Written by Vinnie C
Illustrated by Shresha Kumar
Edited by Ilakiya PB
It is only once we have internalised Butler's claim that gender is constantly brought into existence through a series of performative activities—everyday gestures and actions that have the potential to reconstitute ideas and practices of masculinity and femininity and thus resist normativity—that we can begin to trace essentialism through the history of queer media.
In this article, we will apply this approach to four ground-breaking pieces of media that, for various reasons, have significantly influenced queer media.
Let’s start off with, "A Kid Like Jake."
In the case of this film, it is not until the child is four years old that the parents realize that their child does not conform to essentialist AMAB patterns, by comparing him to his peers.
Although a significant portion of the film is focused on them struggling with the new realizations they have about their child and blaming one another for allowing him to play with princesses and buying him skirts, they do not place any of this blame on their child and instead continue to allow him to engage in self-expression, believing that he will grow up to make his own decisions and navigate the gender spectrum freely and by himself.
Moving on to the show, “Sex Education.”
Three queer characters—Eric, Ola, and Cal—played by Ncuti Gatwa, Patricia Allison, and Dua Saleh—confront essentialism head-on.
Eric links how he dresses to how he expresses his sexuality. He proudly showed up at a school dance in make-up and attire that high schoolers would consider "feminine."
Ola, on the other hand, arrived at the same party wearing a stunning tuxedo, is skilled with tools, and can quickly fix/install appliances. She frequently engages in loud banter with her father and is often the first to speak her mind.
When Cal is introduced in the most recent season, they publicly criticise the school's new rules, which are strongly gendered. They question where they should go because they are non-binary when asked to enter the boys or girls line during sex education lessons. They also defied the essentialist principles that the school was seeking to impose on its students by dressing in the "boys uniform," which is oversized for them.
Next, we have, “Blue is the Warmest Colour.”
I agree with the critique that all the intimate scenes were created only for the male gaze. But let's start by looking at the notion of how the masculine gaze has been characterized broadly.
Most media that is available to all genders is geared towards appealing to men. Any scene with women being admired is always seen from a man's perspective. Since media is available to all genders, we unconsciously internalize it and view ourselves through the male gaze, as we have been taught to do.
Then, every other gender unconsciously completes every task in a manner that would capture male approval. Therefore, even though the intimate scenes in the film were made only for men to enjoy, in an alternate universe where they weren't, it might be argued that the queer female characters are still abiding by performativity and essentialism while making love to each other because we are all conditioned to see ourselves from a masculine perspective.
Last but not least, we have, “Modern Family.”
Given the idea that even in same-sex relationships, someone must take on the role of the caring mother and the other, a workaholic father, Mitch & Cam, a cute and humorous queer couple, sometimes argue about who is "the woman in the relationship"; despite the fact that they frequently swap or experiment with those characteristics.
For instance, Cameron, the muscular, tool-skilled father who grew up on a farm, is simultaneously the nurturing, more emotional one.
On the other hand, Mitch is the family's working father with repressed emotions who also enjoys musicals and is afraid of birds.
Throughout the show, this queer couple takes small steps to question essentialism and frequently discusses how they struggle with it in relation to raising their daughter, Lily.
In conclusion, the media industry is gradually moving towards a more challenging environment in which the gender roles of characters are questioned without making it the core of their personalities. Everything that encourages us to evade the male gaze, whether it be Theo from Hill House withdrawing from her family or Casey from Atypical adopting the position of "the protective elder brother," is indicative of Butler's idea of essentialism.
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