Loud and Proud

 Here is my web-based artifact: https://youtube.com/shorts/vjffJyxWPaY?si=aVEguWAVR9uEOxFi 

And if you would like to read more, you can find it on my blog: https://katiedocuments.blogspot.com/

How to Not “Ace” Asexual Representation in Media

 ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ─── 

The sparse asexual representation in film and entertainment correlates with society’s pressure for people to perform sexually; thus, if someone doesn’t wish to perform their sexuality through sexual acts, they are deemed “unnatural.” In turn, the tv shows and movies often depict asexuals as people who are “nonhuman,” “unfeeling and robotic,” and “late-bloomers.” Examining the characters of Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory, Spock from Star Trek, and Jughead Jones from the CW’s Riverdale, the negative depictions of asexuality either persist or are stripped away from the character for the sake of marketability. 

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Sheldon Cooper is a character that the ace community has dubbed “ace-coded” from his lack of interest in sex or women compared to his other male leads: Howard, Raj, and Leonard, leading to many negative statements on what it means to be ace. His character finds joy in his scientific work and playing tabletop RPGs with his friends. His sexuality is discussed in the Season Two episode, ‘The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem.’ Their neighbor, Penny, asks the group what Sheldon’s “deal” is and insists that “everyone has a deal,” implying that Sheldon is the strange one for not being sexually attracted to anyone. The men then poke fun of Sheldon and how he will reproduce in nonhuman ways: they state, “I believe Sheldon will eat an enormous amount of Thai food and split into two Sheldon’s” and “I think Sheldon might be the larval form of his species.” The “scripts” tied to asexuality is that ace people are “incomplete” without experiencing sex or sexual attraction, and thus open to ridicule and alienation from the dominant group who enjoys sex. The “type” that both Sheldon and Spock share are the Robot or the Strange Alien. 

Spock’s reserved and logical character is often contrasted with Kirk’s charm and romantic relationships, justifying the “scripts” that ace people are tied to nonhumans and do not fit the norm of sexually active people. In Rowan Ellis’s video on The Rise of Asexual Representation, they describe Spock’s asexuality as tied to his species, being half-Vulcan, a species that “prioritizes restraint and suppressed emotions and passions” so next to the human Kirk, he is the outlier.

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As the science and first officer of the USS Enterprise, his job is tied to being logical therefore people equate being robotic and unfeeling to being ace. In the episode ‘The Apple,” the characters come across a civilization called the Vaalians, who are asexual, and Spock talks  about their culture: "You insist on applying human standards to non-human cultures. I remind you that humans are only a tiny minority in this galaxy... these people are healthy and they are happy. Whatever you choose to call it, this system works, despite your emotional reaction to it." Ellis then describes the episode’s message on asexuality being undermined because the Vaalians were being mind controlled by a computer god named Vaal, linking their asexuality with their “enslaved innocence.” This return of the “norm” hammers home that being ace should not be the norm for these human-like civilizations. 

    If the norm is that “sex sells,” look no further than Jughead Jones, a character who, in the comics, is canonically ace but is stripped of his asexuality in the TV adaptation to be in a romantic and sexual relationship with Betty Cooper. It was confirmed in a 2015 interview with comic writer Chip Zdarsky that his iteration of Jughead is ace, which many of the Archie comic fans accepted.

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    However, in the CW’s TV adaptation of the Archie comics, Riverdale, Jughead’s asexuality is nonexistent. The erasure of his identity stings even more, knowing that Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, the chief creative creator of the comic and series developer of the show teased the character’s asexuality early on, "Rather than have everything fully formed — for instance, we're not going to start with [.] Jughead's asexuality or any of the things that have become canon." However, in a Glamour interview with Jughead's actor, Cole Sprouse, who had done research on asexuality when he got the role stated, "'I think in this show, he is not a romantic and not asexual.'" What tied the fandom to comic Jughead was that he found joy in things outside sexual or romantic relationships, which many could relate to. Throughout the TV show, however, Jughead is never given a chance to explore his asexual identity. To tease a point when Jughead “might” explore asexuality when there are sparse ace representations or characters are “ace-coded” is already damaging to the outside perceptions of what asexuality is. 

    Analyzing these characters, canonical or ace-coded, displays the ways the ace community has had to search for ace representations in mainstream media. Even so, in that media there are multiple occasions where being ace is dismissed or undermined.  

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ─── 

Thoughts on Queer Nation's "Outing"

  From the 1980s reading, I was particularly intrigued by the fact that Queer Nation outed many public figures using New York City as a platform to plaster photos with the phrase “Absolutely Queer.” Then, Washington Queer National Michael Petrelis held a news conference in which he attempted to out many closeted politicians. While the media went to this conference, no names were ever leaked. As long as I’ve been aware of “outing”, I’ve believed that it was a bad thing. I’ve always thought it was terrible for an aspect of someone’s identity to be exposed like that, especially when they might not yet be comfortable with sharing it with people yet. I’ve always believed that we should allow people to come out on their own terms and when they are ready to, instead of forcing them to accept the public knowing. 

