{"title":"当代电视中的 \"埋葬你的同性恋 \"特例:节目制作应对观众异议的代际转变","authors":"Rob Cover, Cassandra Milne","doi":"10.1111/jpcu.13255","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>“Bury Your Gays” is the popular name used to describe the common television trope in which characters who are ostensibly gender- or sexually-diverse are denied happy endings or “killed off”. Widespread online commentary among audiences reacting to incidents of “Bury Your Gays” are indicative of a public concern over the repetitiveness of this trope in contemporary popular culture. This paper investigates the cultural frameworks through which television producers respond to audience anger at “Bury Your Gays” incidents in order to provide a production perspective to scholarship on the topic. We compare two cases separated by a generation: the 2002 case of <i>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i> and the 2016 case of <i>The 100.</i> We argue that the difference in responses is indicative of (i) a solidification of the producer-audience relationship since the advent of social media; (ii) the further embedding of a transactional approach to viewership in which “queerbaiting” is considered “false advertising” and (iii) the growth of cancel culture which fosters expectations that television representation will align with positive depictions and socially-progressive cultural values. The paper argues that these cultural shifts underscore the way in which producers respond, no longer justifying the death of a queer character based on narrative need, but now balanced with attention to audience identity and social demand.</p>","PeriodicalId":46552,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Popular Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jpcu.13255","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"The “Bury your Gays” trope in contemporary television: Generational shifts in production responses to audience dissent\",\"authors\":\"Rob Cover, Cassandra Milne\",\"doi\":\"10.1111/jpcu.13255\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<p>“Bury Your Gays” is the popular name used to describe the common television trope in which characters who are ostensibly gender- or sexually-diverse are denied happy endings or “killed off”. Widespread online commentary among audiences reacting to incidents of “Bury Your Gays” are indicative of a public concern over the repetitiveness of this trope in contemporary popular culture. This paper investigates the cultural frameworks through which television producers respond to audience anger at “Bury Your Gays” incidents in order to provide a production perspective to scholarship on the topic. We compare two cases separated by a generation: the 2002 case of <i>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i> and the 2016 case of <i>The 100.</i> We argue that the difference in responses is indicative of (i) a solidification of the producer-audience relationship since the advent of social media; (ii) the further embedding of a transactional approach to viewership in which “queerbaiting” is considered “false advertising” and (iii) the growth of cancel culture which fosters expectations that television representation will align with positive depictions and socially-progressive cultural values. The paper argues that these cultural shifts underscore the way in which producers respond, no longer justifying the death of a queer character based on narrative need, but now balanced with attention to audience identity and social demand.</p>\",\"PeriodicalId\":46552,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Journal of Popular Culture\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.2000,\"publicationDate\":\"2023-11-10\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jpcu.13255\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Journal of Popular Culture\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"90\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jpcu.13255\",\"RegionNum\":4,\"RegionCategory\":\"社会学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q4\",\"JCRName\":\"CULTURAL STUDIES\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Popular Culture","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jpcu.13255","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"CULTURAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
The “Bury your Gays” trope in contemporary television: Generational shifts in production responses to audience dissent
“Bury Your Gays” is the popular name used to describe the common television trope in which characters who are ostensibly gender- or sexually-diverse are denied happy endings or “killed off”. Widespread online commentary among audiences reacting to incidents of “Bury Your Gays” are indicative of a public concern over the repetitiveness of this trope in contemporary popular culture. This paper investigates the cultural frameworks through which television producers respond to audience anger at “Bury Your Gays” incidents in order to provide a production perspective to scholarship on the topic. We compare two cases separated by a generation: the 2002 case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the 2016 case of The 100. We argue that the difference in responses is indicative of (i) a solidification of the producer-audience relationship since the advent of social media; (ii) the further embedding of a transactional approach to viewership in which “queerbaiting” is considered “false advertising” and (iii) the growth of cancel culture which fosters expectations that television representation will align with positive depictions and socially-progressive cultural values. The paper argues that these cultural shifts underscore the way in which producers respond, no longer justifying the death of a queer character based on narrative need, but now balanced with attention to audience identity and social demand.
期刊介绍:
The popular culture movement was founded on the principle that the perspectives and experiences of common folk offer compelling insights into the social world. The fabric of human social life is not merely the art deemed worthy to hang in museums, the books that have won literary prizes or been named "classics," or the religious and social ceremonies carried out by societies" elite. The Journal of Popular Culture continues to break down the barriers between so-called "low" and "high" culture and focuses on filling in the gaps that a neglect of popular culture has left in our understanding of the workings of society.