Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & Queer 2019 Abstracts
Is India Authentic or Progressive? American Media Framing of India Decriminalizing Gay-Sex from a Colonialism and Post-Colonialism • Noura Al-Duaijani • This study looks at American media framing of India’s ruling to decriminalize gay-sex from a colonialism and post-colonialism perspectives. A content analysis of articles compared America’s coverage of the Indian ruling with the 2015 coverage of U.S. legalizing gay marriage, and also compared it with how the Indian media framed the ruling. A colonial perspective emerged through emphasizing the opposing stance of local India’s religion institutes, and the negative circumstances of the Indian LGBTQ community.
Changing Body Ideals of Marginalized Identities and the Proliferation of Social and Entertainment Media • Cristina Azocar; Ivana Markova • A survey of 565 male undergraduates examined the effects of exposure to social networking sites and entertainment media on young men’s body image. Exposure to social and to entertainment media was found to have negative effects on men’s body satisfaction, social comparison, and thin ideal internalization. Findings indicated significant differences in those men who were more exposed to social and to entertainment media than those who were not as exposed. Consistent with past studies, gay men were found to be more dissatisfied with their bodies than straight men. Gay men compared themselves to other better-looking individuals and internalized ideal body types seen in media significantly more than their straight counterparts. Surprisingly, straight men seem to care as much about their physical attractiveness/appearance as gay men do, but only in public settings such as at the beach, at athletic events (including gyms) and social events. Although on average ethnic groups were more similar than different, small but significant differences occurred with Asian men indicating significantly higher body dissatisfaction than White/European men and Middle Eastern/Arab men their counterparts. The study increases our knowledge about SNS and entertainment use and its associated body image and body satisfaction affects among low-income ethnic minority men.
Is Anyone Surprised? How Journalists Frame the Coming Out of Women Athletes • Bill Cassidy, Northern Illinois University • Sports journalism coverage of the coming out announcements of Women’s National Basketball Association superstars Sheryl Swoopes and Brittney Griner were analyzed via a two-dimensional measurement scheme for examining media frames. Results found an overall lack of coverage and that journalists framed the two announcements similarly in terms of time and space dimensions. But, compelling differences were found when comparing the results to those of studies examining the coming out stories of gay male athletes.
What’s in a name?: Cultural meanings of the X-marker • Michelle Dreiling, University of Oregon • In 2017, Oregon began issuing driver’s licenses which bear the X-marker for sex, as opposed to M or F. This study uses critical and feminist poststructural discourse analysis to examine newspaper reporting of this policy change. I find that, though the policy change regards sex, reporting of the change shows the term “gender” subsuming “sex.” Additionally, institutional discursive power is magnified through local and national newspapers picking up AP coverage rather than producing original reporting.
Co-constructing a Media Narrative: Interviews with LGBT Activists from the 1960s and 1970s in New Zealand • Linda-Jean Kenix, University of Canterbury; Suvojit Bandhopadyaya • This paper examines how New Zealand activists in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community of the 1960s and 70s worked to create their own media representation and production. Through the memories of 29 activists who were active in the LGBT political movement of the time, this paper explores how LGBT communities used potentially harmful media stereotypes to their own advantage and how they worked to purposefully manage their representation as well as media production. Activists depended upon diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framing to amplify, extend, bridge, and transform what it meant to be LGBTQ in New Zealand. At the time, the media represented a very mainstream, and conservative, vision of the LGBT community. These media frames and media representations were systematic processes to reaffirm social, economic and political power. Media narratives of the time were created to project an intended reality. This is, of course, still the case. However, the early work of these activists managed to change that intended reality through dogged determination.
Learning to be Inclusive? Testing the Effects of Media Diet on Attitudes toward LGT Equality • Tien-Tsung Lee, University of Kansas; Gary Hicks, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville • This study analyzed a large national survey to identify the predictors of attitudes toward the equal rights of lesbians, gay men, and transgender individuals. Egalitarian attitudes are associated with being female, younger, more liberal, less Republican, having a higher income and a lower level of fundamentalist religiosity, as well as consuming a wider variety of news media. Also, media diet mediates the effects of political ideology on support for the LGT community.
Getting Bi: An Analysis of Bisexual Characters’ Depiction on the Television Network the CW • Lyric Mandell, University of Houston; Francesca Ervin, University of Houston • “This study aims to understand the depiction of bisexual characters on the popular television network the CW. Through a combination of textual and visual analysis of two episodes of each of the television shows Riverdale and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (four episodes total). It explores the portrayal in modern television of bisexual characters, a subset of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community.
Results from a follow-up Pilot of Patient Self Advocacy Workshops for Transgender and Gender Diverse Individuals • Richard Mocarski, University of Nebraska at Kearney; Sim Butler, University of Alabama, College of Communication and Information Sciences; Nathan Wooduff; Robyn King; Debra Hope; Natalie Holt; Sarah Price, University of Alabama, College of Communication and Information Sciences; Jody Kellas • The long-term objective of our research team, Trans Collaborations, is to reduce health disparities for individuals identifying as transgender or gender diverse (TGD) in underserved areas. To do this we are taking a multi-prong approach at the provider, patient, and policy level. This manuscript reports on a pilot of a patient intervention. Specifically, we tested a one day workshop to increase patient self-advocacy through narrative techniques in the TGD population. The ultimate goal is to develop the first evidence-based training program to empower TGNC individuals to self-advocate in health care settings to help reduce health disparities they face. Ideally responsibility for providing culturally sensitive care should reside with health care professionals. Until then, we have developed a self-advocacy skills workshop based on state-of-the-art forensics and communications theory. Preliminary data from an urban sample (36) is reported here and suggests participants have increased self-efficacy following the workshop. Planned follow—up data will test for increased health care utilization and satisfaction.
Information Seeking and MSM’s Attitudes Toward HIV and Condoms • Joseph Schwartz, Northeastern University; Josh Grimm, Louisiana State University • This study examined how frequently men who have sex with men (MSM) used a selection of sources for HIV information and whether MSM’s attitudes toward safer sex could be predicted by the source they used. MSM (N = 969) were surveyed online. Results showed that respondents obtained information most often from HIV/LGBT organizations and dating/hookup apps, particularly the app “Scruff.” Respondents’ attitudes could be predicted by their use of specific sources of HIV information.
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