Örebro universitet Akademin för humaniora, utbildning och samhällsvetenskap “Is being the gay best friend still a thing?” En multimodal kritisk diskursanalys kring representationen av homosexualitet i tv-serien Riverdale (2016-) Kandidatuppsats 17/1-2019 Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap och PR Handledare: Magnus Danielsson Författare: Staffan Jeafer Abstract The aim of this study is to analyze how homosexuality is represented in the modern tv-series Riverdale (2016-). Two confirmed homosexual characters from the show, Kevin Keller and Cheryl Blossom have been used to examine this. To showcase how their homosexuality is represented a multimodal discourse analysis was conducted. The method was used to analyze 34 scenes from varying episodes of the currently available three seasons. Queer theory was used as a theoretical point of departure in the study of the characters sexuality. Findings of the analysis shows that Kevin often withers down to stereotype of being a feminine and comedic gay best friend. Cheryl on the other hand is shown being more than just a stereotype but however noticeably lacking in sexual relations with her same-sex partner. Comparisons with previous studies was further used to see how homosexuality is constructed in the show. Through the comparison similar representation could be found from previous gay characters in terms of stereotypes and roles. The study showed however that Cheryl and Kevin’s depiction in the show was noticeably more positive. Keywords: Film and TV; Homosexuality; Multimodal critical discourse analysis; Representation; Riverdale; Queer theory; Innehållsförteckning 1. INLEDNING .................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 KAMPEN FÖR JÄMLIKHET ............................................................................................................................. 1 2. BAKGRUND .................................................................................................................................... 2 2.1 RIVERDALE .................................................................................................................................................... 2 2.1.1 Kevin Keller ........................................................................................................................................... 4 2.1.2 Cheryl Blossom...................................................................................................................................... 4 3. SYFTE ............................................................................................................................................. 4 4. TIDIGARE FORSKNING ................................................................................................................ 5 4.1 REPRESENTATION GENOM ÅREN (1940-) ..................................................................................................... 5 4.1.1 Den homosexuella karaktären och den heterosexuella publiken ....................................................... 6 4.2 STUDIE I MODERN TID ................................................................................................................................... 7 5. TEORETISKA UTGÅNGSPUNKTER ............................................................................................ 8 5.1 REPRESENTATION ......................................................................................................................................... 8 5.1.1 Stereotyper ............................................................................................................................................. 9 5.1.2 Representation i fiktion ......................................................................................................................... 9 5.1.2 Kritik - Representation ........................................................................................................................ 10 5.1.3 Teoritillämpning - Representation ..................................................................................................... 10 5.2 QUEERTEORI ............................................................................................................................................... 11 5.2.1 Heteronormativitet .............................................................................................................................. 12 5.2.2 Kritik - Queerteori ............................................................................................................................... 13 5.2.3 Teoritillämpning - Queerteori............................................................................................................. 13 5.3 QUEER REPRESENTATION ........................................................................................................................... 14 6. METOD ......................................................................................................................................... 14 6.1 KVALITATIV METOD.................................................................................................................................... 14 6.2 KRITISK DISKURSANALYS ........................................................................................................................... 15 6.2.1 Multimodal .......................................................................................................................................... 16 6.2.2 Analytiska verktyg ............................................................................................................................... 17 6.3 TILLÄMPNING AV METOD ........................................................................................................................... 19 6.4 METODKRITIK ............................................................................................................................................. 20 6.3.1 Validitet och reliabilitet ....................................................................................................................... 20 7. MATERIAL OCH URVAL ............................................................................................................ 21 7.1 MATERIAL ................................................................................................................................................... 21 7.1.1 Cheryl och Kevin ................................................................................................................................. 21 7.2 URVAL .......................................................................................................................................................... 22 8. ANALYS ........................................................................................................................................ 23 8.1 DEN FEMININA MANNEN OCH DEN MASKULINA KVINNAN ......................................................................... 23 8.2 HOMOSEXUALITETENS UTTRYCK ............................................................................................................... 25 8.3 DET HOMOSEXUELLA FÖRHÅLLANDET ...................................................................................................... 26 8.4 DE HETEROSEXUELLAS REAKTIONER ....................................................................................................... 28 8.5 DEN HOMOSEXUELLA ROLLEN ................................................................................................................... 29 9. DISKUSSION ................................................................................................................................. 31 9.1.1 Stereotypa attribut och stereotypa roller. ........................................................................................... 31 9.1.2 Homosexuella heteronormativa förhållanden ................................................................................... 33 9.1.3 Slutdiskussion ...................................................................................................................................... 33 9.2 SLUTSATSER ................................................................................................................................................ 34 9.3 VIDARE FORSKNING .................................................................................................................................... 36 KÄLLFÖRTECKNING .......................................................................................................................... 37 BILAGA ................................................................................................................................................... 1 1. Inledning Det som visas för oss genom olika medier kan ha en medveten eller omedveten påverkan på oss som publik. Vi får tar del av en fiktiv värld men tar med oss lärdomar utifrån det till vår verklighet. Medier som film och tv kan fungera som kraftfulla verktyg för att påverka allmänhetens åsikter och attityder. En studie av Soto-Sanfiel och Madzrevic (2018) påvisar att positiva representationer av homosexuella karaktärer i filmer kan minska homofobi hos människor. De visar hur mottagare av homosexuella karaktärer i ett mer positivt narrativt kan förbättra deras personliga åsikter kring människor som identifierar sig som annat än heterosexuella. En mer positiv representation visar även på förminskning av negativa fördomar