Articulations of queer resistance on the small screen

Abstract

Despite the increase of gay characters on the small screen, many contemporary media scholars argue that gay representations in Western television productions are governed by heteronormativity. Yet, a few queer theoretically informed media scholars postulate that popular television is able to articulate queer resistance to the privileged position of the heterosexual matrix. With this article, I contribute to the exploration of the resistant potential of Western television fiction for queer resistance. The article presents a queer theoretically informed comprehension of queer resistance on television and postulates that resistance to heteronormativity can be articulated by queer deconstruction strategies, which exposes how heteronormativity operates, and queer reconstruction strategies, which represents queer and viable alternatives to the heteronormal