When it comes to underrepresentation throughout history the LGBTQ community has dealt with a lot of this. Representation being the protrayed idea of how a community of people speak and act that is on the behalf of the community. An unfortunate amount of LGBTQ representation is done from the perspective of individuals who know nothing about the community. Not only have they been underrepresented but they have been victims to homophobia. Homophobia ranging from bullying, physical violence, murder, and much more. Personally I have had many friends over the years who were gay, lesbian, and transgender. I would be confided in about the awful things said about them by peers and strangers. Some being targeted by individuals who like to fetishize being apart of the community. Especially lebians face men fetishizing thier sexual orientation. Sexual orientation, as defined in Unit 7, is the sort of sex/gender specific desires people feel. Sex is the biological or physiological aspect of individuals repreductive system while gender is a culturally constructed concept. While there is clearly still issues in our communities there are those attempting to fight against it. Using art has been used as a tool to oppress the LGBTQ community. Not providing them proper representation and making them feel isolated as well as socially castaside. Simply because they are not fitting in the woerldview of everyone being heterosexual. This is also called hereromormativity. Although the community stikes back using art as a way to express themselves, seek social justice, as well as represent members of the LGBTQ community from history.
There has beeen a lack of representitive art that displays the community of LGBTQ identifying individuals. Mostly done by homophobic people of power who wanted to suppress the community. Public art was a common in day to day life, but there was a minimal amount of it. As "the little public art that does exist to celebrate LGBT identity or memorialise LGBT trauma falls short in commemorating diverse communities, who are, instead, often left to fill this gap in public recognition with spontaneous decorations and alternate forms of commemoration." (Newton-Jackson, 2). When art is erect for public viewing that does contain LGBTQ individuals there is no mention of thier sexual orientation No mention of the major part on who this individual being remembered was. Giving those who look at the art work the impression that the individual was straight. Leading to LGBTQ members to have a sloppy job of being represented. This his led to members of the community decorating the art, such as the statues of gay white men, with rainbow flags. "The cost of queer visibility is a conformity to this ‘safe’ image, and the cost of this ‘safe’ image is the continued overlooking of alternative and diverse queer identities." (Newton-Jackson, 5). People of power seem to focus on being more safe with what they display in the arts than being inclusive. Many people are apart of these minotiy groups that are being marginalized. In the end members of the community coming together not only helps spread the word about this major issue but it also opens a door for connection. As Anoushka Ratnarajah said in an interview regarding her LGBTQ film festivals "they are an opportunity for our communities to connect with one another; they are an opportunity for old friends to see each other again, and for people to make new connections, new friendships; and an opportunity for folks to exchange thoughts with each other" (Esther, 4). Being a part of the LGBTQ community has been a diverse topic in polotics for a long time now. With that comes the backlash of what other radical people or places would say about the art being placed in public spaces. Typically the art displayed would be concidered non-controversal.
There was a strong desire for more public recognition within the community. The monuments of gay white men who did not even get publicly recognized on the monuments as a part of the LGBTQ community were not enough. Works of gay people who were killed during the holocost were appriciated but seemed to be the only openly gay statues made. This likley only being due to the severity of how serious the Holocoast was. Other than what was refrenced public art representing the LGBTQ community were uncommon. "Due to the scarcity of LGBT public art, non-traditional and alternative methods of restoring and cultivating LGBT memories have taken shape thanks to members of LGBT communities embellishing existing memorials, creating their own, and publicly disseminating LGBT symbols. These actions and interactions attest to a keen yearning within LGBT communities for physical and visual representation in public spaces." (Newton-Jackson, 13). Looking for public representation as a minority group of individuals who have faces an extreame amount of abuse is difficult. Although art has been extreamly helpful and influential in the process of normalizing the LGBTQ community. As was" demonstrated agaisnt the same work dressed in extravagant drag and loudly chanting luberationist messages of visibility and pride" (Connolly, Paragraph 41). Protesting the inaccurate art form representation in films was another cruital part of normalizing the presence of this minority group. Inaccurate representation being the power of influence the film makers have on the perspectives of those uneducated bout the LGBTQ community. While accurate representation would be the resistance of the LGBTQ community, which challenges the ideas being spread by the film makers in power. LGBTQ members tend to reist by using transformitive counter narritives in order to share the truth with those paying attention. Transformitive counter narritives explicitly are a type of resitance that engages with current cultural dynamics in order to change them. The representation in artistic media is only greaat if there are accurate messages being spread. Not slander or imagry that paints their community in an inaccurate light that makes them appear to be outcasted further. The protesters"shout(ed) their protests only from across the street, they made their displeasure known by gathering outside Hollywood halls of power and hoping that their messages would be felt through media coverage. The year 1973 would prove critical, then, as the emergence of a new LGBT group began to broaden the range of options that activists had in dealing with cinematic representations and those who crafted them." (Connolly, paragraph 12 ). Over time the community was able to help form a more accurate image than the one that was being protrayed; gay men written in movies being disowned or the use of giant dildos as a form of 'representation'. With all of the hard work of encouraging LGBTQ representation and an accuarate representation there were some pay offs that can be seen today.
