Today's task - analyse the following articles, clips and extracts, and use them to answer the final exam question at the bottom
Exam link - you're combining context with textual analysis and getting first hand exam practice. This is direct preparation for the exam!
Attitude magazine and the changing representation of gay people
Task - Check out this article, posted in The Guardian in 2014, which has a gallery of Attitude front covers since the start of the magazine.
Then make notes under the following question headings
- How has the representation of gay men changed since Attitude was first published?
- What representations of gay men are presented?
- What is Attitude's target audience (beyond being gay men), and how does it target them?
Context
"Feminism is for everyone" wrote bell hooks. This is because the way in which women are treated in society also affects everyone else. If there is an expectation that women are emotional and are better at giving care than thriving in a difficult work environment, it is conversely expected that men are emotionless are will be terrible at looking after children.
We can take this idea further, and assume that the representation of any given group will in fact impact others, including gay men.
Read the below passage:
“Stereotypes tell us men are strong and emotionless, women meek and emotional. And to place value on the physical difference between male and female is to say our place on this planet is dictated by our breeding potential. It’s why LGBT+ rights have always stood on the side of challenging gender stereotypes, and why I get angry when gay men show misogyny.
Gender division is the most violent thing to ever happen to humanity. It’s suppressed the voices of millions of queer and gay people for millennia. Anybody who challenged the binary was silenced, often violently: from the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, to the recent purge of LGBT+ people in Chechnya, and barbaric Islamic State executions.
Encouraging outdated ideas of masculine/feminine is buying into the ideals of murderers who believe that a man loving another man should be punishable by death. To them, gay love is unnatural and against God. Male dominance is born of violence and oppression, not anything remotely biological or "natural." What many understand as masculinity is too often a regressive by-product of this desire to dominate. Maybe we should aspire to be matriarchal by nature, like elephants, bees and ants.
All this is why I have, on occasion, donned a wig and thrown on a dress for a mad night out with my sistas. It’s why drag is so powerful; it’s not about men ridiculing women, it’s about men undermining the oppressiveness of masculinity.
I’d love to do away with all the labels and expectations of how a man should act and dress. Imagine having a conversation with another gay man and not worrying if they think you’re masc enough, or if that straight guy is judging the way you talk... This is the root of my frustration with the idea of gender differences. You see, I despise what men have done to this plan - Cliff Joannou, editor in chief of Attitude magazine
Task - Then make notes under the following question headings
- Why might there be an expectation for gay men to appear more masculine than heterosexual men?
- Joannou is discussing gender stereotypes here, as well as stereotypes surrounding sexuaity. This is something we've looked at extensively. Why are stereotypes harmful? Make reference to Gerbner and Stuart Hall.
Top tip: forgotten about a theorist? You can access details on ALL of them from the key resources section in the top right of the blog. Or in this case, just click here.
Stereotypical representations of gay men in the media and the demonisation of camp
Camp refers to many things, including a trashy, deliberately awful aesthetic, and a flamboyant or over the top style of performance. Susan Sontag's classic essay Notes On Camp explores this notion, and remains essential reading even today.
In Hollywood films and other forms of media, one common way of signaling to the audience the fact that a character is an antagonist or a villain is by giving them camp attributes. In James Bond films, the villain is often represented in a stereotypically homosexual and 'camp' manner.
James Bond is a stereotypical, archetypal representation of a 'perfect' heterosexual British man. He is hegemonically attractive, knows how to dress and speak charmingly, and will have sex with a range of exotic women in each film with little effort.
However the villain tends to speak with a pronounced foreign (i.e. non-British accent), will dress in a surprising or tacky way, and will have little interest in conventional secual relationships with women, often treating them aggressively. Most of all, however, the villain will be presented in an over-the-top and camp way, unnaturally and even obsessively compelled to torture Bond in a cariety of cruel and exen sexualsied ways.
In the James Bond film Casino Royale, the villain Le Chiffre kidnaps Bond in desperation after his master plan (to win a game of poker and get lots of money. This is literally the plot of the film) falls through.
Task - Watch this scene on YouTube, and make notes on how Le Chiffre is represented. What is he doing? What does he say? What is he looking at? How is he torturing Bond? Please note, this scene is very violent, and although the film is rated a '12' by the BBFC, by taking the scene out of context, it may be particularly powerful.
This scene is particularly good to refer to in the exam as an example of how in modern cinema, gay people are still demonised and made the villain. Yes, Le Chiffre is technically straight. He has a girlfriend, who he incidentally clearly hates. Yet his obsession with Bond, his body, and the general mise en scene of this scene clearly identifies Le Chiffre as a sexual deviant, and this anchors him as the villain.
How do representations of gay themes position the audience of Attitude Online?
In the last lesson, you explored how the stereotypical representation of gay men can create an imbalance of power in society.
There is an argument that is sometimes brought up in the gay community that any form of representation is better than no representation at all. Even token representations and stereotypical representations lead to more visibility for the gay community in a heteronormative society.
Key term - token representation - where a minority character, for example a gay person or a black person, is placed in to a media product for the producer to 'tick a box'
Key term - visibility - a concerted effort to be more 'seen'
Task - Read this article, titled 'JUNGLE CRUISE' TRAILER GIVES ANOTHER GLIMPSE AT JACK WHITEHALL'S GAY CHARACTER - WATCH'
Make notes under the following headings
- In what ways are gay men represented in this article?
- In what ways are the gay male audience positioned in this article?
- For what reasons are Disney including a gay character in their film?
- A quote in the article suggests Jack Whitehall's character will be “hugely effete, very camp and very funny”. What assumptions about gay men are being made here?
Task - 'Explore the ways in which Attitude uses representations of gay men to position the audience'
Use the Jack whitehall article to write a single PEA paragraph answering this exam question. Make reference to the ideology of the producer, of visibility, and the role of stereotypes.
Extension
Write an entire response to this question (25 minutes, 15 marks) under timed conditions. Make sure to email your teacher to get them to mark it!