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Daniela Guichardo Final Examination (Fall '22) [D.G.]

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According to the viewing of the According to the viewing of the film, Paris is Burning showcases and discusses the upbringing of the queer community and the lifestyle they are proud to embrace and share with the world. It describes the good and the bad times of the community, but mostly the harsh times that had to endure because of the lifestyle they chose to belong to. though there are some parts of the community that fails to recognize that there are disabled queer individuals that are for some reason that is not recognized for identifying for what they truly are. The reading Calling a shrimp a shrimp: A black queer intervention disability studies talk about how just because a person is disabled does not mean that they are incapable of thinking and comprehending because they may not look as if they can. Within Beyonce's new album Renaissance there is a song named Alien Superstar she signifies queer representation and glory among the community, talking about being who you are and not letting anyone break who for being that person you were meant to be.

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According to the viewing of the According to the viewing of the film, Paris is Burning showcases and discusses the upbringing of the queer community and the lifestyle they are proud to embrace and share with the world. It describes the good and the bad times of the community, but mostly the harsh times that had to endure because of the lifestyle they chose to belong to. though there are some parts of the community that fails to recognize that there are disabled queer individuals that are for some reason that is not recognized for identifying for what they truly are. The reading Calling a shrimp a shrimp: A black queer intervention disability studies talk about how just because a person is disabled does not mean that they are incapable of thinking and comprehending because they may not look as if they can. Within Beyonce's new album Renaissance there is a song named Alien Superstar she signifies queer representation and glory among the community, talking about being who you are and not letting anyone break who for being that person you were meant to be.

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tamya powell

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Queer Popular Culture, Media, and Representation

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Wilson Castro , disability as power (week 11)

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Wilson Castro , disability as power (week 11)

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Daniela Guichardo - Transnational Queering... (Week 7)

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Daniela Guichardo - Transnational Queering... (Week 7)

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Transnational Queering, Geo-Spatial Awareness, & Performance (Daniela Guichardo Seminar Facilitation)

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Sorry for posting 3x it doesn't let me post all at once!

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Bianca Balkaran: The Erotic, Sexuality & Stigma

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Bianca Balkaran: The Erotic, Sexuality & Stigma

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Jordaan & Tamaya Queer Popular Culture and Media Representations

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Jordaan & Tamaya Queer Popular Culture and Media Representations

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Queer Popular Culture, Media, and Representations

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Black Queer Subjectivities (Fall 2022) -- Final Examination

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additional notes I didn't get to add to the slides:
-in regards to the discussion around the black gay men + MSM, it is also very important to note that this community had a much smaller pool of eligibles to date/have sex with - directly dealing from the politics of desirability. This is also why despite both white men and black men in the queer community directly engaging in unprotected sex for different reasons - black gay men were the one of the most affected groups in comparison to white gay men

-for the reading on the 19th Century:
afro-based genres of music like Funk are vital parts in understanding the way black creators and modern history use the soul of music to resist the robotic-nature of oppressive systems like colonialism or capitalism which also exploits the marginalized in several ways. This also includes people who were born physically with deformities and disabilities, being reduced to "monsters" / "freaks" and put into freakshows.

I also think it is very important to mention the fact that there was a rise in "teratology" - aka, the study of monsters. And while it is fun to think about spooky things in culture and the occult, it is also important to address the fact that many of these tales of monsters have been based off of stereotypes and judgements on the marginalized. Monsters are beings that are separate from that of "humans" according to others. The occult & teratology may have been an exploration of other worlds, but many harmful things come out of it.

It is interesting to read on how people in this century have handled the thought of being so excluded and using the system to their advantage, such as the McKoy twins who were conjoined and also born as slaves. They were one of the people who were inter marginalized - even constantly having to prove themselves on their condition through invasive doctors, but still found a way to use it to their abilities and gain money that many other black people at the time couldn't receive.

The nature of human made things, including its people and its own discoveries is that of contradiction. In their ability to survive and garner enough money from being part of a freakshow, the McKoy twins had to recognize that they were outside of the spectrum of human perspective. Yet despite these things, they were also embracing the parts of them that didn't fare well for many others like them, out of necessity.

Their lives intertwined with many types of exploitation, yet they had even managed to write a book. We never knew every thought from the twins, but that isn't the main point of this thought. Even how we view history as far away and the present as different is contradictory as well as how certain concepts are interpreted nowadays without the proper subtext of why these studies were created.

I think we should always keep in mind that not everything is as simple as it seems, and there are many things to factor in.

