Heteronormative World Research Articles

Cultural Ambiguity in Contemporary Vietnamese Representations of Homosexuality

Starting from an anecdote about wild dogs in a 1939 short story by Xuân Diệu, I want to pursue a New Historicist reading of Bùi Anh Tấn’s fiction to explore present-day representations of the homosexual outcast in a hetero-normative world of contemporary Vietnam. Despite the author’s humane and positive viewpoint, his fiction remains fraught with cultural ambiguity embedded in strategies of narrative discipline of its subject matter. I will also reflect upon my own autobiographical role as interpreter of these texts, as well as theoretical issues concerning the applicability of a New Historicist practice to Vietnamese literary studies.

Contexts of Reproductive Loss in Lesbian Couples

Lesbian couples seek to become parents in a heteronormative world and in the context of complex biological, social, and legal challenges that may constrain same-sex parenting. Because of these constraints and challenges, lesbian couples experiencing a reproductive loss may encounter issues that heterosexual couples typically will not. Prior to pregnancy, lesbians may experience loss and grief because they cannot conceive a child together without the assistance of a third party. Same-sex families are marginalized; simply deciding to become parents leaves them open to criticism and negative judgment. If pregnancy is not achieved or does not end in a live birth, lesbian couples face decisions about how, whether, and who to conceive a subsequent pregnancy. Although laws vary by state, the social (nonbiological) mother may not have legal status as the child's parent; therefore, the decision of which partner to become pregnant is especially significant. In the event of a reproductive loss, the grief of the social mother might not be acknowledged. Lesbian couples will benefit from the care of a nurse who understands and is accepting of the complex contexts within which they face the challenges of reproductive loss.

Trigger Warnings: Sex, Lies and Social Justice Utopia on Tumblr

Inthe spring of 2012, a major scandal rocked the queer social justice communityon Tumblr. One of its most popular bloggers and activists, a 22 -year-oldtransman named Ira Gray suddenly faced by a deluge of sexual assaultallegations from multiple people via Tumblr. Despite the queer social justicecommunity's pride in being open and accepting, many of its practices are rigid,pedantic and counterproductive. The rise and fall of Ira Gray's celebritystatus has highlighted how truly divided this online community can be.Sexuality and gender identity were not the only lines of contention; mentalillness, race, class and trauma played dominant roles in the discussion. Thevery fact that the accusers had stayed silent for so long is telling. Throughanalysing the tumblr posts of the accused, accusers and othercommentators/spectators, one can see how mental illness, privilege andsexuality are negotiated in this small yet global community. For many queersocial justice tumblr bloggers, graphically detailed posts about theirexperience of sexual trauma lie side-by-side with explicit nude phone cameraportraits of the blogger tagged as "self-care." I argue that theethos created by this corner of the internet does not provide a queer oasis forthe user away from an overbearing, hetero-normative world. Instead, itintroduces a complicated set of rules and mores that presents newcomplications. The combination of naked exposure and online depersonalisationcan prove toxic.

Matthew Mitcham: the narrative of a gay sporting icon

When Australian diver Matthew Mitcham produced a world-record score with his final dive from the 10m platform to win the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics, he did so as the ‘only openly gay man at the Olympics’. This paper examines the Australian print media's narrative of Mitcham leading into, during and after the Games. In the hetero-normative world of Australian sport, the normative narrative carries four storylines: performance, national identity, masculinity and significant relationships. Combined, these storylines resonate with audiences and have the potential to create the vortex of publicity required to launch an athlete into the world of sponsorship and celebrity. Initially, with few exceptions, the media fails to write the masculinity and significant-relationships storylines about Mitcham and he fails to gain sponsorship. However, free of the narrative conventions and constraints of an Olympic games, it is the very same media that proceed to write in the missing narratives post-Olympics and act almost as activists on Mitcham's behalf. The result is Mitcham's transformation into a marketable, popular sporting celebrity: sitting comfortably in both mainstream and LGBT culture and sport, a role model for young same-sex-attracted people, and a voice of experience about homophobia and issues of sexuality in sport. Leading into the London Olympics, stories about Mitcham contribute to an alternative masculine narrative that becomes available for young sportsmen and women to consider.

The Gender Politics of Celebrity Humanitarianism in Africa

This article examines Anglo-American news media through a discourse-theoretical framework to study first, how celebrities are constituted as gendered humanitarian subjects acting on behalf of African problems, and second, how the concept of ‘Africa’ is produced, not only as a place, but also as a purpose in the world system. The debate surrounding celebrities is at an impasse, where they are seen as either instrumental or detrimental to African development. To break this standoff, we begin by placing celebrities in their neo-colonial context. We argue that the legitimacy of Bono, Bob Geldof and Angelina Jolie as humanitarian actors is underpinned by particular reproductions of race, class and gender. They are positioned in a heteronormative world political framework in which celebrities recreate Africa and its proper place in the neoliberal international system through a performative perpetuation of historically embedded subjectivities. The analysis then turns to Madonna's Malawian adoption in 2006 as a case that does not entirely ‘fit’ and probes its subversive capacity. The article argues that the adoption controversy made visible the privileged, neo-colonial position from which celebrities, and western humanitarianism broadly speaking, happens, and gives rise to further questions pertaining to Africa's childlike position in the western imaginary.

