Print Ad Analysis

April 15, 2011
Sophie Greaves & Jessica Mercado
In Western societies where gender inversion theories of homosexuality prevail, heterosexuals often confuse homosexuality with transgender identification.  Popular stereotypes continue to associate lesbianism with masculinity and male heterosexuality with effeminacy...Because passing for straight requires the careful management of symbols that are more specifically linked to gender than to sexuality per se, coming out to oneself as a gay person generally entails coming into a heightened consciousness of gender.


Kath Weston (1993: 6)

 
          Historically, gender and queer theorists have claimed to be the deconstructers of hetero-normative identity by transforming the general public’s understanding of prescribed gender and sexual identities. These hegemonic categories reduce identities and gender roles to cultural norms of being hyper-masculine and/or hyper-feminine and place heterosexuality as the standard, customary form of sexual orientation. Even in homosexual relationships, which claim to resist traditional sex and gender constructions, ideas of hetero-normative gender structuring permeate into interactions among and presentations of gay and lesbian relationships. Despite this “heightened consciousness of gender” (Weston 1993), hetero-normative representations of homosexuals have prevailed in the media, often even in advocacy of gay rights. The images we have selected all include an underlying theme of male-male and female-female relationships that have been forced into a hetero-normative understanding of the oppositional and complimentary nature of male-female relationships. Examining hetero-normativity in the media through the lenses of romance, bodies and clothing, and passivity and violence, we hope to engage with the greater societal structures that influence the construction of gay/lesbian identity and presentation of homosexual selfhood.

Romance



Bodies and Clothing



Passivity and Violence