Lesbians on Television

Kate McNicholas Smith

Description

The twenty-first century has seen LGBTQ+ rights emerge at the forefront of public discourse and national politics in ways that would once have been hard to imagine. This book offers a unique and layered account of the complex dynamics in the modern moment of social change, drawing together critical, social and cultural theory as well as empirical research, which includes interviews and multi-platform media analyses.

This original new study puts forward a much-needed analysis of twenty-first century television and lesbian visibility. Books addressing the representation of lesbians have tended to focus on film; analysis of queer characters on television has usually focused on representations of gay males.  Other recent books have attempted to address lesbian, gay and trans representation together, with the result that none are examined in sufficient detail – here, the exclusive focus on lesbian representation allows a fuller discussion. Until now, much of the research on lesbian and gay representation has tended to employ only textual analysis. The combination of audience research with analysis in this book brings a new angle to the debates, as does the critical review of the tropes of lesbian representation. The earlier stereotypes of pathological monsters and predators are discussed alongside the more recent trends of ‘lesbian chic’ and ‘lesbianism as a phase’. 

 Introduction

'Previously…': Queer women on screen

‘The way that we live and love’: The L Word and the tensions of visibility

‘Homophobia is so old fashioned’: Skins and the lesbian normal

‘Skins’ truest legacy’: The counterpublics of the Naomily fandom

‘The nation’s favourite lesbian’: Coronation Street and the ‘everyday’ soap lesbian

‘New Directions’: Glee, new queer visibility and post-queer popular culture

‘A new kind of family’: The Fosters and the radical potential of the lesbian normal

Afterword: Reflections on the limits and possibilities of new queer visibility and the lesbian normal

Sujets

• Women's Studies
• Gay Studies
• LGBTQ+ Studies
• TV
• Social Science
• LGBTQ+
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Women
• Televisión
• The Fosters
• Skin (disambiguation)
• Brookside
• Netflix
• Woman
• Television
• Skins
• Glee
• The Women
• Cultural Studies
• The L Word
• Channel 4

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 16 octobre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781789382822
• Langue: English

