Gay Character Research Articles

Learning Through Rewards: Priming and Identification as Psychological Mechanisms of the Effects of LGBTQ+ Narratives on Inclusive Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions

ABSTRACT Drawing from research on priming and identification theory, this study experimentally tests the differential effects of narratives featuring rewards and punishments on inclusive attitudes and behavioral intentions toward LGBTQ+ communities. The results of our experiment (N = 240) suggest a narrative depicting rewarded inclusive behaviors toward gay characters performed better than one portraying punished homophobic behaviors. We further tested various mechanisms through which narratives that portray tolerance and acceptance of a gay couple might lead to inclusive outcomes. The results suggested that positive feelings toward a gay character and identification with a role model character practicing rewarded good (versus punished bad) behaviors drove prosocial outcomes, including intentions to befriend gay characters in real life and support for social equality for gay individuals.

Butch Orientations: Locating Queerness in Daryl Dixon from The Walking Dead

American post-apocalyptic horror series The Walking Dead (2010-2022) has been accused of both killing off out queer characters and explicitly explores a world that recreates fascist masculinity (Gencarella, 2016) and heteropatriarchal gender roles (Sugg, 2015). However, the fan favorite Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) presents an opportunity for queer spatiality which disrupts the dichotomy of queer/heterosexual. Dixon follows a queer narrative trajectory, largely outside of heterosexual relationships and estranged from his family of origin. The show’s treatment of the character reflects queer masculinities which develop outside of heteropatriarchy, based in a queer process of becoming, frequently seen among AFAB butch lesbians, non-binary, and transmasculine folx. Through his proximity to out queer characters on screen and role as the protector of the group, Daryl is spatially oriented (Bradbury-Rance, 2019;Ahmed, 2006) both within the group and his own body in varying degrees of distancing. 
 Dixon’s role outside of a dominant gendered framework as well as his tendency to distrust models of collectivist structures which replicate American capitalist society give primacy to a queer anti-establishment positionality. The privacy to which Dixon’s sex life has been shielded from view highlights the ways queer readings have influenced the show and present Dixon with queerer affect. For example, the fandom around Dixon representing an asexual or gay character caused the writers to avoid showing Daryl kiss character Leah on screen in season 10 (Stone, 2021), instead foregrounding looks and close up shots by a fireplace which are typically reserved for reading lesbian desire on screen (Bradbury-Rance, 2019).

Media representation matters: The effects of exposure to counter-stereotypical gay male characters on heterosexual men’s expressions of discrimination

Presence of gay men in mainstream media may have a positive impact on viewers’ attitude change. However, gay male characters are often stereotypically portrayed as feminine, and no research has yet explored audiences’ reactions to counter-stereotypical gay characters. Heterosexual Italian men ( N = 158) were exposed to a clip portraying (i) a stereotypical feminine gay male character, (ii) a counter-stereotypical masculine gay male character, or (iii) a nature documentary. Compared to the other conditions, exposure to the counter-stereotypical gay character increased discrimination toward gay men, in the form of anti-gay jokes, the higher the level of participants’ prejudice against gay men. Results further demonstrated that this effect was explained by reduced perceived stereotypicality of the character. Findings are in line with the social identity theory prediction that when gay men (outgroup) are perceived as too similar, and potentially threaten the group identity, heterosexual men would attempt to restore ingroup distinctiveness.

The Witch in the Closet: Disney's Frozen as Adaptation and Its Potential for Queer and Feminist Readings

The Witch in the Closet: Disney's <i>Frozen</i> as Adaptation and Its Potential for Queer and Feminist Readings

“Stay Down”: Moonlight and Negative Affect as an Analytic

“Stay Down”: <i>Moonlight</i> and Negative Affect as an Analytic

Movie Media: Misrepresentation of Homosexual Characters Within Comedy Films Since the 80s Caused by Heterosexist Ideals in the Acting and Directing Process

Critical discourse analysis is a qualitative research approach used to study social inequalities, in which it creates the connection between social practices and the social context. The use of film analysis variables of non-discourse and discourse practices relating to this analysis approach was examined from one film representative of each decade; the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. The heterosexism found within the acting and directing process of films within the comedy genre while structuring a gay character in screenplay was examined through the research process by honing in on specific variables. The conducted study’s research process involved multiple viewings of each movie: Victor/Victoria, Clueless, and Bridget’s Jones Diary where 3 scenes were chosen from the film regarding variables such as materialisations, speech, and actions that held correlation to the portrayal of a homosexual character. By the film variables directly corresponding with the characterization, the research analysis demonstrated heterosexist actor’s and director’s choices throughout the filming process and their correlation to common stereotypes against homosexuals being drawn off of for comedic effect. Over the span of 3 decades, the use of stereotypes within homosexual movie media representation; although progressive towards inclusion, has strictly portrayed such characters in comical, non-serious scenes. It is with a comparison of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s take on gay portrayals that the founded extremity of the use of such common stereotypes was recognized as they continuously, negatively impact the LGBTQ community through the continuation of use constituting these portrayed personas as correct.

