Abstract
Representation in television and other media continues to be a significant site of reflection for marginalized communities. While many LGBTQ+ communities advocate for more and better depictions within mainstream media in order to combat the isolation associated with being queer in a heteronormative society, there is significant work being done by queer fandoms in response to the dearth of positive queer images. Queer fans of televisual texts like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for example, often engage in queering (or queer readings of) otherwise heteronormative characters and stories. While this queering actively undermines the existing and problematic representations of television by creating new (imagined) possibilities for the characters, it also disrupts the process of Cooley’s looking-glass self, which argues that we form identity in part by seeing ourselves through the eyes of others. Since the time of Cooley’s original work, television has become the ultimate looking-glass through which queer audiences see ourselves reflected through the eyes of society. Thus, television’s dominant depictions of identity are sometimes the only means through which queer people can see ourselves. By queering television and its stories, queer fans are able to generate their own representations, thereby forging new means of developing identity in response to the hegemony of media. This thesis aims to explore the tools through which queer fandoms process their queer readings in an effort to understand a unique and powerful force in shaping (one’s own) queer identity.