From False Exteriors to a Presupposed Core...
Abstract
Elimanco, J.M.C. (2014). From False Exteriors to a Presupposed Core: Gays’ Popular Representations and Versified Marginalization. Unpublished undergraduate thesis. University of the Philippines, Diliman: College of Mass Communication.
This study examines how gays are represented in the lyrics of gay-themed pop songs in the Philippines. From an initial reading of the plots, characters, and messages of thirty-one songs, five themes of representation emerged: (1) appearance, (2) action, (3) worth, (4) perception and treatment of society and (5) self-perception and treatment. Each theme was further broken down into subthemes in order to account for similarities and differences among the derived representations.
Stuart Hall's discussions of the constructionist view of representation and of Michel Foucault's approach in analyzing discourses served as guides in the analysis of the themes and subthemes. The discourses that were found to operate in or to be perpetuated by the songs were then read using Judith Butler's theory of the compulsory order of sex, gender, and desire. In the said order, sex, gender, and desire are understood to be (1) metaphysically united and (2) both imaginable and realizable only within a binary/oppositional logic.
It was revealed that the examined gay-themed pop songs perpetuate discourses that reinforce the presupposed continuity among sex, gender, and desire. The exposed discourses bring about gays' invalidation, discrimination, and marginalization.
Keywords: gay, gay-themed pop songs in the Philippines, representation, discourse, compulsory order of sex, gender, and desire