German, Jew, Muslim, Gay: The Life and Times of Hugo Marcus by Marc David Baer (review)

Reviewed by: German, Jew, Muslim, Gay: The Life and Times of Hugo Marcus by Marc David Baer Geoffrey J. Giles Marc David Baer. German, Jew, Muslim, Gay: The Life and Times of Hugo Marcus. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020. xii + 300 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009421000350 Gay may be the last of the cognomens in the title of this biography, but it is the feature that looms largest in the book. Three of the five chapters have "gay" or "queer" in their title. Yet Hugo Marcus (1880–1966) did not lead an especially active gay love life. Rather, he was prominent in the fight for homosexual emancipation in the early twentieth century, and a close associate of Magnus Hirschfeld and his circle. And he did write a large amount of erotic gay fiction. He never succeeded in winning a life partner, and, as Gerdien Jonker has recently commented, in his final years his letters show that he was lonely. During the last ten years of his life, Marcus was in touch with few people and took refuge instead in the fictional gay character, Heinrich, he created.1 [End Page 487] One gains the impression from Baer's many-sided exploration of this unusual life that Hugo Marcus never entirely fitted in. His passions were intellectual ones rather than personal. His best and closest companion was his pen. He was naïve about the dangers of the real world. Despite a brief incarceration in Sachsenhausen after Kristallnacht in 1938, and a Nazi demand to leave the country, he remained in Berlin in order to finish his work on a German edition of the Qur'an. He used his entry visa for Switzerland only one week before the German invasion of Poland. In some ways, he seems a rather uncongenial character. Indeed, the author notes that, in a portrait painted of him in 1925, he seems, with his wrinkled face and mussed hair, to be scowling. He looks rather grumpy in surviving photographs as well. Since Baer describes these in detail, it is a shame that this book includes no illustrations. The one attractive photo of Marcus as a twenty-one-year-old (and rather stunning he looks, too) graces the cover of the book, but, beauty being in the eye of the beholder, Baer inexplicably dismisses it as "not flattering" in its profile of his "large right ear, bony right cheek, and large sharp nose" (22). There is not so much in this book about Marcus as a Jew, because the remarkable fact about him was his conversion to Islam, with the Ahmadi community giving him a lifetime appointment as the editor of all their German publications. They regarded Marcus as "the most valued prize of our Mission in Berlin" (68). Yet he did not renounce his Jewish faith, and praised Islam for not requiring that or even a public affirmation of conversion. He saw it as more tolerant of others, including gay men like himself. And in rejecting violence, it seemed the perfect religion to heal the nations after World War I: "A religion that precedes each conversation with the greeting 'peace be with you' cannot be blood-thirsty." But was Islam really that liberal, even about other religions? Baer has to admit that Marcus was being a bit starry-eyed: "Marcus seems to have forgotten that, normatively speaking, the first pillar of Islam is the Shahadah, the proclamation of faith: 'there is only one God and Muhammad is his Prophet'" (139). The Berlin imam was instrumental in obtaining Marcus's exit visa from Nazi Germany. However, Baer cannot entirely gloss over the fact that Nazi ideology infiltrated some German Muslims and "helped contribute to the antiSemitic atmosphere in Berlin," even leading some to join the Nazi Party. But to add that "they ultimately frustrated the Nazi attempt to annihilate the Jews of Europe, if only by saving one life" (namely Hugo Marcus), smacks of a bucket of whitewash (115). Of course, the Nazis had stamped him as a Jew, adding the name Israel to his passport, which the Swiss authorities cruelly maintained in their identity papers when he went into exile. And Marcus insisted on his Jewish faith...

Resurrecting ParaNorman: Ghosts and gays in the New Queer Cartoon

When the Oscar-nominated, stop-motion animated film ParaNorman was released in August 2012, critics made much ado about the supporting character named Mitch: a dopey, beefy jock perceived to be the first openly gay character in a mainstream American children’s animated movie. As queer representation in children’s animated media continues to expand – as seen, for example, in Netflix’s 2021 film The Mitchells vs. the Machines, which features an openly queer protagonist – this article argues that Mitch’s now decade-old legacy is worth revisiting. Drawing on Noreen Giffney’s concept of the ‘New Queer Cartoon’, ParaNorman, I claim, marks a crucial turning point in children’s animated media. The film represents a collision between the latently and openly queer – it nods to the coded queer signifiers of past films while simultaneously making possible the gradual increase in visible queer representation that has taken place since its release.

