Link Between Heterosexuality and Narrative
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The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Communications UNDOING HETEROIDEOLOGICAL NARRATIVE ON YOUTUBE: TRANS MASCULINE VLOGGERS, SHIFTING BODIES, AND UNCATEGORIZABLE ORIENTATIONS A Dissertation in Mass Communications by Stephanie N. Berberick © 2017 Stephanie N. Berberick Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2017 The dissertation of Stephanie N. Berberick was reviewed and approved* by the following: Michelle Rodino-Colocino Associate Professor of Film/Video and Media Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Dissertation Adviser Chair of Committee Russell Frank Associate Professor of Journalism Member of Committee Matthew P. McAllister Professor of Film/Video and Media Studies Chair of Graduate Programs Member of Committee Nancy Tuana Professor of Philosophy and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Member of Committee Ford Risley Associate Dean of Undergraduate and Graduate Education Professor of Journalism *Signatures on file in the Graduate School ii ABSTRACT Representation of transgender people has increased in the contemporary mediascape. While this is an improvement from the days when transgender communities were erased from both entertainment and news narratives, there still remain critical questions scholars must interrogate regarding the types of representation available to viewers. The majority of representations are trans feminine, leaving trans masculine folks largely invisible. Also, a good deal of transgender content is spectacularized in entertainment and news media, leaving little room to cover the bleak material realities that many transgender folks face. Yet individuals must be aware of the prevalence of discrimination against transgender people if society is to work against marginalization; media silence becomes rhetorical violence. This dissertation first argues for a recognition of the paradox of trans visibility, phraselogy I use to highlight the process whereby glamorous, celebrity trans individuals attract media attention while the dire material realities of everyday trans people are erased. Secondly, I argue that such paradox is one of the consequences of narrative’s heteroideology (Roof, 1996). However, because this dissertation focuses more on content and message (ideology), as opposed to narrative’s structure and form, I instead use the term “heteroideological narrative” after establishing narrative’s heteroidology as that which makes heteroideological narratives possible. I further argue that such paradox is attractive for media makers because certain aspects of experience must be omitted to return audience members to comfortable, normative tropes. Specifically, heteroideological narrative returns consumers to normativity politics of sexual identity through obfuscating queer, fluid bodies that deviate from “proper” heterosexually charged iconography that supports sex, gender, and sexual orientation binaries. Furthermore, binary sexual orientation is also locked into place through removing amorphous bodies that challenge the foundation of either male/female. It is through the shifting body that one can begin to complicate the attraction toward a particular sex, as no stable sex is present. Through combining textual analyses of some mainstream transgender representations with a virtual ethnography of three trans masculine YouTube video bloggers (vloggers) and in- person interviews (Oregon, California, and Maryland), this project illustrates how these producers work against heteroideological narrative. These YouTube channels work against hegemonic categorization schemas that lead to stigma, gender policing, and discrimination through their explicit focus on their shifting forms. Their focus on malleable bodies then results in discussions of orientation and attraction that unravel widely accepted imaginaries of binary, stable sexual orientations. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………… v A Note on Looking ……………………………………………………………………… vi Glossary of Terms……………………………………………………………………….. vii Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………………… ix Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………… 1 Chapter 2. THE PARADOX OF TRANS VISIBILITY UNDER HETEROIDEOLOGICAL NARRATIVE ……………………………………………………………………………. 16 The Paradox of Visibility ………………………………………………………… 18 Heteroideological Narrative Inspired by Narrative’s Heteroideology …………… 38 Heteroideological Narrative at Work: Media Examples …………………………. 47 Chapter 3. RE-IMAGINING VIRTUALITY AND CORPOREALITY THROUGH HYBRID METHODOLOGY ……………………………………………………………………… 55 Hybrid Methodology ……………………………………………………………. 58 Virtual Potentialities: Trans/Figuring Participant-Observation, Traveling, and Virtuality ………………………………………………………………………… 64 Data Collection ………………………………………………………………….. 