Queer In/Visibility, Multivisualism, and Visual Justice

By:
Dr. Giovanni Porfido
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The paper explores the question of queer visual exclusion/inclusion. It looks at the relationship between queer in/visibility and visual justice because in spectacular societies, social dynamics connected to visual matters and regimes of visuality have increasing salience, and the lack of visual representations and/or misrepresentation of gays in mainstream culture and society is a form of injustice that needs to be seriously addressed. It analyses how Queer as Folk - the first entirely gay TV drama in British televisual history - represented gay identity, how it visually articulated questions of sex and gender, and how it negotiated heteronormativity within the public representational arena. The paper critically questions the relationship between gay identity and mass-mediated forms of cultural visibility, and it assesses risks and potentials of representational visibility. It also challenges existing visions of social justice and it argues for a more multivisual and democratic widening of the public representational arena.


Keywords: Homosexuality, In/Visibility, Social Exclusion, Multiviusalism, Visual Justice
Stream: Gender and Sexuality
Presentation Type: 30 minute Paper Presentation in English
Paper: Queer In/Visibility, Multivisualism, and Visual Justice

Dr. Giovanni Porfido

Lecturer in Sociology, School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University
Durham, UNITED KINGDOM

Dr Porfido’s main interests are in the area of sexualities, identity politics, social, cultural and queer theory, visual/popular culture, and discourse analysis. He has researched on the visual construction of homosexual identity in Western societies and on its representations in British mainstream television. He is currently working on the in/visibility of queer teens in popular and visual culture.

Ref: D07P0283