Queer Television

Abstract

People use the term “queer television” to refer to a number of different things: representations of sexual minorities on television programs, as well as programming that is associated with, has a strong following among, or is created by sexual minorities. It is also a term that names a way of studying television to better understand how it participates in the social construction of sex, gender, and sexuality. Queer television studies encompasses a variety of different topics, including how sexuality is represented in television programs, how it operates in particular genres, the ways in which it informs viewer interpretations, how it figures into the business and production practices of the television industry, and how activists engage with it in order to advocate for social justice. Scholars of queer television are interested in how sexuality relates to the pleasures of watching television as well as how sexuality relates to the power relations perpetuated by television (e.g., valuing some identity groups over others, etc.). For that reason, research on queer television that emerges from cinema and media studies is qualitative in nature. Because “pleasure” and understandings of power hierarchies can be subjective, scholars of queer television studies often “take a stand.” Doing so makes research in the area a purposefully political endeavor. The scholars who practice it see meaningful information about the medium and the world around it emerging from careful, rigorous research on the relationship between television and sexuality.