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There have been many aspects of Queerness that should be celebrated, but it is also important to remember the things that queer activists have experienced in order to get people to recognize them. Although we know many milestones like stonewall, I didn’t know that there was an ominous connection between the American Psychiatric Association and the Queer community that led to a huge stigma that queer people still face in many countries, even in ours. Homosexuality was declared an illness and that made things very hard for the queer community. Eventually, it did get repealed after heavy pressure on elected officials and several instances of activists making a ruckus and interrupting panels with their own arguments.

However, there is still a large invisibility towards many other identities of the queer community. A white man is focused on more than a white man. A man is considered more important than a woman. And a cisgendered person has more representation than a nonbinary or transgender person. There is a large assumption of many gender roles in many spaces (physical and systemical) that a man should be a cisgender man or a woman should be a cisgender woman and throws out the marginalized groups that dont follow these conventions. Even cisgender men and women get mislabeled if they don’t fit the margins of society well enough and it is definitely hard. But even if a transgender person is passing in gender norms – they are still not ever considered into the conversation.

There are many instances of people being discriminated against and not spoken of. There are still groups I have failed to mention, because there is a group of people who are often never discussed. Disabled people. They exist in many types of groups but are only represented as elder people or people who get into accidents, or are depicted as freaks. And even if there is positive representation of disabled people – they often depict white people instead of a more diverse count of other groups. The implication of only white disabled people being the only type of disability representation in media and other things inherently erases the existence of BIPOC folks who also suffer the same things, but due to how bigoted the system is to marginalized races and ethnicities, they lack the same opportunities as a whole in comparison to their white counterparts. Many people of many colors, body types, sexuality, and gender exist, so the fact that only the non-marginalized groups get discussed in these conversations is frustrating, especially in already marginalized areas.

These people already exist, and they don’t deserve to be dismissed and ignored because it wasn’t commonplace for some people in higher up positions to discuss the inter marginalized groups. There are billions of people and minorities are not rare, only underrepresented in most cases. It would be easier for minorities to exist without hiding themselves had there been any type of media representation and more conversations that discuss the fact that not everyone is on a binary presentation.

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B.L. Love’s A Ratchet Lens: Black Queer Youth, agency, hiphop, and the Black rachet imagination:

There are many interpretations of many terms that have been popularized in things like music, social media, etc. The general thought/interpretation of terms like Ratchet is commonly used as a derogatory term, targeting black women, but this word is argued to be kept instead of buried. Black female scholars like Heidi R. Lewis insisted that if this word is buried, it would only serve to imply that Black women are on a binary scale of roles and expectations. The bad connotations of this term covers up the other definition of where every black woman, including upper class ones can undo their professionalism and get down. The motives of Ratchetness is a way to release the inhibitions and resist the norms of society that already shames black women in the first place for factors like economic, appearance, etc. So getting down at the club and expressing their sexuality through dance and dress up is almost like catharsis.

And much like black women, there is another group/demographic in the black community that also suffers from misconceptions and need another means of release through things like music and other programs: Black queer youth. It’s not often discussed but there is a connection to their roots of their cultures through music. For example, Bounce is a music genre distinctively rooted in Afro-Caribbean style through the beats, rhythm, and style–dismantling the politics of respectability, which I think is an integral part of this culture. When I was reading the parts about “respectability politics” I think it's interesting seeing how these aspects of a “standard” refers to the prim and proper state is actually heavily referenced in even modern cultures of the internet.

If you’ve heard of memes like “respectfully looking” or “disrespectfully looking” - in a way, i think that can also apply to this reading. There is even a twitter account called “respectful memes” where inoffensive, wholesome memes or images are posted, and honestly its pretty nice. But also the implication of “disrespectfully looking” is an indicator of more mature and out of typical discussion things like sexual interest, and vice versa, so it feels interesting reading this. The thought of politeness/respectfulness directly puts in the etiquette that limits your behavior to a certain extent. And environments like parties, nightclubs, and other private settlements for adults give people more freedom and privacy to go out of their usual behavior, to release your inhibitions and energy.

That’s also why music is important in general, especially in black culture. The black community has created so many genres and famed songs that are still heavily impactful to this day especially since they are highly connected to the music and in a way, music gives us the ability to express ourselves and explore other abstract ideas like sexuality, which is why things like Bounce music and other genres are important to the experience and understanding of Black Queer Youth.

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Looking at the article listing black sapphic couples and honestly, I think it's really nice how much more representation we’re getting on the screen. I see so many people online who do love queer media, especially when it involves women of color. Just from the list itself and the short summaries – I think it is clear that we are getting different types of relationships instead of automatically opting for one good or bad trope about black queer women. Very refreshing, especially since I do hear about the negative aspects of media on sites like Twitter and vice versa.

