CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Lopez, Marta Belen |
|---|---|
| Title | Femininity and Lesbian Visibility in The L Word |
| Summary | This thesis questions media representations of the “lesbian as image” as part of a discourse produced by shifting and varying texts. I analyse visually and discursively the U.S. television series The L Word and explore through the concept of the “lesbian chick” its arrangement of the lesbian as necessarily feminine and sexual. I interrogate the concept of the male gaze and its revision in the notion of lesbian gaze(s) which takes my analysis beyond the textual approach. Through the concept of genre I relate TLW to the genre chains with which it resonates, such as LGTB- focused genre and female- centred genre. Based on female centred genre conventions I establish the representation of female characters as revolving around romantic love. I analyse the story lines and narratives TLW invests on to claim that it represents the lesbian as anchored in her femininity and romantic love in a fundamental way. The centrality of romantic love in its overlap with post-feminist discourse dismisses feminist politics for constraining women’s choices and operates in the interest of a reconfiguration of the home as the site of family, love and security for women. My analysis situates TLW as opening discursive space to include the lesbian as legitimate subject within this logic in light of the centrality of romantic love to the arrangement of her life narrative. |
| Supervisor | Barat, Erzsebet |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/lopez_marta.pdf |
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