Hoping not to prove you can have too much of a good thing, I’m continuing my queer ponderings this week, visual arts-style, with new Queer Matrices.
I spent way more time on these than I’d like to admit, but the results are quite a bit more polished than last week’s laughable mock-up. I guess I was the last to know: you can’t do diddly in Paint.
Some definitions first…
The X axis is Queer Content, which could include portrayals of same sex love and relationships, homoeroticism, gender bending, trans experiences, drag, or any representation of queer culture, politics and/or community.
No Queer Content is the absence of any of these.
The Y axis is Queer Sensibility. The way I define it is looking at the world with a queer lens, through which homoeroticism and same sex love are celebrated, transexuality is transcendent, queer oppression is illuminated and indicted, and heteronormativity is challenged, subverted, and asked to please leave the building.
Non Queer Sensibility is the opposite, meaning looking at the world with a non queer lens, through which heteronormativity is centralized, traditionalized and/or assumed, a gender binary is de rigueur, and opposite sex relationships are the default setting.
Now we’ll take a look at Queer Matrices through the decades…
Hi Andy,
these matrices are very interesting… You want topics? Here comes something typical to satisfy my personal taste: A queer matrix for theatre plays and musicals. How about that?
A big hug from
Jürgen
Hi Jurgen – Ahhh. I thought about theatre/musicals, and I’ll give it a try. I was intentionally excluding them, since I assumed they would all end up on the top half of the chart, but we’ll see. Hugs back!!
Well it mustn’t be all Rent, Rocky Horror Show, The Boy From Oz, La Cage Aux Folles and Naked Men Singing. There are also Musicals like Mamma Mia, Lion King, Tarzan etc. which are quite hetero-themed. Also Jekyll&Hyde, The Full Monty and Wicked are worth a thought. There are plays from Neil Simon, Oscar Wilde, William Shakespeare….. I think that William Shakespeare might even fill his own matrix. 🙂
Good point, Jurgen, and a good challenge. I’ll try to steer clear of the expected or cliché titles/creators. I wish I remembered enough of Shakespeare from my college days to do a whole diagram on his work. Another thought: a lot has to do with what the actor brings to the role. Any character could be played “queer,” and further, the character could be played queer in a positive way, or a negative way (i.e. for parody).