Abstract
I did not realize the impact of Hollis Griffin’s book on my perspectives of gay and lesbian media until I applied its concepts to my own media consumption. Exhausted by Australia’s ongoing marriage equality debate, last weekend I sought a light-hearted film—something that might leave me “feeling normal”—similar to the everyday sitcoms, direct-to-video films, magazines, and digital apps that feature throughout Griffin’s book. In it, he analyses the intentions, ideologies, and assumptions embedded in the production and content of these media forms. Through close readings, he skillfully steers away from simply dismissing them for their tired stereotypes and tropes. Instead, he critically analyses how such ephemeral, often apolitical media can evoke a range of feelings, including normality (and even hope), while reinforcing normative consumerist and nationalist values.
My Friday night Netflix experience resonated with many of the book’s main themes. I noticed that Netflix Australia now has an “LGBTQ” 1 section. Reflecting Chapter 5’s discussion of how mobile apps’ “database design” (p. 142) constructs certain users as normal through their inclusion in search criteria, this category normalizes and anticipates LGBTQ viewers. I selected a drama/romance, Elena Undone (2010), with a simple plot: Elena is married to a male pastor but leaves him for Peyton—an openly lesbian author. Similar to the gay and lesbian television producers that Griffin discusses as engaging viewers by “making public sphere issues personal for them” (p. 89), Elena Undone unfolds in the context of protests against Proposition 8, a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in California. Comparable to the films and television shows that Griffin explores, the characters win acceptance through appeals to normality, which are achieved through consumer citizenship that conflates “romantic longing, consumerist desire, and political personhood” (p. 5). Elena and Peyton’s relationship is normalized through shots of Los Angeles’ urban landscapes that, as Griffin observes in Chapter 2, assert their Americanness. Elena’s same-sex desire becomes more acceptable as she adapts to Peyton’s cosmopolitan and affluent lifestyle, resonating with the appeals to upper middle class tastes that Griffin discusses as the focus of gay lesbian television shows (Chapter 4). Griffin also highlights how taste, affluence, and conformity become sorting criteria within mobile dating apps (Chapter 5).
I have briefly demonstrated that Feeling Normal provides an approach to examining gay and lesbian media that can be applied in classrooms and by scholars to critique a range of media forms and content. Its historical continuity illustrates how capitalist and nationalist values are sustained through media production even as media technologies evolve. This continuity is especially important for situating contemporary mobile media in LGBTQ people’s everyday lives. Griffin’s discussion of gay and lesbian apps illuminates their role in triggering a variety of emotions, as they can facilitate interpersonal connections or promise romance while only delivering commoditized and stereotyped profiles. Altogether, Griffin’s analysis provides a pathway for understanding how gay and lesbian media, including films like Elena Undone, can make LGBTQ people feel normal. Furthermore, he underlines the importance of these feelings for identifying media’s discursive role in constructing the boundaries of gay and lesbian citizenship.