, and Representation

• Power restricts and produces us: Power dynamics shape individual identities and societal structures.

• Power works through knowledge and dominant ideologies: Knowledge is not neutral; it's influenced by power structures and dominant beliefs.

• Repressive and ideological forms of power exist: Power operates through overt repression and subtle ideological influences.

• Resistance stories (e.g., Pride) can counter heteronormative and homophobic power: Narratives of resistance challenge dominant power structures.

• Louis Althusser: Representations help us recognize ourselves (positively or negatively): Media representations play a crucial role in identity formation, influencing how individuals perceive themselves and others.

• Hegemonic representations: beneficial for dominant groups; harmful for marginalized groups: Dominant representations reinforce the status quo, often at the expense of marginalized communities.

Rights, Justice, and Representation

• Rights: demands for equal, equitable, or fair treatment under the law and in society.

• Justice: demands for action or remedy when rights are not respected, aiming to correct systemic inequalities.

• Representation: depicting or presenting something again through various media and cultural forms.

• Representation is a mediated presentation of everyday life: Representations are not neutral reflections but are shaped by specific perspectives and agendas.

• Representation has become a central site for gender and sexual politics in the last 50 years: The struggle for accurate and diverse representations has intensified, particularly concerning gender and sexuality.

• Activism: feminists, queer, trans, and people of color have strived for positive/nuanced representations: Grassroots movements advocate for authentic and respectful portrayals in media and culture.

Politics of Representation

• Central claim: certain groups have been represented poorly historically, leading to negative social and political outcomes.

• Good representations linked to good political outcomes: Positive and accurate portrayals can foster understanding, empathy, and social change.

• Nonsexist depictions of women contribute to combating sexism: Challenging gender stereotypes in media can help reduce sexism and promote gender equality.

• Potential downsides: visibility can make groups (e.g., trans people) targets: Increased representation can lead to backlash and discrimination against marginalized groups.

• Representation as a site of political struggle: different groups vie for hegemonic dominance of their ideologies: The media landscape is a battleground where different groups compete to shape public opinion.

• Ideologies: emergent, hegemonic, and residual: Ideologies evolve over time, with dominant (hegemonic) ideologies often challenged by new (emergent) or traditional (residual) beliefs.

• Marginalized groups challenge hegemonic ideas; reactionary groups try to maintain or reinstate residual ones: Social change occurs as marginalized groups push back against dominant ideologies, while reactionary forces seek to preserve the status quo.

• Bell Hooks: feminism is organized struggle, including in culture: Feminism encompasses a broad range of actions, including cultural activism, to challenge patriarchal norms.

• Texts teach us how to feel about ourselves and the world: Media and cultural texts shape our emotions, attitudes, and perceptions of reality.

• Affect theory: understanding our capacity to be affected by others and the non-human: Affect theory explores how emotions and feelings influence our interactions and experiences.

• Affect (according to Gregory Seigworth and Melissa Gregg): make marks of bodies belonging to a world of encounters: Emotions leave traces on our bodies and shape our relationships with the world.

Representation and Queer Narratives

• "Bury Your Gays" trope: queer characters die by the end of the film, often to advance the plot or provide emotional impact for heterosexual characters.

• Logic: queerness leads to death, reinforcing harmful stereotypes and suggesting that queer lives are disposable.

• Horror movies: punishment for disparate groups of people, often using marginalized characters as sacrificial victims.

• Dominance of heterosexuality in media, perpetuating the idea that heterosexuality is the norm and other sexual orientations are deviations.

Play School Controversy

• Play School depicted lesbian parents in a through the window story, featuring diverse family structures.

• Featured a real girl with her two moms at a birthday party, normalizing same-sex parenting.

• Huge political outcry, including condemnation from then Prime Minister John Howard, highlighting the controversy surrounding LGBT representation.

• Accusations of a "gay agenda", reflecting fears and prejudices about LGBT inclusion.

Politicians' Comments

• John Anderson (Deputy Leader): the story reflects the hopes of adults and seeks to justify gay parenting, indicating a concern that children's programming was being used to promote a particular agenda.

• Minister for Children and Youth Affairs: program producers should not just respond to minorities; they don't need to know it, suggesting a resistance to addressing diverse experiences in children's media.

