Date of Submission
5-2024
Type of Work
Exegesis and Creative Work
Principal Supervisor
Dr. Toby Wren)
Keywords
Other ; Identity ; Queer ; Non-conforming genders ; racial ethncity ; disability ; Spectator ; Symbolic order ; Sexuality
Audience
Mature (M) - moderate impact language/themes, includes violence/nudity, not restricted to 15+
Abstract
The stigmatisation of queer identities is a constant in cinematic history, especially so in horrorgenre movies. A transgressive and confronting medium, horror cinema presents numerous opportunities to align queer identities with cultural symbols of degeneracy; perpetuating associations that contribute to negative cultural attitudes towards queerness. While public discourse on such topics has advanced to entertain ideas of equity and authenticity in these representations, negative values and attitudes are yet evident in contemporary cultural texts. Therein lay an opportunity to examine how these attitudes and values are perpetuated through history by deconstructing how societal attitudes inform the creation of a text and the methods used to code connotations, which in turn informs the construction of a text for this project that contains representations of queerness that challenge negative cultural beliefs.
The research investigates the creation and Othering of identities within genre cinema to determine how they are demarcated outside accepted society. The practical project presents the outcome: a combination of (a) theoretical examination of primary texts and secondary sources, from relevant theorists, to identify how hegemonic belief systems are reinforced through representation, and (b) practical research to determine the cinematic techniques used to encode representation and how these can be used to present alternate representations of queerness that challenge dominant beliefs. The connotations coded in female and queer identities in genre cinema are strikingly similar. Both require sanctioning to remove the threat—sometimes metaphorical, many times physical, to align the identity with accepted beliefs and return them to, or save, normal society.
The resulting practical outcome for this project—a short horror-genre film—demonstrates the disruption of these mechanisms in the creation of representations on screen. Early implications point to the possibility that genre filmmakers need not be beholden to decades of problematic identity construction. Instead, this research indicates the possibility of creating accessible genre works that present representations of queerness antithetical to hegemonic beliefs.
Notes
For their advice, help and guidance throughout this degree and creative project, I would like to acknowledge James Thompson, Teresa Rizzo, Pablo Muslera, Toby Wren, Marcus O’Donnell, Lola Montgomery, Anne Chesher, Robert Haubt, Stephen Lance, Robbie Studsor, Peter Zhao, and Mairi Cameron.
Sensitive handling note
5. Readers should be aware that this output contains content with explicit language, hate speech, nudity or sexuality, drug use which may be confronting and potentially distressing to some people.
Recommended Citation
Gambino, M. (2024). Disrupting Negative Representations of Queerness in Genre Cinema [Masters dissertation, SAE University College]. Creo.