When I first think about representation and queer media, my mind goes to tragedies and forbidden love – like the bury your gays trope. I was very well made aware of this when I was first introduced to queerness on the internet and I feel like there wasn’t many queer couples in media, much less queer characters with a happy or decent ending. But now? There are definitely more options for representation.

It is tricky terrain but the media has also begun to dig deeper into the other sides of these characters, including the intertwining conflicts that result from the inherent prejudices of the system–starting to be more reflected as we see the conversation around representation change. Jade D. Petermon and Leland G. Spencer’s “Black Queer Womanhood Matters” analyzes the role of black women as well as the Black Lives Matter movement and how while there is good intention–some shows who do decide to cover the issue of subjects like police brutality subsequently end up easing up on the writing like in Scandal.

The purpose of the episode is to display more awareness of racism but despite that–many shows including Scandal have the urge to please their white audience, who presumably wouldn’t handle the actual reality of these incidents well–causing a loss in money, and the authors of this article guide us well into the subject of respectability politics. The episode labeled “Lawn Chair” ends up giving us no nuance to deal with, exaggerating the good and the bad. The victims are framed as a good, innocent, heteronormative family, which also puts aside the other groups of people who wouldn’t be looked at as good or reliable (undocumented immigrants, people with prison or other records, and other marginalized groups). Not to mention, the villain is only posed as the individual that's the issue, which directly goes against what BLM believes in.

It is a systemic issue, and not just an individual. If it was that easy, I think a lot of things would be less filled with grief if we had the answer that easily. Petermon and Spencer also break down other popular media that handle this subject–and the consensus is that while these subjects are a huge opportunity in of itself, why does it always miss the mark?

Well, it's not surprising to say that money runs the world, including in how these subjects are addressed. But it is also true that black media is becoming very well known as well as seeing new writers and talents enter the industry. Personally, I think the media is gradually fighting back the narrative of the white savior framing as we continue to use the internet and share thoughts with each other. It’s not over yet, especially when I think we are seeing a new era of black representation in many aspects of the entertainment industry.

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Entry 1:

From what I’ve observed in McBride’s ‘Straight Black Studies’ – it discusses the politics of African American lives and how the response to defy racist assumptions with kindness and respect leads to African Americans assimilation of American Values instead of giving the black community a separate base of cultural values. It also began to heavily alter the fate of Black Studies in academia, making African American scholars forced to endure strict standards on their behavior–from their body language and verbiage.

This subject of respectability politics opens us up to the base assumptions of why many people in the queer community often have a debate on how they should approach things regarding queerness, and adding the racially marginalized identities of queers adds another layer of intricacy and meaning to the behavior of queer people. James Baldwin is the main star of this essay, where McBride analyzes the author’s identities which is not able to be separated into boxed descriptions because every part of Baldwin’s life as a black and queer man plays into his current decisions and role in life.

He is also a writer as well as an activist–being one of the first people to come out on his homosexuality. I also find it very interesting how Baldwin, who was especially a big figure in earlier decades, has similar yet different values on the views of sexuality, as well as representation – “,who are so obsessed with the particular details of anybody’s sex life. I don’t think those details make a difference.” In comparison to my experience in the 2020s, I also agree with him on the viewing of sexuality, but still, things have changed. I do agree that what goes on in the sex life of queer people should not be offered to the public, the politics of queerness has changed. There are many other insights to the queer community even as our values stay foundationally the same.

Not to mention, James Baldwin faced a society that was even more determined to ignore both parts of his identity in the 1950s, which was the decade his book–Giovanni’s Room– was published. An interesting decision he made was that the main protagonist was designed to be a white american boy – due to the fact that a large percentage of Americans would only believe that had he wrote it with a man of similar racial heritage would be the protagonist, then they wouldn’t believe that he meant to make it a story centered around nationality, sexuality, and social environment targeted to an overall audience.

These types of stories do well to represent a certain kind of mindset where our queerness can represent many other things than sexuality–due to the fact that one factor can always affect the rest of our lives, even if it isn’t as obvious. Cathy J. Cohen’s essay ‘Punk, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens’ also addresses what queerness can stand for in a certain context, as well as what it still fails to include at times, even now.

Intersectionality isn’t always a given in certain places, especially since we still tend to completely separate sexual identity from racial identity and vice versa. These parts of our lives determine our lifestyles for most, including how people receive opportunities or a lack of. If we do not pay attention to the issues that are still rampant in the queer community–we will not have anything to protect.