• Shadow Minister (Labour): exploring issues of sexuality in a children's program is a matter for parents, reflecting a view that LGBT issues are inappropriate for young audiences.

Parallels to Current Discourse

• Drag story telling time and LGBT picture books are called "grooming" by conservatives, falsely associating LGBT content with child abuse.

• Depicting queer and trans existence is described as sexually predatory behavior, perpetuating harmful stereotypes and misconceptions.

• Association of queerness/transness with pedophilia, fueling discrimination and prejudice.

• Example: Texas bill to make it illegal for trans people to have ID that doesn't match their assigned at birth sex, illustrating efforts to erase transgender identities.

• Werewolves in Harry Potter were a metaphor for AIDS, using fictional narratives to address real-world issues.

Lee Edelman and the Critiqued Child

• Right-wing discourse: childhood innocence is under siege, vulnerable to queerness, framing LGBT issues as a threat to traditional values.

• Children are "endangered by the social disease that queerness is supposed to be”, reinforcing the idea that LGBT identities are harmful and contagious.

• Queerness and transness treated as contagious, leading to stigmatization and discrimination.

• There is no such thing as a queer or trans child, denying the existence and experiences of LGBT youth.

Eve Sedgwick on Preventing Queerness

• Advice on how to make your kids turn out gay is less ubiquitous than you might think, challenging the notion that there is a deliberate effort to promote homosexuality.

• The scope of institutions to prevent the development of gay people is unimaginably large, highlighting the pervasive influence of heteronormativity.

• Sites of the state enforce this with little hesitation, illustrating how government policies can reinforce social norms.

• Institutions play a role in creating social meanings, shaping attitudes and beliefs about gender and sexuality.

Heteronormativity and Its Effects

• Heterosexuality is equally sexual or by their logic more than homosexuality is a lot of time heterosexuality revolves around reproduction, reinforcing the idea that heterosexuality is the norm and other sexual orientations are deviations.

• It is not considered inappropriately sexual for a heterosexual woman to wear a wedding ring or be visibly pregnant, illustrating how heterosexuality is normalized and celebrated.

• Schools are heteronormative institutions, reinforcing traditional gender roles and expectations.

Positive Representation and Backlash

• Increase in sexual diversity in media since the 1990s, supported by the internet and streaming services, providing more opportunities for LGBT representation.

• Example: Heartstopper (webcomic, published book, Netflix adaptation), as a popular and positive portrayal of LGBT youth.

• Heartstopper as a coming-out resource and positive representation, helping young people explore their identities.

• Banned from school district libraries and moved to adult sections due to complaints, reflecting ongoing resistance to LGBT inclusion.

• No sexually explicit material, but accusations of "recruiting" kids into a "lifestyle", falsely associating LGBT content with indoctrination.

• Alice Ossman: racism, homophobia, and transphobia are thriving under the guise of concern for children, highlighting the underlying prejudices behind censorship efforts.

• Children are more open to learning and accepting queerness; less likely to accept queerphobic rhetoric, suggesting that young people are more accepting of diversity than previous generations.

• Heartstopper depicts difficult issues like eating disorders and anxiety, showing that LGBT characters face the same challenges as their heterosexual peers.

• The idea that LGBT plus representation is uniquely destroying of children's innocence is ridiculous, challenging the notion that LGBT content is inherently harmful.

• Heteronormativity: heterosexuality is considered normal, natural, and compulsory, creating a social environment that marginalizes LGBT individuals.

Conclusion

• Representations matter and are a site of political struggle: How groups are portrayed in media and culture has real-world consequences.

• LGBT representations like Heartstopper seek to provide realistic but positive portrayals, challenging stereotypes and promoting understanding.

• These representations remain controversial, facing political backlash, highlighting the ongoing struggle for LGBT equality.

• Goal of anti-abortion politics: to make all forms of sex reproductive heterosexual sex, reinforcing traditional gender roles and expectations.

• Transness is imagined as a perversion of reproductivity / forced sterilization, illustrating how fears about transgender identities are linked to concerns about reproduction.

Seminar Preview

• Seminars will explore several representations in thinking about pop culture and feeling, providing opportunities for in-depth discussion and analysis.