Between 1990s’ Nostalgia and ‘LGBT-friendly’ Tokyo Olympics: Representations of LGBTQ People in NHK’s Morning Drama Series

ABSTRACT This article investigates the first representation of LGBTQ characters in an asadora (Japanese morning drama), arguably the most conservative and ‘traditional’ series format in contemporary Japanese television. I suggest that the introduction of an openly gay character in 2018’s Hanbun, aoi can be accounted for by appeal to two factors. First, this particular series’ thematic focus on failure, manga, and nostalgia for the 1990s, including the ‘gay boom’ associated with that decade, motivated the depiction of a gay character. Second, Japan’s political agenda in the 2010s encouraged the positive reinterpretation of sexual minorities as important new consumers and a tourist niche, especially with an eye to the blockbuster international event that was meant to be the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. However, the superficial and highly stereotyped representation offered in Hanbun, aoi reflects a contemporary strategy in Japanese mass media and politics: namely, that of celebrating ‘LGBT-friendliness’ as a promotional or marketing move, while avoiding substantive discussions about critical LGBTQ issues like discrimination and legal rights.

The Journey of River (Nguyen Ngoc Tu) from Perspectives of Ecocriticism

According to Cheryll Glotfelty, simply put, ecocritisim is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment. Ecocritisim argue the ecological theory of human sciences, which take the "anthropocentrism". It takes an "earth-centrered'' approach to literary studies. This article, we want to "read" River Nguyen Ngoc Tu from the core ideas of ecocritism. By demythologizing the adventure, traveling on the Di river is a journey to realize the loss of nature, to realize the barrenness. On the journey to explore the Di river, the character recognizes the impact of climate change on the fate of the people who live there. Nguyen Ngoc Tu chose a gay character to tell about the trip on the Di river, she wrote the sadness of a world that could disappear. River creates a new sensation when Nguyen Ngoc Tu wrote about the Southern space: a highly controversial view of anti-romanticism, ecotourism, and de-mythology. Author has posed a direct way of environmental issues and the life of man in the age of environmental crisis.

Holy Problematics Fabman!: how current representations create a missed opportunity for superhero comics to aid in gay youth identity development

ABSTRACT Current representations of gay male superheroes miss an opportunity to adequately provide positive representation to gay youth by following a heteronormative framework that promotes further marginalization. One possible solution would be to have more gay individuals writing the gay character storylines. Studies show that graphic novels and comics are valuable resources in aiding gay youth in navigation of their identities in their formative years. A brief history of both gay superheroes and queerly read superheroes in the mainstream comic publishers (DC and Marvel) shows a current lack of positive representation. In this article, I analyse characters written by queer people to see if representation alone was enough to improve the quality of gay heroes. Ultimately, I argue that representation of Iceman of The X-Men, Wiccan and Hulkling of The Young Avengers, and the multiple gay male heroes of The Pride are too tangled in heteronormativity, homonormativity, and gay hegemony to be considered positive. This result suggests that while representation can increase visibility, a new framework for how gay superheroes are represented is necessary to make progress.

Review: Double Negative: The Black Image and Popular Culture, by Racquel J. Gates

Review: Double Negative: The Black Image and Popular Culture, by Racquel J. Gates

(Un)Conventional Voyages?—Star Trek: The Cruise and the Themed Cruise Experience

(Un)Conventional Voyages?—<i>Star Trek: The Cruise</i> and the Themed Cruise Experience

Queer Relations between the American Dream and Postcolonial Resistance in The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007)

Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) kindled debates on 9/11 discourse by providing a third-world perspective on the historical tragedy. While centering on postcolonial and international complications surrounding 9/11, Hamid addresses homosexual and racial identity in the text. Based on existing scholarship reading the text as postcolonial resis tance, this essay aims to expand our view of 9/11 narratives by analyzing homosexual politics in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which has barely been recognized by scholars. This essay examines, on the one hand, the mentor-mentee relationship between the closeted gay character Jim and Pakistani immigrant Changez (hearkening back to Greek customs of homosexuality), and, on the other hand, it looks at their mentorship as sit uated within postcolonial discussions concerning the effeminization of Asia and the assimilation process within a diaspora. Approaching the novel as an American dream narrative reveals an underlying anxiety about American society’s rejection about Others as well as of homosexuality. This essay argues that The Reluctant Fundamentalist critiques a white nationalist discourse after 9/11 in which orientalist impulses supersede homophobia, excluding racial others and integrating white homosexuals as patriotic members.