Extrait

Lesbians on Television

Lesbians on Television
New Queer Visibility & The Lesbian Normal
Kate McNicholas Smith
First published in the UK in 2020 by Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2020 by Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright © 2020 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
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Print ISBN: 9781789382808
ePDF ISBN: 9781789382815
ePub ISBN: 9781789382822
Printed and bound by CPI, UK.
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. ‘Previously…’: Queer women on screen
2. ‘The way that we live and love’: The L Word and the tensions of visibility
3. ‘Homophobia is so old fashioned’: Skins and the lesbian normal
4. ‘ Skins’ truest legacy’: The counterpublics of Naomily fandom
5. ‘The nation’s favourite lesbian’: Coronation Street and the ‘everyday’ soap lesbian
6. ‘New Directions’: Glee , new queer visibility and post-queer popular culture
7. ‘A new kind of family’: The Fosters and the radical potential of the lesbian normal
Afterword: Reflections on the limits and possibilities of new queer visibility and the lesbian normal
References
Index
Acknowledgements
This book began as my doctoral research, which was completed in the Sociology Department at Lancaster University. My Ph.D. was funded by an ESRC 1+3 studentship. I’m grateful to the Sociology department for supporting me in attaining this funding, without which the project would not have been possible, and supporting my research throughout.
Heartfelt thanks go to Imogen Tyler and Celia Roberts, my Ph.D. supervisors, who generously offered care, support and expertise throughout. I’m very lucky to have worked with you both: your guidance was always insightful, and always made the work better. A version of the discussion of Coronation Street and post-queer was published as ‘Lesbian brides: Post-queer popular culture’ in Feminist Media Studies , co-written with Imogen Tyler ( 2017 ). Thank you, Imogen, for everything you taught me about media and cultural analysis and the importance of a ‘hook’! Thanks also go to Debra Ferreday, who offered care and critical insights into the direction of this research at just the right moments. Our conversations on the feminist politics of popular culture continue to inspire. Sincere thanks to Rosalind Gill and Anne-Marie Fortier for not only offering such insightful critique and guidance but making my viva a truly (shockingly!) enjoyable and enriching experience.
My path to feminist theory was shaped during my master’s studies at the Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies at Lancaster, which I continued to call my academic home as a Ph.D. student and, then, in my first lectureship. Special thanks there to Vicky Singleton and Maureen McNeil. So many people at Lancaster supported me along the way – from offering feedback on chapters to career advice, mentoring, emotional support and feminist friendship – but particular thanks to Brigit McWade, Bruce Bennett, Ali Hanbury, Racheal Eastham and Anne Cronin.
I was lucky enough to visit the Sexual Minorities Archive in Northampton, MA, during the development of this research, thanks to Ben Power for the inspiring collection. Thanks to PYRO, Lancaster for the early focus group and all the students and friends who discussed queer media with me. Thanks to all the fans and bloggers who inspired so much of this research. I’m especially grateful to the interview participants who so generously shared their stories, experiences and insights with me.
I developed this research and completed Lesbians on Television at the University of Westminster, and I’m grateful to colleagues and students there for their support and the shared passion for television in all its expanded forms.
Thanks to Faith Newcombe and everyone at Intellect for their support, enthusiasm and patience whilst I developed this work. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers, for their helpful advice and feedback.
Special thanks to my family, bio and chosen. Kathryn McNicholas, Peter Smith, Janet McNicholas and Jane Lloyd: thank you for all the support and for raising me a feminist. BLG: Upinder Birdi, Kate Propert, Natalie Bennett, Leonie Walker, Rachel Jordan and Hannah Kelly. In the immortal words of the Spice Girls, ‘friendship never ends!’
Çok teşekkür ederim Ece Kocabıçak. Thank you for reading multiple drafts over the years, offering feedback and sharing so many ideas. Thank you also for surviving the crisis of Chapter Three, and for all the support, kindness and fun along the way. Aşkım, buradayız! Direniyoruz!
Introduction
In September 2010, media advocacy organization GLAAD 1 issued their 15th annual television report, stating that the year in US television was ‘shaping up to be a record season for inclusivity’ (Kane 2010 : n.pag.). In 2011, Entertainment Weekly announced ‘TV’s gay-teen revolution’ with its cover story of ‘Gay teens on TV’ and Aaron Hicklin proclaimed in The Guardian that it was ‘a good year to be gay’ (Hicklin 2011 : n.pag.). In 2012, headlines again pronounced a ‘record high’ for LGBTQ+ representation ( Huffington Post , Moore 2012 : n.pag.). In 2013, GLAAD’s report showed a decrease in overall representation from the previous year, but an increase in lesbian representation, whilst an article on Vulture claimed that: ‘Lesbians are having the best summer ever on TV’ (Lyons 2013 : n.pag.).
As these headlines attest, the early 2010s saw a distinctive shift in LGBTQ+ representation in British and North American popular culture: a notable increase in the visibility of LGBTQ+ characters and media content that has continued throughout the decade. Where once queer representation was marked by absence, subtextual hints and/or dire warnings of the dangerous pitfalls of homosexuality, LGBTQ+ characters are increasingly normalized into contemporary media. From soap operas to Hollywood film to celebrity culture, media culture is coming out: critically acclaimed films such as Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013) and Carol (2015) have brought queer women’s romance to the big screen (see Bradbury-Rance 2019 ); more and more celebrities from the worlds of film and television, modelling and the music industry are publically identifying as LGBTQ+; advertisements for products from oven chips to bank accounts have featured lesbian and gay couples; and online platforms like YouTube host multiple coming out stories, queer vloggers and content creators. Thus, we find ourselves in a media era defined by a new queer visibility . Critically, whilst this new visibility crosses multiple media forms, it is television that has been a central driver. Across varying platforms, genres and networks, televisual media has, in the past decade, made LGBTQ+ narratives and characters visible on a previously unseen scale. Lesbian, bisexual and queer women are more represented than ever before, in examples ranging from British soap opera Coronation Street to teen hits such as Skins , Glee and Pretty Little Liars, US prime-time dramas like Grey’s Anatomy , The Good Wife and Empire, superhero drama Black Lightning, BBC dramas Last Tango in Halifax , BBC–HBO collaboration Gentleman Jack and Netflix originals Orange Is the New Black and Sense8 .
New queer visibility has emerged in a period of significant social and legislative change in relation to LGBTQ+ lives. British and North American public cultures have witnessed a seemingly liberal transformation in sexual politics, epitomized in the introduction of same-sex marriage legislation. The representations of lesbian, bisexual and gay characters seen in this period have been celebrated for mobilizing shifts in public opinion: in 2012, for example, The Hollywood Reporter stated, ‘ Glee and Modern Family drive voters to favor gay marriage’ (Appelo 2012 ). Certainly, Lesbians on Television will argue, the mainstreaming of LGBTQ+ representation that is new queer visibility , constitutes a re-imagining of queer lives that mediates these social shifts and the discursive struggles of this era. In doing so, it functions both to expand and limit the intelligibility of queer subjects. Whilst the tensions of LGBTQ+ inclusion have been, and continue to be, well critiqued – such as in Lisa Duggan’s influential account of homonormativity – this book applies a queer feminist lens to draw out their specifically gendered implications. Foregrounding representations of lesbian, bisexual and queer women, Lesbians on Television examines the complex and contradictory losses and gains of new queer visibility , asking what is brought into being by lesbians ‘having the best summer ever on TV’.
A new era in LGBTQ+ rights
The twenty-first century has seen LGBTQ+ rights emerge at the forefront of public discourse and national politics, in ways that would once have been hard to imagine. In British and American legislation, key changes have included the lifting in 2000 of the ban on openly gay people serving in the British armed forces, and the 2000/1 reformation of the age of consent legislation: equalizing the age of consent between heterosexual and homosexual couples, and introducing lesbian women into the age of consent law for the first time. 2003 saw same-sex activity legalized in all US states, and Section 28 repealed in the United Kingdom. 2004