Queer Theory

Question 1

What is Queer Theory?

Answer 1

It raises questions about the political significance of the media, but focuses specifically on the issue of representation.

Question 2

How has Queer Theory developed?

Answer 2

From the belief that the British media tends to under-represent some political and social groups as well as their views and values.

Question 3

What does Graham Murdoch argue in terms of groups that aren’t visible in media culture?

Answer 3

Absence from media representation implies a sense of ‘otherness’, of not belonging and marginalisation.

Question 4

What does Queer Theory challenge?

Answer 4

The ways in which heterosexuality is constructed as normal and the media has limited the representation of gay men and women.

Also, the traditionally held assumptions that there is a binary divide between being gay and heterosexual, and suggests that sexual identity is more fluid.

Question 5

What does Queer Theory suggest in terms of interpreting different media texts?

Answer 5

There are different ways of interpreting contemporary media texts, by looking at the fluidity of gender representation. This offers alternative ways of interpreting texts that were broadcast before homosexuality was decriminalised in 1967.

Question 6

Although it was never made illegal, what was suppressed in Britain in the 19th/20th century?

Answer 6

Lesbianism.