2011/06/23 by Frederik Dhaenens, Sofie Van Bauwel · 24 citations
Social Sciences · #Media, Gender, and Advertising #Gender, Feminism, and Media #Asian Culture and Media Studies #Heteronormativity #Queer #Postmodernism #Resistance (ecology) #Sociology #Representation (politics) #Hegemony #Queer theory #Space (punctuation) #Gender studies #Human sexuality #Aesthetics #Art #Linguistics #Literature #Politics #Philosophy #Political science #Law
paper · open access · doi:10.1177/1527476411412397
published in Television & New Media 13(2), 124-138 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2011/06/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
This article studies the representation of queer characters and themes in the contemporary adult animated sitcom. We argue that even though popular culture is often assumed to reiterate and consolidate the discourse of heteronormativity, adult animated sitcoms create space for queer resistance. Since the genre draws on postmodern strategies of representation, we argue that queer resistance is subversively articulated through instances of pastiche and parody. It is embedded in content that is both complicit with and critical of the heteronormal. Through a textual thematic analysis of Family Guy, this case study illustrates how postmodern textual strategies create deconstructionist instances that expose and subvert the hegemony of heteronormativity.