CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Texas A&M Repository SHIPPING THE MARGIN TO THE CENTRE: EXCAVATING TUMBLR; FILLING IN THE SELF A Thesis by ALEXANDRA LOUISE ELIZABETH SIMPSON Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Chair of Committee, Kirsten Pullen Committee Members, Judith Hamera Sarah N. Gatson Head of Department, Donnalee Dox May 2015 Major Subject: Performance Studies Copyright 2015 Alexandra Louise Elizabeth Simpson ABSTRACT Queer fandoms on tumblr aid in the formation of identity and the self. As a micro-blogging website, tumblr works to create a constantly expanding archive of each user’s posts, and thus can potentially document the development of the self. Some of its users may be undergoing a shift in queer identity and thus be seeking others, fictional or real, who are undergoing the same thing. Other users have already undergone this shift and are using fandom in order negotiate and manage this change in self identity. The queer self is one frequently contested both by society and the individual. Tumblr aids in the fight against heteronormativity, and archives the acts of identity formation. Queer fandom provides a doorway directly to a fictional queer character, or characters, who can help to assemble a user’s self and provide an anchor, drawing other like users together. In this thesis I use my position as an indigenous member of the tumblr community to navigate female-orientated queer fandoms. I investigate user’s interactions with fandom characters, fandom relationships and each other, in order to show how tumblr can be a way to assemble and display the self. By examining posts from a range of fandoms I am able to examine the way users assemble aspects of the self. I discuss the difficulties of representation on television faced by queer women, and how fandoms can provide users a lens through which they can see an aspect of their self that is often closeted by society, or even closeted by the user themselves. I have found that users take to tumblr to assemble aspects of their self. Through their interactions with shows, characters, and each other, users are able to discover fragments of the self, new and old, ii and use tumblr to display these fragments. I can therefore conclude that for members of tumblr that reside within female-orientated queer fandoms tumblr has provided them with a space where they can negotiate their identity, and collect and assemble aspects of the self. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Kirsten Pullen, for guiding me through my research and the writing of this thesis; you offered me the chance to come to Texas A&M, and I will forever be grateful for the opportunity and experience. I would like to thank Dr. Judith Hamera for kick starting my journey, and helping me to realize the potential I have with the words I write. I would also like to thank Dr. Sarah Gatson, whose own research provided the map I needed in order venture into the online world of identity and the self. I want to thank every member of the fandoms discussed in this thesis; you create, you inspire, you support, and you provide hope. To JT in particular, thank you for helping me chart the universe. Thank you to my friends and family. In particular I’d like to thank my Mum and Darren for supporting me in my journey to Texas, Dani for opening her home, and Betsy for being the sounding board I needed. To the coheart thank you for keeping me going, and thank you to Leslie, Kris, and Cambridge, for saying ‘Geronimo’ with me. Joan Didion once wrote that “We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live”; you have all proven this to be true and you each inspire me tell your story, as well as my own. Thank you. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................... vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 1 Data: The fragments of the self used ................................................... 9 Literature review .................................................................................. 13 Theorizing tumblr ................................................................................. 17 Chapter outline ..................................................................................... 23 II SUBTEXT, A DUET, AND A PROM QUEEN .................................. 27 III FROM SUBTEXT TO CANON: GLEE, TWO CHEERLEADERS AND A FANDOM ............................................... 46 IV THE CANONICALLY QUEER & PRETTY LITTLE LIARS ........... 63 V CONCLUSION ..................................................................................... 80 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................ 86 v CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION José Muñoz describes Marga Gomez’s performance in Marga Gomez is Pretty, Witty and Gay as doing “the work of prying open memory for me and elucidating one important episode of self-formation”.1 Here Munoz sums up the process of identification. In December 2014 the series finale of Legend of Korra aired.2 This kind of event happens frequently—series come and go all the time—but the final scene especially marked this event. Lead protagonist Korra, hero from the southern water tribe, really proved that “it’s true what they say: the hero does always get the girl in the end.”3 She walked off into the proverbial sunset with Asami, someone who had initially been set up as her romantic rival for male character Mako’s affections. Korra and Asami, ship name Korrasami, sparked a plethora of posts on tumblr about just how much their relationship meant to people. One user provided a compilation of their tweets that were posted in response to the finale. One of those tweets reads, “I’ve been struggling for so long over my bisexuality. And it was so amazing to see it not only represented, but in a show I hold so dear.”45 This post indicates that the scene pried open a memory and 1 Muñoz, José steban. Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics Minneapolis: University of Minnesota P, 1999. Print. 2 “The Last Stand.” Legend of Korra. Writ. Michael Dante Dimartino. Nickelodeon. 19 Dec. 2014. Television. 3 McDonald, Sam (jogproof). “@RCDispatch @jowrotethis @Da7e @misterpatches @Devindra it's true what they say: the hero does always get the girl in the end. #Korrasami =D”. 19 Dec 2014, 10:43 UTC. Tweet. 4 Medievalpoc. “To cite this blog in MLA or Chicago”. Tumblr. Tumblr, 17 Oct. 2013. Web. 17 Oct. 2013. <http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com/post/64291212981/to-cite-this-blog-in-mla-or- chicago>. 1 helped the fan piece together what was going through their mind in that moment when they believed they were in Korra and/or Asami’s shoes. What exactly was going through their mind when their universe shifted and how that changed their own self-presentation was all brought back to them in the moments of seeing Korra and Asami. They saw and identified themselves in the scenes between these two characters in much the same way Muñoz did with Margo Gomez. Larzzing’s episode of self-formation is literally a series of episodes in this case. Tumblr is one of the biggest and most active social media platforms, with an extensive and active user base but it is more than that.6 Tumblr is also a site of performance - a stage on which fandoms are used to produce autobiographies. This is demonstrated in tumblr user lokgifsandmusings’s statement regarding the Korrasami outcome which includes the line “here’s where I’m [finally] going to directly defend the 5 Larzzing. “Probably my most coherent thoughts on the Korra finale”. Tumblr. Tumblr, 19 Dec. 2014. Web. 19 Dec. 2014 <http://larzzing.tumblr.com/post/105644961214/probably-my-most- coherent-thoughts-on-the-korra>. This tumblr post by user larzzing has 40 notes. One comment to this post was given by tumblr user wildwildeyes echoes larrzing’s sentiment with : “I didn’t realize how much it meant to me to have a poly Avatar until they made it canon. “ (Wildwildeyes. “Probably my most coherent thoughts on the Korra finale”. Tumblr. Tumblr, 19 Dec. 2014. Web. 19 Dec. 2014. <http://wildwildeyes.tumblr.com/post/105658244696/larzzing-probably-my-most-coherent- thoughts-on>.) 6Tumblr. “About.” Tumblr. Tumblr, Feb. 2007. Web. 10 Oct. 2013. <http://www.tumblr.com/about>. Tumblr has information about the number of posts, press reviews and user demographics, available on its website, this gives an updated count of the number of blogs and posts on the site in close to real time. Gaille, Brandon. “26 Astonishing Tumblr Demographics, Trends and Stats.” BrandonGaille. BrandonGaille, 03 Aug. 2013. Web. 10 Dec. 2014. <http://brandongaille.com/26 astonishing- tumblr-demographics-trends-and-stats/>. Provides detailed information about tumblr’s demographics and site traffic and when used with tumblrs given statistics the growth of the site and its significance as a site of interest becomes apparent . 2 writing, as well as get a little bit personal”.7 Each post on tumblr appears to be a representation of the thoughts of the user, from the content of the post to the tags that accompany it