Kelton Smith

Abstract

This research develops the ideologies surrounding appropriate homosexual representation by analysing the impact of masculinity, heterosexuality, and heteronormativity in British films. Cinema has had a denigrative history of queer representation. This research establishes the extant stereotypes and underrepresentation in Britain and how it has been deeply affected by masculine idealisms and toxic heteronormative influence. These effects have mostly been allowed due to legislation that has, in turn, greatly affected society’s overall social conditioning toward homosexuality. By integrating the literature of Kenneth Gergen and Rachel Jewkes, this research can understand how negativity is compounded into society’s zeitgeist and inevitably proliferates a culture of misrepresentation and poor queer depiction. Using excerpts from models of identity formation by Richard Troiden and Vivienne Cass, this study further argues that the development of the homosexual identity in society is subconsciously impacted by media representation, which perceptibly creates an unbroken cycle of unaccountability in British media. This thesis extends its theoretical framework into filmographic analysis by considering the existing works of Andrew Haigh’s Weekend (2011) and Francis Lee’s God’s Own Country (2017), both of which are positive reinforcers of queer presentation, alongside Morten Tyldum’s The Imitation Game (2014), and Peeter Rebane’s Firebird (2021). These films are considered according to their heteronormative and homosexual themes, which has aided in developing the ‘Homosexual Disaster’ concept, a nomenclature for the abhorrent lack of qualitative and quantitative LGBT narratives. Upon this terminology, this thesis establishes a new paradigm against which LGBT narratives should be measured to entirely deter homosexual identity malignment and hold film studios accountable for appropriate LGBT representation.