Today, while things are still not perfect, there is a significant increase in the representation and accuracy of the representations. Although there are still homophobic people who attempt to continue the oppression art is a way to speak out against them." Europe was directly equated with progress, and the positive attitudes towards the Rainbow were an offspring of such a mind‐set." (Dunin, paragraph 19). Using a large artistic symbol to represent the LGBTQ community's acceptance is an amazing step that would have never been seen years ago. Although with the Rainbow art peice there were some people who were not ready for the change of accepting people for who they are, even if they are different than you. As in Europe the Rainbow was hit by "right‐wing hooligans (who) purposefully set the installation on fire...but the assault on the installation reinforced the positive attitudes it generated in the first place – as a symbol of freedom and tolerance. Its devastation was followed by a public outcry and collective support to rebuild it. " (paragraph 21). Unafraid of the backlash the art work was put up again as a way to show that people of the LGBTQ community would not be silenced or oppressed the way they were before. That change is coming. This instilation means a lot to those who are against homophobia. Such as the director of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute Pawel Potoroczyn who feels that “What (has) happened around this art installation is not just the discussion about art in the public space. It’s a debate about democracy in Poland” (SamselT, 33-34). The burning of the art instilation is more than a political battle, it is a cultural event that is altering our culture forever. This cultural event is comprized of the artpeice acting as an artifact of cultural change attempting to press forward. The burning of this artifact is the resitance to that cultural change taking place from those who are homophobic. While the continuous rebuilding of the Rainbow art work showing that the LGBTQ community is refusing to accept the oppression any longer. This particular cultural event revolves around the push and pull of the old cultural normal versus the upsoming social normal. Although this particular are work is not the only one making cultural strides for inclusion. Anoushka Ratnarajah went on to tell her story about how her film festival brings LGBTQ life and issues to light. As well as going on to discuss how important it is for thier stoies to be shared. "White men have access to more wealth than queer and trans people. People with more dominant or privileged identities have access to the idea that their stories are important and should be told. Those of us who never really see our stories reflected to us on screen can’t help but internalize that maybe our stories aren’t worth telling...Film festivals like ours and Outfest and BFI Flare are so important because they provide a platform for those artists to get their work seen and for them to continue to thrive and build their success" (Esther, 5-6). Encouraging all of those who support the LGBTQ community to ban together in order to start a wave of talk about these minority films is an amazing way to spread the word. By spreading the word regarding the films they are taking action to change the cultural climate of the white male dominated film industry.
Using art as a way to make a statment about social and human rights is a major way the world has pushed for evolution. Homophobic people attempted to sweep LGBTQ individuals under the rug by not aknowlging them publicly. The community stiked back with decorating the peices with LGBTQ symboles to show the spirit of who is being appriciated, all of them. When being politically represented others who are homophobic attempted to destroy the symbol of thier freedom. The more times the stature was lit on fire the more times it was rebuilt. Using thier voices to protest misrepresentation of thier community that was being seen by so many on the big screen. Until finally now there is more artistic representation than ever before. There is also way more acceptance of the community as a whole due to the normalization of the communities existance. Art being one tool the LGBTQ community has used to gain more social justice. Increasing representive art shown to the public has been seen to be an amazing way to bring humanity together. Showing homophobic individuals that they will never give up.
Works Cited
Connolly, Matt. “Liberating the Screen: Gay and Lesbian Protests of LGBT Cinematic Representation, 1969-1974.” Cinema Journal, vol. 57, no. 2, Winter 2018, pp. 66–88. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.proxy.sierracollege.edu/10.1353/cj.2018.0003.
Dunin, Wąsowicz, Roch. “The Rainbow Is Burning: Analysing Public Contemporary Art as Site of the Polish Symbolic Conflict Over LGBT Rights, the Nation and Europe.” Studies In Ethnicity & Nationalism, vol. 16, no. 1, Apr. 2016, pp. 20–39. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.proxy.sierracollege.edu/10.1111/sena.12174.
Esther, John. “A LUNAR ECLIPSE OF THE ART: Anoushka Ratnarajah on the Vancouver Queer Film Festival.” Lesbian News, vol. 44, no. 1, Aug. 2018, pp. 11–16. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=131725745&site=ehost-live.
NEWTON-JACKSON, ELIZABETH. “Overlooked, Forgotten, Avoided: The LGBT Community and Public Art.” Women’s Studies Journal, vol. 34, no. 1/2, Dec. 2020, pp. 92–106. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=147241209&site=ehost-live.
SamselT., AntolakM., and BorowskiJ. “Selected Problems Related to the Functioning of ArtInstallations in the Cultural Space of Poland – a Case Study of Zbawiciela Square in Warsaw”. Annals of Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW. Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, no. 40, Jan. 2020, pp. 29–42, https://ahorticulture.sggw.pl/index.php/hala/article/view/17.
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