When I realized that this outing came from a queer group, rather than a homophobic one, I was confused. I suppose I’ve never really thought about why they may have tried outing these celebrities and politicians. They assumed that because they were in a position of power and wealth, they would have the ability to change laws and societal expectations of queer people. While I’ve never thought of it like this, I still condemn outing in most scenarios. One’s sexuality is such a personal thing that has the ability to carry so much weight for someone; it could ruin or reinforce a relationship with a friend, family member, or community. Ultimately, I feel as though while I can see where Queer Nation was coming from at the time, modern society would most likely never accept that as an attempt to further gain queer rights.

Discussion Questions:

1. What were your thoughts on outing before reading this piece? 

2. How about after? Are you able to understand why Queer Nation felt the urge to out these people?

Hannah's Thoughts

To read my thoughts on the Cultural Exchange Rate, click here.

I read an article on misgendering, and here are my thoughts.

Thoughts on Ethnic Notions by Eloise Fairbrother

The most interesting part of Ethnic Notions for me was understanding that in order for black people to make it in American theater and film/television, they had to play into the stereotypes and be racist in order to cater to the white audience. Many black actors/performers even had to wear black face to appear “more black”, which is to say, more stereotypically black. This not only caused racism to widely spread in America, as the only media depictions of black people were horrifically racist and stereotypical, it also instilled self-hatred into black people. One example of this was “The Mammy”, a dark and docile black maid on television who appeared as somewhat of an “antithesis to the white lady”. White women were often depicted as beautiful, which meant that their job was to essentially sit still and look pretty for their husbands. On the other hand were black women, who were often presented as ugly but useful, forcing them to be used as servants. This also enforced the idea that black people were only useful to serve white people, which was in turn, enforced by the very existence of the television show. 

In my Migrants in the US Media class, we read an article by my professor, Dr. Katarzyna Marciniak, titled Palatable Foreignness. While all black people in America wouldn't be considered "foreigners", I feel as though ideas brought up in this article are able to relate to what I saw in Ethnic Notions. The distorted depiction of black people in the media helped white people tolerate black people in their society–it proved to white people that black people were there to serve them, whether that be through slavery or entertainment. In the article, Marciniak brings up the idea of a “useful exotic”, as well as ideas of foreigners as healers. Essentially, black people were only tolerated by white people when they found them useful. If black people weren’t able to heal them, they didn’t have a purpose for them. Overall, the depiction of black people in the media in the 20th century severely damaged many white peoples’ perceptions of black people, therefore creating a racist and bigoted environment in America.

"Free Papers" by Wideman

 

I love having Daniel Wideman's "Free Papers" as the first reading in the Queer 3.0 class because of the lyricism of the language and how it sets the town for what the themes of the class will be. The "Justice/Just us" homonym is catchy but meaningful at the same time.

The piece allows us to use what will become our standard mode of textual analysis, with a clear Thesis, determining Audience, analyzing the Method/Rhetorical Strategy, the author's Objective (reason for writing the piece) as well as their Assumptions/Perspective.

As a logophile myself, I actually enjoy the fact that Wideman uses numerous "five-dollar words" like the following:

• admonish
• ameliorate
• antipode
• facile
• furtive
• hegemony
• moniker
• mundane
• obviate
• ossify
• Pavlovian
• pernicious
• predilection
• Prometheus
• schadenfreude

In the comments, feel free to define these words (and add them to the Vocab page)

My favorite part of "Free Papers" is towards the end, where the writing becomes almost poetic, this excerpt:

A life free of scripture and stricture---each man free to write his own script, invent his own life. Part of the power of authorship is the power to write your own rules and enforce them, to harness the power of the word to military might. Thus the primal acts that inscribed you as a citizen of the world (an autonomous author) were voting and bearing arms. The right to write and, if pen did not prove mightier than the sword, he means and privilege to tote both and draw either indiscriminately. We enjoyed no such powers. We could not officially script our lives, so we developed the most sophisticated sense of subversive narrations inn the world: We acquired an endless fascination and proficiency with the insurrectionary properties of language.

What's your favorite part of "Free Papers"? 

First But Not Last Blog Post!

Hello class!

This is the first blogpost of the class, but hopefully not the last!

I want to welcome you all to this group blog for #FYS6: (Queer 3.0) LGBTQ Rights in the Internet Era, my FYS class for Fall 2023 at Occidental College. The course description is: 

This course is about the past, present and future of the fight for equal citizenship for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, commonly known as the “gay rights movement.” A fundamental tenet of the course is the idea that gender, race, sex and sexual orientation (among other aspects of one’s identity) are social constructions. We will analyze the historical treatment of LGBTQ people throughout history with a specific focus on the Internet era: the time period from the Internet’s birth in the 1960s to the present day. We will examine the historical, cultural, religious, legal and societal significance of marriage and deploy this analysis as a lens to view the myriad ways that civil rights and fundamental freedoms are often mediated by identity and contingent on circumstance. Texts in the course will include academic articles, court cases, legal briefs, popular media, fiction, blogs, videos, tweets and images. We will use networking tools and social media (e.g., Slack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Blogger/Wordpress, etc.) to facilitate students’ development as both consumers and producers of intellectual, academic material. The ability of students to produce and critique online content is a learning outcome of this class. No previous knowledge of any particular internet tool is required.

Feel free to use this space (and your own personal blogs) to highlight and comment on issues that involve LGBTQ rights that occur in the media or news during the semester. One of the central outcomes of the class is for you to see each other as producers, and not just consumers, of intellectual content.