bethany stotts -the author of this piece.
Posted on 01/14/2009 1:19:22 PM PST by bs9021
Virtually Gay Ghettos
by: Bethany Stotts, January 14, 2009
At this year’s Modern Language Association (MLA) Convention, two panelists diverged on whether new media aids or undermines the process of gay liberation.
Robin Bellinson, a doctoral student at Kent State University, argued in a panel on reality television programming that the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT) community might just find a silver lining to the often “heteronormative” depictions of gays in such shows. ,p> “Certainly with respect to queer representation, Reality Television is changing the culture on the economic landscape of entertainment. But does this matter if queer representation in reality programming is not also changing the cultural and economic landscape of the reality it purports to represent?” she asked.
Speaking of LGBT approaches to visibility politics, she said that “Ultimately, LGBT groups believe these more authentic representations result in an increase in social tolerance or acceptance and a reduction in discriminatory practices,”
According to Bellinson, the “truth effect” of Reality TV provides a fertile avenue for social change, and the eventual social and political “enfranchisement” of the LGBT community. She argued,
“Reality Television presents the real world in which is as if [it] is acceptable and ordinary to be lesbian or gay and perhaps to some extent bisexual or even transsexual. The truth effects of perceived reality hold a real sway to social aspects of the public sphere and [may] change mainstream social perceptions of reality queer and thus theoretically open a door for juridical and political changes in the public sphere as well.
But, she argues, this does not mean Reality TV is a true representation of queer life. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at campusreportonline.net ...
If “gay liberation” means allowing gay people to live their lives and think what they want to think without being told what they have to think, then no, the “new media” doesn’t help them. Just like blacks and other minorities, gay people are attacked if they deviate from the party line on a whole host of issues.
bethany stotts -the author of this piece.
Is there a point somewhere in the author’s word salad? I haven’t seen anybody say nothing at such great length since the end of the election campaign.
He’s nice looking.
She's a man, baby!
Of course, under all of the drivel..yet another facially challenged individual attempting to normalize aberrant behavior. But then, her/his big words are pretty neat!
One of the ones the National Guard missed I guess.
FMCDH(BITS)
No, no, her point is that the media heteronormatize homosexuals by portraying them as people basically living a straight life but who sleep with their own sex. But the totality of gay life is really very different in all its aspects - they have their own homonorm that is ignored.
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