Queer Intimacies in Sapphic Media and Fandoms

Abstract

In Queer Intimacies in Sapphic Media and Fandoms, I contend with the recent phenomenon of increased visibility of LGBTQ+ characters in American entertainment media (focused on lesbian and sapphic characters) with the call for more positive representation for these characters. I challenge this sanitized move towards depicting LGBTQ+ characters in a variety of media including amateur pornography, quality TV, independent horror cinema, and fan remix video. In addition to this positive push for queer representation, there has been a new binary created for understanding queerness as depicted in popular culture: one on side, using sexuality/sexual activity as the sole defining feature of queerness and on the other side, uplifting homonormative values to defend the neoliberal state. In this dissertation project, I propose that there is a space in between this binary where “queer intimacies” emerge, one which allows for nuanced, sensual, erotic, and non-conformist ways of expressing queerness to be expressed by sapphic individuals. To explore the issue of queer intimacies, I have invoked four major figures: the Mary Sue, the Mother, the Lover, and the Sadomasochist. Each of these figures center lesbian and sapphic desire in their relationship to other women. To enact queer intimacies is to give way to queer joy and to fannish feelings, ones that I explore through queer theory, film studies, and close textual analysis. This dissertation is a hybrid project which utilizes scholarly writing with video essay work, paying homage to my own art as a film and video editor.