Briefing: Discuss how activism around sexuality and/or society’s views on sexuality have changed over time or perhaps remained static. The purpose of this introductory essay is for you to demonstrate your engagement with the content from this subject from weeks 1-5. Support your exploration primarily with required readings. You should draw on at least 3 required readings from weeks 1-5 throughout your essay. You must also engage with at least two of the three following resources from the subject: the Grainger Museum visit in week 2, the Pride movie screened in week 3 and the archival materials explored in week 5.
Utilise ‘Pride’ film (2014), and Archival materials to support argument.
Hi! So this essay is intended as my first research essay and I have had trouble doing it due to illness. My idea was to reflect on how the advent of technology has led to a divide in how queer people understand themselves and their communities. Older generations of queer people were able to understand themselves and their communities via word spoken in person and in activist settings. In my analysis I aimed to reflect on the film ‘Pride’ (2014) and some provided archival materials. I can include notes on the film Pride.
In a brief summary it can be stated that the queer activists depicted in the film were able to lend visibility to themselves by sharing their experiences with those ouiside of the community, namely through how two lesbian characters share their lifestyles with an older non-queer woman through comedy and spoken word, and are able to come to a greater understanding.
I will include the archived files you can use as a reference.
There are also a number of readings that I will include that I need to reference. Below I have copied some relevant readings from the ‘Cover’ (2019) reading: “What has emerged in the array of dozens of new gender and sexuality descriptors and categories is a new ‘taxonomy’ or ‘lexicon’ of gender and sexual identity that provides new opportunities for young people to articulate their gendered and sexual selves in terms of new ways of belonging and new forms of citizenship.” (p. 278)
“A number of such challenges were articulated in Chapter 18 The proliferation of gender and sexual identities, categories and labels among young people Emergent taxonomies Rob Cover Emergent gender and sexuality taxonomies 279 the second half of the twentieth century from within psychoanalytic, Marcusean, post-structuralist perspectives as well as in the activism of various brands of Gay Liberation from the 1970s” (p. 278-279)
“Just as more traditional non-heterosexual identities such as gay or lesbian have been articulated in the context of resistance to traditional sexuality and gender labelling practices, and as the term queer emerged in the 1990s in opposition to bourgeois stereotyping of lesbian/gay (Buchbinder 1997, p. 150), these new categories are significant in that they have been produced by and within an online youth culture through younger persons debating and engaging in the interactive co-creation of sexual label information, much of which operates in resistance to both older generational definitions.” (p. 280)
“Generations, however, are also a way of making sense of shifts in cultural practices – in this case, practices of understanding, articulating, and inhabiting sexualities and genders – over time. “ (p. 281)
“Just as the older system of sexual and gender categorisations might have been intensely felt as a set of sensations transcribed into emotion, attraction and desire (Papacharissi 2015, p. 21), these new categories can also be understood as deeply felt attachments and intensities by those who articulate their sexual and gender identities within these contexts.” (p. 281)
Aside from this, there are further readings i’ve attached that you should include quotes from. If there are any clarifications or additions I can provide I would be very happy to help. Thank you very much.
For archival citations, format is *University archives, *Full collection name, *Collection reference number, *Item number, *Description and Date of Item: EG: University * Archives, Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack Collection, 1971.0009.00185. Correspondence from Hans M. Wingler, Frankfurt am Main, Germany to Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, 27 Oct 1957.
If you’re not sure how to cite this, leave it and I will 🙂
