Hegemonic negotiation and LGBT representation in contemporary teen films / Andrea Pauline MacRae

A. MacRae

Research has shown that media influence the beliefs and behaviours of audiences, including their acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. With LGBT youth facing high levels of victimisation, understanding the 'common sense' representations articulated by entertainment media specifically for a youth audience remains an important area of scholarship. While most of the existing literature on LGBT representation in youth-oriented media provides insightful analysis, it tends to concentrate on a small number of teen television programs or films produced as part of the New Queer Cinema movement, and often adopts a subversive approach informed by queer theory. This thesis addresses a current gap in the literature by systematically examining LGBT representation in mainstream American teen films released between 1995 and 2013 through a framework of cultural hegemony; it examines the range of LGBT representations, their commonalities, and contestations of established tropes. First theorised by Antonio Gramsci, hegemonic negotiation refers to an ongoing, dynamic, and complex process of ideological change in which alternative and oppositional forces are excluded, absorbed, or domesticated by the dominant, continually altering and realigning hegemony. Willingly adopted by the populace and internalised as 'common sense,' hegemony is reflected and