79 Introducing Trans Masculine Vloggers: Xavier, Jason, and Dade ……………… 82 Chapter 4. A RETURN TO SEX ……………………………………………………….. 91 Independents Illustrating Authenticity through Shifting Bodies ……………….. 92 Sex the Flesh: Jason, Xavier, and Dade Ascending while Sophia Returns …….. 102 Ascension and Return: Concluding Thoughts ………………………………….. 132 Chapter 5. UNCATEGORIZABLE ORIENTATIONS ………………………………… 135 Media Erasure as Being and Becoming Dispossessed …………………………. 139 Erasing the T: LGB Coupling on the Television Screen ……………………….. 142 Partners and Participatory Transition: Tiffany and Bianca …………………….. 155 Queer Bodies Finding Queer Love ……………………………………………… 169 Uncategorizable Orientations: Concluding Thoughts …………………………… 174 Chapter 6. CONCLUDING THE CHANNEL ………………………………………….. 177 References ………………………………………………………………………………. 187 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: A White transgender man poses for the camera to protest bathroom discrimination on his Twitter account ………………………………………………………………………... 28 Figure 2: Four White, trans masculine people pose for the camera while making silly faces or laughing ……………………………………………………………………………………. 52 Figure 3: Xavier, a Black trans masculine YouTube vlogger sits in a car while recording …………………………………………………………………………………… 84 Figure 4: Jason, a Latino transgender man, lies on a bed looking up into a camera ……… 86 Figure 5: Dade, a White transgender man, stands in a bedroom looking straight into a camera ……………………………………………………………………………………. 87 Figure 6: Jason stands in a cream-colored room looking into a camera ………………….. 105 Figure 7: Xavier stands in front of a desk looking into a camera. The words "being a sister, a niece or a daughter. We share a title to an identity. Man, male, masculine" appear on the screen …………………………………………………………………………………….. 119 Figure 8: Dade stands outside with a mountain range behind him ………………………. 129 Figure 9: Tiffany, a White woman with long, curly hair sits in a room with a tiled background looking into the camera …………………………………..……………………………… 157 Figure 10: Tiffany stands in a room with green walls looking into the camera …………… 161 Figure 11: Jason and Bianca stand outside at night, Bianca looks at Jason as he looks straight ahead ………………………………………………………………………………………… 165 Figure 12: Bianca and Jason ride in a car looking to their left ……………………………… 168 v A NOTE ON LOOKING “The challenge of proper looking is converting the impulse to stare into attention, which is socially acceptable. To grasp our world and get things done right, we need to manage our orientation quite rigorously. The neurological process of sorting visual stimuli is demanding work, but like breathing, a largely unconscious and habitual one” -Rosemarie Garland-Thomson (2009, p. 22) In addition to analyzing video, this dissertation includes utilizes still images gleaned from the videos to give readers a sense of the vloggers (Dade, Jason, Xavier, Bianca, and Tiffany) whose video blogs I discuss. With the exception of screen shots from social media activism around transgender access to bathrooms, most of these are screen shots from the video blogs discussed within this work. Part of the praxis behind this research is to resist erasure, thus it was important to me that the producers I worked with were not faceless. However, inserting still images into a lengthy project that centers fluidity comes with its own set of problems and ethical concerns. Mainly, I – the researcher and writer – must wonder how you – the reader and critic – are looking at these images without having the knowledge of all that came before and after this one moment in time. Hegemonic ideologies, such as heteroideology, work through people in culture. This means that even the most progressive of individuals will come to this work with their own set of assumptions and ways of looking that are informed by the very social forces that trans produced video blogs often subvert. The images of the vloggers I worked with are a moment – a singular moment – in a long narrative. When you see a still image you are seeing a fraction of a story, a story that unfolded over years. It is important to remember that as you look. The changes I saw over the course of two years of research are impossible to archive in this dissertation, and – I argue – in any work that seeks to theorize how change happens over time. Also impossible to capture is the way that temporality is altered by these video blogs – I do attempt to explain this in certain portions of the dissertation, but words always fall short when discussing time and space. Still images fall short when discussing moving pictures, but moving pictures get us closer to envisioning the complex relationship between time, space, and change. We must understand these limitations and