Queer Film Theory

 

Queer Film Theory: Challenging Norms Through Cinema

Introduction

Queer Film Theory explores how cinema represents sexuality, gender, and identity — particularly the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals.
It challenges heteronormative assumptions in mainstream film and reclaims the queer presence often hidden, coded, or suppressed on screen.

Historical Context

• Originated in the early 1990s, inspired by Feminist Film Theory and Cultural Studies.
• Influenced by thinkers like Judith Butler (Gender Trouble, 1990) and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, who viewed gender and sexuality as fluid performances rather than fixed categories.
• Expanded through activism during the AIDS crisis, when queer visibility became political resistance.

Core Concepts

• Queer Reading: Identifying subtext or hidden representation in films.
• Camp Aesthetics: Exaggeration, irony, and playfulness as self-expression (Susan Sontag’s “Notes on Camp”).
• Gender Performativity: Gender as performed rather than biologically determined.
• Subversion: Reinterpreting traditional roles, e.g., same-sex desire in coded narratives.

Examples

• Paris Is Burning (1990): Documentary on drag culture and queer identity.
• Moonlight (2016): Intimate portrayal of Black queer masculinity.
• Brokeback Mountain (2005): Love and repression within heteronormative structures.
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975): Celebration of gender fluidity and rebellion.

Key Points

• Challenges heteronormative and binary depictions in cinema.
• Encourages inclusive, intersectional storytelling.
• Views cinema as a site of empowerment, not just entertainment.

Queer theory reframes film as a space of possibility — where identity can be performed, questioned, and celebrated.