For my #lgbtqexperiencesusaclass, I am making a few posts about materials relevant to queer history and theory.
Harris’s book Queer Externalities examines how queer #representation in mainstream media (Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Will & Grace, Brokeback Mountain, etc.) may actually have harmful side effects on the #queer community. Mistaking acknowledgement by corporations for actual #equality, he says, only reinforces #homonormativity and political apathy due to a belief that we are better off than we really are. I found it surprising to see a criticism of queer representation, considering how little there already is, but I can’t disagree with the effects he discusses, provided his criticism is of how representation is done and how people respond to it, not of the fact of representation itself.
Harris, W.C. Queer Externalities: Hazardous Encounters in American Culture. SUNY Press, 2009.
SB