When talking about queer design in Eaklor’s “Queer America”, I see it being defined as a way that the queer community has affected, created, or influenced some aspects of life that allows the freedom to express who you are and how you want to live in a society, that still holds up today. As quoted in the reading, the LGBT community were part of a generation that “went on to build modern America”. A couple of examples I have seen throughout this reading that express this idea of queer design was the way the queer community has been involved in the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Depression, and the History of American film in Hollywood.
The Harlem Renaissance was a significant period of time where pieces of literature, art, and music were produced by African Americans during a time where they were facing harsh discrimination from a widely large white society. This discrimination that they faced goes hand in hand with the discrimination that the queer community faces. They have much in common in their struggles and both use literature, art, music, and performances to create pieces of their culture for the world to see for who they are and what they represent. This allowed racial and sexual lines to be blurred in favor of cultural experimentation and youthful rebellion. With New York being the center of the Harlem renaissance, it has attracted many freethinkers into the city, allowing them to have a place to provide entertainment to the people. And people were certainly interested as we can see the result of New York's enthusiasm for media in the form of Times Square being popularized in modern times. “GLBT Americans were a significant and visible presence in all of these areas; without them the creative lights of New York would have burned less brightly.”
Around this exact time, the Great Depression and the Prohibition were severely affecting the people in a negative way, either economically, socially, politically, or mentally. Yet in desperate times, the President’s treasury secretary advised against government intervention. Quoted, “People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people.” Said values he was referencing were the values of traditional sex and gender roles. Men were expected to be the breadwinners, providing for their wife and kids. Women were expected to be a stay at home mom, caring for the house, the kids, and providing for her man. Yet, as times have clearly become more difficult to sustain such conservative beliefs, both men and women had to go work to provide for their families. This blurred the line between masculinity and femininity, destroying gender roles in terms of the workforce. This has clearly carried on to modern society as everyone is expected to work, regardless of gender identity.
As traditional gender roles were expected to be enforced and upheld during a struggling time, the onslaught of attacks increased upon the LGBTQ+ community. This led to a popular belief that the culture and rise of LGBTQ+ people has only risen around the 60’s, allowing for many people to deny their existence and discount their culture when talked about. This is still seen today among many hard right people who believe in such a myth. The preservation of their culture was important to the community and solidified their need to have their history preserved.
One of these ways was through Hollywood. Hollywood was the golden place where films were produced and many actors, directors, and producers were given the recognition they deserved. As they saw the importance of the image and output these American films had on the people, they came out with what people call the “Hollywood Code”. This code ensures that what is being put into a film is deemed “safe” and “appropriate” for the public, conserving conservative thinking at the time. However, as times changed, these codes started to become more lenient, as we can see how vulgar some films are in today's media. Around the time of the “code” being implemented, traditional values were still being tightly upheld and while films with a topic centered around the LGBTQ+ community were being produced, Hollywood would still have the upperhand in altering the story to be more traditional in values. This code helped in the erasure and preservation of queer media. Yet again, as we see in today’s media, the opposite is being done and we are seeing much more representation for the LGBTQ+ community as well as for any other groups of minorities. This is all in result of the resistance of the LGBTQ+ community to have their voice heard and be properly represented and preserved.
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