Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer 2016 Abstracts
Transitioning: Visibility and Problematic Practices in U.S. Newspaper Coverage of Transgender Issues • Anna Hornell; Patrick Howe, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo • This content analysis compares U.S. newspaper coverage of transgender issues in the year 2009 to 2014. The study examines the visibility of transgender issues and the incidence of media practices deemed problematic by the LGBT rights group GLAAD. Results show visibility rose based on both volume of stories and on the prominence of transgender issues within them. Problematic practices decreased markedly; 10 of 11 examined practices appeared less commonly in 2014 than in 2009.
Confessing Caitlyn: A Textual Analysis of the Verbal and Visual Constructions of Gender, Family, and Patriotism in the Bruce Jenner/Diane Sawyer Interview • Jennifer Huemmer, Texas Tech University • This paper examines the Bruce Jenner/Diane Sawyer interview through the lens of Foucault’s confession to understand the elements used to construct a case for or against Jenner’s transgenderism in the minds of the American audience. Specifically, this paper dissects the visual and discursive elements that are used to construct meaning. Results indicate that underlying elements of the interview serve to argue that Jenner’s transition will not disrupt traditional gender boundaries or the heteronormative family structures.
Space, Otherness, And Public Intimacy: An Observation Of The Current Lgbt Activism In Mainland China • Li Chen, Syracuse University • In this essay, I start from my own observation of a specific event of LGBT activism in China. I then use the concept of public intimacy instead of the public sphere to analyze this event’s context and particularities. Finally, I come to a tentative conclusion about the pros and cons of the contingent public intimacy created by the LGBT activism of mainland China. I want to argue that, under the context of mainland China, with extreme authority and government control, the normative public sphere cannot be built up from vanity. However, the development of social movements needs a public space that partly functions as the public sphere. Hence, commercial spaces such as the coffee house assume the responsibility of public discussions and create a new type of public intimacy.
The way she looks: Media, social discrepancy and lesbian women appearance • Lizhen Zhao; Carol Liebler • The present study aims to understand how lesbian women experience and construct their physical appearance in the context of American society, and how media may affect these experiences and constructions. In-depth interviews were conducted to address the research questions. Self-discrepancy theory (SDT) (Higgins, 1987) was adopted as the theoretical. Findings show patterns: lesbian women employ “double evaluation processes” to obtain a holistic picture of their own appearance; and three major discrepancies also emerged.
Transitioning Together: Negotiating Transgender Subjectivity with Family and Other Trans People on Reality Television • Minjie Li, LSU • Through an intersectionality-guided discourse analysis, the present study investigates how reality television programs represent 1) the main transgender characters, 2) family relational negotiation process, and 3) negotiation with other transgender people in relationship to transgender subjectivity. I found that while the main trans characters still reflect the White womanhood and heteronormativity, presenting the negotiation processes with family members and other transgender people demonstrate transgender subjectivity that are oftentimes programmed to disappear.
Pride and Prejudice: Anita Bryant, Same-Sex Marriage, and “Hitler’s View” in The Miami Herald • Rich Shumate, University of Florida • To create the perception of balance in coverage of LGBT issues, the media in the past included inaccurate, stereotypical, and defamatory charges leveled by anti-LGBT forces. Using a content analysis of news coverage in The Miami Herald, this study explored whether, and to what extent, the media had abandoned inclusion of such “Hitler’s view” frames in coverage and also how terminology used to describe LGBT people and issues changed over time. The results showed statistically significant decreases in the use of pejorative frames and a shift to terminology preferred by the LGBT community.
Journalism Values Undermining Valuable Journalism: How Modified Morality Politics Influenced News Framing of Same-Sex Marraige Backlash • Shawn Harmsen, University of Iowa • “This research looks at how local television news framed the efforts in Iowa in 2010 and 2012 to unseat Iowa Supreme Court Justices whose 2009 ruling in the case Varnum v. Brien made Iowa the third state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage. By looking at relevant news packages and interviewing journalists, news directors, and spokespersons, I traced the way the traditionally ignored judicial retention votes became a top political story, and how particular frames entered the news. I found that despite a well-meaning intention to cover the story in a professionally acceptable fashion, traditional news values and reporting rituals blinded journalists to how their attempts to provide “balance” ultimately accomplished the opposite.
Evidence studied here suggested that morality politics was the dominant frame throughout most of the coverage, with the civil rights aspects of the issue mostly relegated to the day after each election rather than in the weeks prior. Political science literature defines morality politics as a campaign strategy that relies upon arguments based on “morality,” “values,” or even “sin” to motivate supporters. In the Iowa case, this concept gets modified because while the conservative campaign engaged the logics of morality politics, they also felt the need to couch their campaign in issues like “judicial activism.” I conclude the ability to get news coverage of the anti-retention campaign and to get this modified morality politics framing as dominant in that coverage reveals an exercise of political and social power in defense of the hegemonic heteronormative cultural matrix.”
Queering Facebook: Exploring the role of Facebook groups among the LGBTIQ community in India • Sreyoshi Dey • This paper explores the role of the social media platform of Facebook Groups for the LGBTIQ community in India against the backdrop of the societal taboos, lack of legal support and infrastructural loopholes like education and technology. Following from the social identity model of de-individuation effects (SIDE), this qualitative research analyzes interviews conducted with Indian citizens who identified as LGBTIQ members of active Facebooks groups and focuses on the identity formation for the community using computer mediated communication.
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