The Role of Popular Culture for Queer Teen Identities’ Formation in Netflix’s Sex Education

Queer teenagers are avid readers of popular culture; as numerous audience studies prove, television plays a significant role in identity-formation for LGBTIQ+ youth, providing them with the information about sexuality, gender roles or non-normative relationships usually unavailable in their educational and home environments. In this article we analyze how some of the protagonists of Netflix’s TV show Sex Education (2019-present) utilize popular culture as a tool to explore their desires, forbidden fantasies, and gender expressions, becoming instrumental in the formation of their queer identities in a way that metatextually reflects the role LGBTIQ+ shows play for their audiences. Such is the case of Adam, a bisexual teenager that masturbates to the image of a fictional actor featured in a 1980s action film poster; Lily, whose sexual fantasies of role playing with alien creatures are strongly influenced by spatial sci-fi; and Ola, whose onyric universe is influenced by David Bowie’s genderbending aesthetics. However, the most representative example of how popular culture influences the formation of queer identities is Eric, whose non-conforming gender expression follows the example set by the trans characters in Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Innovar e internacionalizar para las necesidades formativas en Estudios LGBTIQ+ en la Complutense atendiendo a la inclusión de la diversidad sexual e identidad de Género en su oferta formativa

Recoge los trabajos realizados en este proyecto fruto del cual, el más importante resultado ha sido la creación del título oficial Complutense "Máster Universitario en Estudios LGBTIQ+"

Innovate and improve teaching quality in highly specialized training in the new Master's Degree in LGBTIQ + Studies at the UCM, attending to professional development and research on Sexual Diversity and Gender identities

Proyecto de Innovación Docente convocado por el Vicerrectorado de Calidad de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2019La UCM oferta el único Máster Universitario en Estudios LGBTIQ+ de toda España. Ante dicho reto se tiene la necesidad de una acción innovadora que permita una docencia de alta calidad para la implantación de una nueva área de estudio en la oferta docente oficial en nuestra universidad.The UCM offers the only Master's Degree in LGBTIQ + Studies in Spain and Iberoamerican Countries. Faced with this challenge, there is a need for an innovative action that allows high-quality teaching for the implementation of a new area of study in the official teaching offer at our university.Depto. de Ciencias de la Comunicación AplicadaFac. de Ciencias de la InformaciónFALSEsubmitte