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The Talk Shows
The TV talk-show
thrives on profit gained from advertisers, and therefore relies heavily
upon ratings. Questions of gender identity are prominent within this genre
because they do attract viewer-ship, and increase show ratings. While Oprah
and Sally tend to devote an entire program to gender issues, and
focus on these issues specifically, Ricki integrates gender non-conformists
into predominantly heterosexual based shows.
Instead of focussing
on gender difference, Ricki infrequently questions the gender identification
of her guests.15
Ricki offers the most examples of transgressive queer acts. However,
it must be noted that contextually, the grounds for disruption are reduced
on Ricki than on Oprah, or even Sally. Because Ricki
features a large number of queer guests without giving specific mention
to their sexual identity, she is acting to normalise supposedly 'deviant'
queer behaviour through a system of habituation. In contrast, Sally's
inclusion of queer guests centres around their sexuality. Oprah's
treatment of queer guests is similar to that of Sally, but the nature
of her show produces a contextual situation that sees the queer guest as
potentially more disruptive than either the sensationalised Sally
or Ricki. Oprah can be seen as creating 'a "respectable"
environment in which people from the wrong side of the tracks are excluded.'16
This means that while the contextual situation of Oprah is such
that the appearance of a body in drag would be highly subversive, the chance
of this appearance occurring is very low.
In similar appearances
of transgendered and drag bodies on Oprah, Sally and Ricki,
a strong comparison to Butler's analysis of Paris Is Burning is
useful. Transferring the 'rules' for contestants in the balls in Livingston’s
film to talk show guests can be an useful way of determining their subversive
nature. It has already been mentioned that Oprah's careful selection
of guests denies the possibility of transgression. Her guests usually 'pass',
or cannot be read as an appropriation of hetero-norms. They faithfully
embody the heterosexual norm that has condemned them as 'freaks'. In contrast,
a gay male on Ricki17
appeared in drag, both on stage (after first appearing dressed as a male
according to hetero-normative standards) and in public. He was a male dressed
in an overly flamboyant feminine and 'stereotypicalised' sexual fashion.
This disrupted the hetero-norm by forcing a 'reconsideration of the place
and stability'18
of the feminine and masculine. Under a heterosexual reading of gender identity,
feminine characteristics are supposed to belong to biological females,
and masculine to males.
In a Sally19
episode, featuring a pre-operative transgendered guest who discovered his
desire to be female a denaturalisation and reaffirmation of hetero-norms
can be seen. The show screened their wedding, both people were dressed
in white wedding dresses, they were married as 'wife and wife'. The marriage
ceremony is a hetero-normative tradition, and this queer recapitulation
of it simply acted to reaffirm the heterosexual norm. In another episode
of Ricki20,
two pre-operative transgendered individuals appear. The studio audience
suspects one is a male, but they are generally surprised to find that the
other is not a biological female . One passes, while the other doesn't.
One embodies the hetero norms successfully, the other succeeds only in
denaturalising them.
In a different example
from Ricki,21
a potentially transgressive situation is again rendered as a reaffirmation
of heterosexual norms. The segment featured an engaged lesbian couple,
who after typical talk-show dramas, reconfirm their immanent marriage.
In another segment22
from Ricki, a gay male acts in such a 'stereotypical' feminine way,
as to force a questioning of the stability of the female/male dichotomy.
There is no set framework to judge the subversive or disruptive nature
of queer acts. The contextual situation must be considered carefully. However,
talk shows do provide the grounds for a disruption of the media spectacle
through a disruption of heterosexual norms. But, they also provide the
grounds for a reaffirmation of these homogenised hetero-norms. The disruption
of the hetero-norm is infrequent, while the affirmation of the hetero-norm
is nearly constant, and is even perpetuated by gay rights activists. The
disruption of the spectacle-driven talk show through a forced shattering
of the hetero-norm is dependant on the subversive nature of the guests
and the context in which they appear.
Subversion versus Perpetuation
In the name of acceptance,
sociologist Joshua Gamson explains that a high number of queer bodies appearing
on talk shows actively fight to reaffirm the dominant cultural hegemony
- fighting to be included in it. In fact, it is frequently the lower
socio-economic classes that act to disrupt the hetero-norm, albeit unconsciously,
and most likely, apolitically, in their desire for fifteen minutes of talk
show fame.
So what of the talk
show genre now? Educated gay rights activists try to subvert the talk show
to their own means, often diverting the shows from proposed 'in fighting'
(i.e. setting up conflict between gay and lesbians against bisexuals for
example), into an attempt at public education on queer issues - a fight
for acceptance, a fight to assimilate with the norm. Gamson mentions an
'unabashedly conservative campaign of "unabashed propaganda" for gay people.'23
This involves using the talk show to 'get your foot in the door' by being
as 'similar as possible.'24
This desire to become part of the hetero-norm, to prove that most queer
people are not different, challenges, or even denies, Butler's reading
of performativity. In denying the existence of performativity, performativity
itself is not negated as such, instead through a desire to assimilate with
the norm, heterosexuality is suddenly repositioned as the original, and
homosexuality as copy.
A conflict becomes visible
between the fight for equal rights and acceptance which go hand in hand
with inferiority and the disruption of the dominant hegemony with its
likely reaffirmation of homophobic prejudices and victimisation. The
talk show did not set up this conflict between activists favouring an
integration of assimilation with the 'normal', ie. the hetero-norm,
and those who favour pushing the boundaries of this norm take a confrontational
and transgressional approach to queer politics.25
However, they have certainly made the division between the two groups
stronger and more visible.
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15
Gamson, 1998, p134.
16
Gamson, 1998, p191.
17
'One Date With Me and You're Mine!', Prod. Andrew Scher , Dir. Bob McKinnon,
Ricki, Exec. prod. Gail Steinberg, TV2, New Zealand, May 2000.
18
Butler, 1990, p139
19
'I Married a Man - Now He's a Woman!', Prod. Gregory Piccioli, Dir.
Adam Simons Sorota, Sally Jesse Raphael, Exec. prod. Maurice
Tunick, TV3, New Zealand, May 2000.
20
'Sexy Confessions'
21
'Sexy Confessions'
22
'Hey, Girlfriend, You Can Stop Complaining About Your Man, 'Cuz Today
I Take Him Off Your Hands', Prod. Andrew Scher , Dir. Bob McKinnon,
Ricki, Exec. prod. Gail Steinberg, TV2, New Zealand, May 2000.
23
Gamson, 1998, p190.
24
Gamson, 1998, p190.
25
Gamson, 1998, p191.
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