Since the dawn of second wave feminism and the civil rights movement, queer people (much like other marginalized groups) have learned to question the popular media around them. Queer people have collectively realized that those with control over what we see and hear never have the best interests of disenfranchised and minority people in mind.
As a result, queer people find themselves constantly having to evaluate whether or not the media they absorb is in reality damaging to their community. Since few gay specific media resources critically analyze much of anything besides resort towns and fashion (future post), queers are forced to turn to non-queer specific magazines such as Adbusters and Bitch (Fig A.).
Anthropologists studying queer culture have discovered a common trend in which queer people are most critical of the pop culture entertainment that they most enjoy to view.
An excellent example of this is the popular television show “America’s Next Top Model”. All queer people watch and enjoy this show as a general rule. The frequency with which queers watch this show is only challenged by the frequency with which they ask, “Tyra Banks: feminist triumph or feminist failure?” (Fig. B)
It is important to remember that the motivation behind this analysis is based as much in the need for cultural checks and balances as it is in the very singular desire to alleviate personal guilt over the conflict between belief and action. (power sentence!!) Queer people love to hate on the stuff they love (future post), and feminist/leftist belief systems simply provide a way in which to do this intellectually. Thus, queer people are given yet another way to take the moral high ground over heterosexuals (whoa, another future post!) without having to actually sacrifice any form of “status quo” entertainment absorbtion. Queers will defend this lifestyle contradiction by simply stating that they only watch trash in order to critique it.
DON’T FORGET TO READ MY MAIN BLOG, GAYCONDO!