QUEERING LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

Christie DanielsThe University of Texas at El Paso

The History of Queer

• Emergence of gay/queer as an identity• Differences between gay/queer• Aims of the two factions… • gay=assimilationist

– Represented in theory by feminism• Queer=liberationist/radical

– Represented in theory by queer theory• “Queer marks both a continuity and a break with

previous gay liberation and lesbian feminist models” (Jagose 75).

Queer as Community

• Emergence of identity leads to ostracism (you move from becoming a person that does bad things to a bad person) behavior vs. identity… people are more willing to accept/forgive behavior vs. identity

• Rejection by natural family leads to formation of a gay sense of community/”adopted” family

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

• Instances of Condemnation• Forming Community• Upsetting and Disturbing Roles

CONDEMNATION

• Condemnation from the father (absurd)• Self esteem plummets• Acceptance from the rest of the family

– Intervention– Community

COMMUNITY

• Condemnation and intervention/community work in tandem

• The father, an earlier source of condemnation, joins the community

• The absurd pageant world clashes with what is essentially a kid acting like a kid.

• Normality is seen as queer and vice versa.

DISTURBING THE ROLES

• Seemingly normal meltdown for a teenager• Yet, the children act like adults.• The parents, supposedly adults, are lost.• The two kids solve the situation• Dwayne even apologizes without prompting

• Teenagers and gay individuals – usually the least trustworthy characters

• These characters are the source of wisdom in the movie

Why Does This Matter?

• The visual is often dismissed as non-academic, trivial, or frivolous.

• Yet , images and visuals in popular culture represent an important tool for imparting ideology as Bourdieu’s concept of habitus indicates.

• Movies are an important area of study due to their ready acceptance by the public often without resistance or critical engagement.

• It is the rhetorical scholar’s duty and responsibility to not only subject these concepts to further scrutiny, but also to prevent them from operating on the unconscious level where they currently reside and in whatever medium they occur.