Identity Sedition And Pornography By Pat Califia

Homophobia in Media In the article "Identity Sedition and Pornography" by Pat Califia, she talks about, how as a female-feminist-leather-dike when she writes, she is more inclined to write gay sex stories. She states that even within the queer community people try to limit themselves to the things that should classify their identity, so she challenges the idea of getting out of our own gender boxes and cross the "boundaries of identity that challenge those limitations" (105). For Califia, her erotic pieces are not only porn, they are ways to transgress those gender barriers and a way to give a voice to a segregated community. I would like to think, that myself as a writer have managed to do what Califia talks about in her reading. I'm a bisexual
Califia, in the article "Identity Sedition and Pornography" states that this mentality is spread "by not putting gay characters in prime-time television shows, keeping gay books out of libraries"(97). What does this has to do with heteronormativity? Heteronormativity is the belief that people fall into only two genders, man and woman and it assumes that heterosexuality is the only sexual orientation, and this is very real in television as well. When you watch a show, a character is assumed to be straight unless proven different. It does not matter the subtext, it does not matter if they have stated their sexuality. For most viewers their sexuality will always be heterosexual unless they are in a clear relationship with a person of their same gender. Moreover, if the show does present a queer character, more often than not, this character has a temporary appearance on the show or does not have a significant role in the plot. It is very hard to find a show, or even a movie with a lead queer character. Almost every TV show has one or more straight characters; consequently, they also portray straight romantic and sexual relationships, but very few shows dare to present a queer character, specially involved in a serious relationship. Heteronormativity in television is not problematic only because perpetuates homophobic behavior, but
This trope is when a show casually kills off LGBTQ characters, often as sacrificial lambs to keep the plot rolling for their straight counterpart, or as shock value. People die. Characters die. It is very rare that a show goes through and through without killing a main or recurrent character, but when the person getting killed is a queer character the queer community takes it very hard. Gay and lesbian characters are so often murdered on television that we have our very own trope: "Bury Your Gays". As mentioned before, queer characters constitute a very small number to the overall fraction of characters on television; therefore, killing us off so haphazardly appears especially spiteful. This year, this trope has been particular cruel towards the lesbian queer community. 18 lesbian characters have been killed in 2016 so far, raising the total number of deaths since 1976 to 166 dead lesbian and bisexual characters (Hogan). The problem of these deaths is that they are mostly meaningless and random; in fact, most of the women in the list have died of stray bullets, suicide or accidents. It is very hard, to get representation, and even harder for that character to have a happy ending. Queer people are sick of seeing themselves suffer and being killed in television. Television keeps perpetuating the idea that because of our