Camp – New Approaches to the Term and Concept

The pretension of this paper is to process Camp in all its aspects and possible areas of application. The process begins with the analysis and interpretation of Lexicographic definitions of Camp and, close concepts to it by meaning (kitsch and Trash), followed by the interpretation and revaluation of still the most important text on Camp – Notes on Camp by Susan Sontag. Following that, the paper seeks to provide a general definition of Camp that seeks to determine, describe and indicate the boundaries of its scope. The paper revises the postulate of certain theories on Camp: firstly, only those on its gay character and its power for political subversiveness. Camp taste/sensibility/style also strives to be contextualized within the framework of fine arts on examples of certain stylistic formations and author poetics of some of the exemplary artists that belong to them, in order to provide a paradigm for the interpretation of their opus applicable to other artistic opus.

E elxs viverão felizes para sempre? (in)visibilidades de personagens LGBTs em produções da Disney como força propulsora de ciberacontecimentos

A partir dos sentidos que emergiram no Twitter em torno da possibilidade da rainha Elsa, da animação Frozen (2013), ser lésbica, dos beijos entre personagens do mesmo gênero no desenho Star contra as Forças do Mal (2015) e da inserção de uma personagem gay no filme A Bela e a Fera (2017), tensiona-se o que a visibilidade dessas questões em produções da Disney aponta em relação às articulações entre cultura pop, ciberacontecimentos e questões de gênero e de sexualidade. A metodologia empreendida é a de análise de construção de sentidos em redes digitais (HENN, 2014) e, ao final dela, foi possível constatar, em linhas gerais, que a inserção dessas personagens produziu intensa reverberação, entre usuários e portais noticiosos e, ainda, movimentos de apoio e de ojeriza à iniciativa.

Invención clínica del homosexual en Colombia, 1890-1980

Este artículo presenta una lectura de las formas de representación y producción del sujeto homosexual en Antioquia a partir de los discursos y prácticas medico/legales y siquiátrico/sicológicas, en los noventa años que separan el código penal de 1890 y el código de 1936, presentando un recorrido que va desde la imagen del sucio pederasta de finales del siglo XIX, el invertido criminal, el desviado inocente y el degenerado ambiental de los años 30 y 40, al homosexual inestable de la década de 1970 releído por la siquiatría, hasta el personaje gay autoafirmado propuesto por la psicología social en la década del ochenta.

Locating “Queer” in Contemporary Writing of Love and War in Nigeria

The child soldier novel is not usually read in terms of sexuality; however, sexual trauma, sex between men and boys, and the production of damaged masculinities are central to representations of the boy soldier in contemporary writing about war from Nigeria, including Chris Abani’s Song for Night (2007), Uzodinma Iweala’s Beasts of No Nation (2005), and Chimamanda Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun (2006). The queer figures of the perverse adult military man and the violated and violating boy soldier emerge in complex relation to contemporary representations of the Nigerian gay man—and all of these texts negotiate the politics of sex and race across multiple reading publics. Jude Dibia’s gay character Adrian in Walking with Shadows (2005) asserts legibility and respectability in sharp contrast to the queer subjectivities of war writing, for example, yet all of these texts dramatize negotiations with stigma as it circulates across representations of sexuality.

LGBTQ literature in middle school classrooms: possibilities for challenging heteronormative environments

This paper uses a case study approach to examine how the heteronormative nature of one middle school setting and classroom environment shapes the climate of safety, support and learning for LGBTQ students when they are engaged in studying a novel with a gay character. Heteronormative environments inform and shape positioning of and by students and teacher, impacting how knowledge is created, processed and applied. LGBTQ literature integrated into the classroom curriculum invites opportunities for possibilities through windows and mirrors for exploration of the world and self. Heteronormativity, positioning and LGBTQ literature thereby become interactive catalysts that create and foreclose possibilities and impossibilities for student learning. Three themes emerged from the study that reveal positioning and possibilities when studying a text with a gay character: (1) the school environment and classroom context positioned students as heterosexual; (2) students and teacher positioned gender performance and sexual identity as other; and (3) while the text acted as both a window and a mirror, the teacher and students consistently framed different, and sometimes contradictory, views for each other. Together, these themes reflect a nested understanding of gender performance and sexual identity that subscribed to heterosexual norms and limited possibilities for LGBTQ students.

The Effects of Portrayals of Gay Men on Homonegativity and the Attribution of Gender-Based Descriptors

The present study examined the effects of a gay male television portrayal on a sample of 107 college-aged participants. Participants were exposed to either a representation of a feminine gay male character, representation of a masculine gay male character, or no gay male character and were subsequently asked questions to determine the stereotypes they associate with gay men and their overall level of homonegativity. Results indicated that political identification was a significant moderator of the relationship between exposure to depictions of a gay character and levels of homonegativity and between exposure and the application of gender-based descriptors to gay men. Findings suggested that the mere presence of a gay male character, whether masculine or feminine, primed homonegative attitudes and opinions about gay male masculinity and femininity.