LGBT Transnational Identity and the Media Also by Christopher Pullen
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
LGBT Transnational Identity and the Media Also by Christopher Pullen DOCUMENTING GAY MEN: Identity and Performance in Reality Television and Documentary Film GAY IDENTITY, NEW STORYTELLING AND THE MEDIA LGBT IDENTITY AND ONLINE NEW MEDIA ( co-edited with Margaret Cooper ) LGBT Transnational Identity and the Media Edited by Christopher Pullen Senior Lecturer in Media Studies, Bournemouth University, UK Introduction, selection and editorial matter © Christopher Pullen 2012 Individual chapters © Contributors 2012 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-30106-1 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-33674-6 ISBN 978-0-230-37331-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230373310 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 For LGBT citizens worldwide, especially for those living in conditions of abject oppression. Also in memory of Mahmoud Asgari, Ayaz Marhoni, and David Kato.1 1. In 2005 after being held in prison for 14 months, where they were allegedly tortured, Mahmoud Asgari (17 years old) and Ayaz Marhoni (18 years old) were found guilty of homosexual acts and publicly hanged in the Edalat (Justice) Square in the town of Mashhad in northeast Iran. The iconic images of the two young men blindfolded, with ropes around their necks just before execu- tion, and then of their bodies swinging from the rope at the end of a crane, were published worldwide through the Internet by human rights activists (see Gay Identity, New Storytelling and the Media, Pullen 2009). David Kato was murdered in Uganda in 2011, after public involvement in gay rights, addressing advancing oppression there at that time (see the introduction, plus Chapters 1, 4 and 5). Contents List of Figures ix Acknowledgements x Preface xii Notes on Contributors xiv Introduction 1 Christopher Pullen Part I Politics and Citizenship 1 LGBT Transnational Documentary “Becoming” 23 Christopher Pullen 2 Trauma and Triumph: Documenting Middle Eastern Gender and Sexual Minorities in Film and Television 41 Rebecca Beirne and Samar Habib 3 Transsexual in Iran: A Fatwa for Freedom? 59 Sahar Bluck 4 Sub-Saharan African Sexualities, Transnational HIV/AIDS Educational Film and the Question of Queerness 67 David Oscar Harvey 5 The Floating/Fleeting Spectacle of Transformation: Queer Carnival, Gay Pride and the Renegotiation of Postapartheid Identities 84 Ernst van der Wal 6 The Argentinean Movement for Same-Sex Marriage 102 Margaret Cooper 7 The Politics of Reclaiming Identity: Representing the Mak Nyahs in Bukak Api 114 Andrew Hock Soon Ng vii viii Contents Part II Adaptation and Postcolonial Transitions 8 Queer (Im)possibilities: Alaa Al-Aswany’s and Wahid Hamed’s The Yacoubian Building 131 Stephanie Selvick 9 Andrew Salkey, James Baldwin and the Case of the “Leading Aberrant”: Early Gay Narratives in the British Media 146 Kate Houlden 10 The Exotic Erotic: Queer Representations in the Context of Postcolonial Ethnicity on British TV 161 Peri Bradley 11 Documenting the Queer Indian: The Question of Queer Identification in Khush and Happy Hookers 181 Bryce J. Renninger 12 Screening Queer India in Pratibha Parmar’s Khush 197 Daniel Farr and Jennifer Gauthier Part III Performance and Subjectivity 13 Gay Pornography as Latin American Queer Historiography 213 Gustavo Subero 14 Quo Vadis, Queer Vato? Queer and Loathing in Latino Cinema 231 Richard Reitsma 15 Queer Art of Parallaxed Document: Visual Discourse of Docudrag in Kutluğ Ataman’s Never My Soul! (2001) 242 Cüneyt Çakirlar 16 The Drag Queers the S/He Binary: Subversion of Heteronormativity in Turkish Context 259 Serkan Ertin 17 If Art Imitated Reality: George Takei, Coming Out, and the Insufferably Straight Star Trek Universe 273 Bruce E. Drushel 18 A Chinese Queer Discourse: Camp and Alternative Desires in the Films of Yon Fan and Lou Ye 290 Jason Ho Ka-Hang Index 309 Figures I.1 A collage of images of some of contributors to the “It Gets Better Project”, created by David Sullivan. At the time of writing, over 350,000 people have supported this project. Barak Obama’s contribution to this may