Queering the Lens: An Analysis of Homonormativity in Film
By: Carrie Miller
By: Carrie Miller
Homonormativty
Homonormativity is a political strategy used within sexual minority communities that reinforces heteronormative institutions and mores (Duggan 2002).
Those in the LGBTQ community must conform to heteronormative systems in order to gain rights. As long as people in same-sex relationships or fall into the binary operate within the bounds of the cisheteronormative systems and don’t challenge those systems, it is tolerated.
Usually in the media, sexual minorities are portrayed as white, upper-middle class, cisgender, wanting marriage and kids.
Heteronormativity
Heteronormativity creates standards that legitimate the discrimination of LGBTQ relationships and it can be found in most social institutions, including religion, the family, education, the media, the law, and the state.
Heteronormativity is a hegemonic system of norms, discources, and practices that constructs heterosexuality as natural and superior to all other expressions of sexuality (Robinson, 2016).
Where have you seen Homonormativity?
Why is Homonormativity an Issue in the Media?
It causes people to do conform to the homonormative standard thus giving them more rights and priviledges than people who do not fall into the binaries that heteronormativity creates. Transgender people, interracial couples, single parents, non-binary lovers, and polyamourus relationships are examples of people in the LGBTQ community that ultimately do not get the same rights and are not represented in media. Therefore these groups are “othered” and deemed not worthy of the same priviledges as their lesbian and gay counterparts.
Intersectionality has a direct effect on queer couples’ capability for conform to homonormativity. In the media, we see traditional roles for gay and lesbian couples that involve whiteness, high class, strict gender roles, and a traditional love story. Making a film for the LGBTQ community consists of a heteronormative story and placing a gay or lesbian couple in it. This allows for no diversity in stories that accurately represents queer relationships.
People in the LGBTQ community should not fit into certain boxes that homonormativity in the media enforces. There is a variety of experiences in the queer community and almost none of them are portrayed in films. Intersectionality of queer experiences need to be highlighted in films because it goes beyond gay white people living heteronormative lives.
Changing the way we see queer relationships is crucial to changing the narrative LGBTQ people have to live in. Seeing different kinds of queerness do not fit in the homonormative lens in films allow people to be fluid in their identity and sexuality.
What films have you seen that break the barriers of homonormativity?
