User:Amanda342/Queer coding

Impact

Equating queerness with negative behavior can be damaging to those watching and retaining this information. With a lack of role models to look up to, what is portrayed in media is what members of the lgbtq community tend to look up to. Queercoding can also have a negative influence on heterosexuals. Viewing negatively queercoded media can influence attitudes and beliefs about queer people as a whole. The way villainous characters are one of the main examples of how queercoding is placed in media, goes to show how it is focused on negatively. A key way that people learn is by modeling the behavior of those around them. This applies to both youths and adults, so having positively queercoded character is important.

History

Original: According to the code, films were not allowed to portray "perverse" subjects such as homosexuality, which inevitably led to the portrayal of non-explicit queer characters. (Addition) So instead of eliminating LGBTQ characters, they were hidden using coding and subtext. The characters would have certain characteristics that would be recognized by members of the community, but could still pass as straight to the public.

Original: Even if the villains were not portrayed as being evil as a result of their queerness, the association between queer characteristics and unethical figures remains. (Addition:) While the Hayes Code lost some of it's strictness as time went on, LGBTQ representation was allowed under some conditions. Conditions such as it may not be portrayed in a positive light. Hence the villainous queer coded characters that are often seen.

References to add:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2000838/

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode

https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/viewFile/5496/1741