be considered as central; in advocating transnational citizenship ideals for gay youth. Image © David Sullivan. www.flickr.com/davidnewengland 2 I.2 Jeffrey Crowley, Director of National AIDS Policy at the Whitehouse, depicted in Whitehouse staff It Get Better Project, personal video contribution. Image Courtesy of the Office of National AIDS Policy 3 I.3 David Kato, who was murdered in Uganda in 2010. Image courtesy of Gay Rights Uganda. Image © 2010 Current TV, produced and owned by Current TV 4 1.1 Mariana van Zeller in a scene from the documentary Vanguard: Missionaries of Hate. Mariana is in conversation with “Long John”, who is oppressed in Uganda, as an openly gay man. Image © 2010 Current TV, produced and owned by Current TV 24 1.2 “Long John” in a scene from the documentary Vanguard: Missionaries of Hate. Long John, in conversation with Mariana van Zeller, on a journey through town to his home, where he feels vulnerable from increasing oppression in Uganda 34 5.1 Untitled. Photograph © Ernst van der Wal 89 5.2 Untitled. Photograph © Ernst van der Wal 90 5.3 Raped as a “cure” to my sexuality – Image courtesy of Lindsay Nel 94 15.1 Kutluğ Ataman (2001) Never My Soul! Six-screen or single-screen video installation. Reproduced with permission of the artist.Courtesy of Lehman Maupin Gallery, New York, and Thomas Dane Gallery,London. 247 ix Acknowledgements There have been a number of influential people, and events that have taken place, which have stimulated the progress of this project since its initial inception in 2005 as part of a lecture series at Bournemouth University, UK. I would like to note the impact of John Scagliotti’s Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World (2003), Sandi Simcha Dubowksi’s Trembling before G-d (2004) and Parvez Sharma’s Jihad for Love (2007) as landmark documentaries which I found inspirational in commencing research within this area, and which resulted in earlier writing on the subject area in my first two authored books (Pullen 2007, 2009). Also, presenting a paper at the Visible Evidence conference (in Lincoln, UK, in 2008) and reviewing the work of co-panel contribu- tors on non-Western LGBT identity, additionally proved to be stimu- lating in advancing ideas. At Bournemouth University, Sahar Bluck’s graduate dissertation on transsexual identity in Iran offered thought- fulness to the subject area. (Sahar also contributes to this book.) The Dissident Citizenship conference held by the University of Sussex (in Brighton, UK, in 2010) offered me a deeper cultural focus, and particu- larly witnessing the keynote contributions of Sara Ahmed, William J. Spurlin and Sally Munt offered inspiration. In addition, I found David V. Ruffolo’s recent work on Post Queer Politics highly stimulating in helping theorize the potential of LGBT transnational identity. However, my deepest gratitude is reserved for the contributors to this book, who ultimately have produced the essential groundwork and constitution. Also, it is important to note their wider academic, and human, context. I am inspired by their independent commitment, personal reserve, thoughtfulness and innovation, which often occurs outside, and in excess, of their academic faculty research expectations. Felicity Plester at Palgrave Macmillan made this project possible in commissioning LGBT Transnational and the Media , and expressed great enthusiasm for the work. Additionally, the contribution of Ian Davies, my life partner, is central. He remains the inspiration for my work, and as usual he has offered valuable support to this project in helping me work through ideas. In addition, I would like to note the contribution of Roberto Ang, Brian Bantugan, Hollis Griffin, Jacqueline Maingard, Dirk Naguschewski, Gary Needham, Sarah Paget, Ebraham Pournazaree, Wemar Strydom x Acknowledgements xi and Xavier Tam, who were involved in the project in the early stages of its development, but for various reasons were unable to contribute. Also I would like to thank Current Media, Gay Rights Uganda, Mark Gillingham, Lehman Maupin Gallery, Lindsay Nel, David Sullivan, and Ernst van der Wal for the provision of valuable media and permissions in the formation of this book.