Date of Award
Spring 5-13-2013
Degree Type
Capstone Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Studies (BA)
Department
Cultural Studies
First Advisor
Ann Gunkel
Second Advisor
Jaafar Aksikas
Abstract
This project argues that American daytime soap operas, since the1970s, have adopted prevailing discursive ideas of queerness, re-articulated them, and introduced new discursive understandings of queerness into popular culture. Most often, these re-articulated representations reflect a heteronormalized model,owing to myriad historically-situated discourses related to human sexuality (e.g.,mental health, AIDS, and gender identity). This point is made through a broad examination of these shifting discourses, coupled with a direct analysis of salient queer characters and storylines that appeared concurrently within daytime serials. Building on Feminist and Media theory, this project includes Queer theory to frame a comprehensive historical-discursive understanding of queerness in soap operas.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
King, Brett Edward, "As the World Turns...Gay, Not Queer: Privileging Heteronormalized Representations of Sexuality in American Soap Operas from 1977 - Present" (2013). Cultural Studies Capstone Papers. 1.
https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cultural_studies/1
Included in
American Popular Culture Commons, Cultural History Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Television Commons