Negotiating Sissyphobia: A Critical/Interpretive Analysis of One “Femme” Gay Asian Body in the Heteronormative World

A selection of literature suggests that gay Asian men are considered unattractive and undesirable, because they are socially positioned as “feminine” in the gendered hierarchy of White centered hegemonic masculinity among gay men. However, the author questions why the discourse of oppression is the only way to interpret performative aspects of gay Asian cultural identity constructions in this multicultural and globalized era. In identifying with such labeling, he perceives multiple “realities” of performative aspects of its cultural identity constructions, since the perception of Asians in the West has been in constant change. Thus, this analysis utilizes performance autoethnography to explicate the author's personal text; the process of negotiating performative aspects of gay Asian cultural identity construction in the heteronormative world.

Gay Mothers and Early Childhood Education: Standing Tall

LEGISLATION IN NEW ZEALAND would suggest there is a liberal and accepting attitude towards diverse families in this country, yet discrimination and heteronormative expectations are strongly evident. In this article I report the findings of a study of the experiences of lesbian-parented families in early childhood centres. Seventeen gay women from 12 lesbian-parented families were asked about their own and their children's experiences in a variety of early childhood education settings. The findings, which are discussed in terms of a theory of heteronormativity, describe the steps the women reported they needed to take to prepare their children to cope in a heteronormative world. I conclude that, despite seemingly supportive legislation, this group of gay mothers felt it necessary to protect their children from heteronormativity and to prepare them for coping with discrimination.

The Gift of Growing Up in a Same-Gendered Family: A Case Study

This article portrays the personal strengths of children growing up in same-gendered families from a positive psychological framework. One of the major challenges all children growing up in same-gendered families are faced with is the integration of their family experience with that of the wider society outside the home. A narrative approach was used to explore the experiences of children from their perspectives. Five children from eight families participated in the project. Data were created through interviews and a variety of other supportive qualitative techniques. The data were analyzed using a holistic analysis approach and a narrative was subsequently written to illuminate the uniqueness, the specificity and the individuality of each particular child. This article depicts one of these narratives. From this narrative the following personal strengths emerged: humor, a sense of perceived control, socially intelligent disclosure, agency, okayness and the ability to form positive relationships. I propose that remarkable personal strengths are displayed in the way in which children growing up in same-gendered families engage a heteronormative world.

O nome da filha: Sexualidade, identidade e o ato de narrar em Grande Sertao: Veredas

This article is a reflection on the issues of desire, sexuality and gender in the formation of the self. Specifically I look at the self-defining act of narratingdesire, homosexual desire, in a heteronormative world. Riobaldo, the narrator, does not take on the classic search for the Father in the novel Grande Sertao: Veredas. Instead, what becomes important is the son, who turns out to be the daughter. This refusal of the search for the Patriarch produces explorations into the workings of patriarchy itself, with its iconic, fetishized image of the dead body of a woman being held in poignant comparison with the complex, living, yet socially unacceptable relationship of the two principal male characters.

Heteronormativity in Action: Reproducing the Heterosexual Nuclear Family in After-hours Medical Calls

Heterosexism has become a recognized social problem since the rise of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) activism in the 1970s. One of its manifestations is heteronormativity: the mundane production of heterosexuality as the normal, natural, taken-for-granted sexuality. My research uses conversation analysis to explore heteronormativity as an ongoing, situated, practical accomplishment by people oriented to other actions entirely. I show that family reference terms—across a dataset of 59 after-hours calls to the doctor—are deployed so as to construct a normative version of the heterosexual nuclear family: a married couple, co-resident with their biological, dependent children. I examine the inferences normatively attached to family reference terms, consider how these inferences are used interactionally, and document how this everyday talk-in-interaction both reflects and reconstitutes the culturally normative definition of the family. This research advances our understanding of normativity by showing how a social problem can exist even when there is no orientation to “trouble” in interaction. Here, the persistent and untroubled reproduction of a taken-for-granted heteronormative world both reflects heterosexual privilege and (by extrapolation) perpetuates the oppression of non-heterosexual people, denied access to key social institutions such as marriage and unable to take for granted access to their culture's family reference terms. The article shows how the heteronormative social order is reproduced at the level of mundane social interaction, through the everyday conversational practices of ordinary folk.

Loving Julie Andrews

Loving Julie Andrews