Glassworks
  • home
  • about
    • history
    • masthead
    • staff bios
    • community outreach
    • affiliations
    • contact
  • current issue
    • read Issue 17
    • letter from the editor
    • looking glass fall 2018
    • interview with Melissa Wiley
    • new book reviews
    • new opinion editorials
  • submit
    • submission guidelines
  • looking glass
    • fall 2018
    • spring 2018
    • fall 2017
    • apprentice 2017
    • spring 2017
    • fall 2016
    • spring 2016
    • fall 2015
    • spring 2015
    • fall 2014
    • spring 2014
    • spring 2012
    • winter 2012
    • fall 2011
  • editorial content
    • opinion
    • book reviews
    • interviews >
      • Ed Briant
      • Eugene Cross
      • Christopher DeWan
      • Eric Dyer
      • Julie Enszer >
        • Avowed
      • Mitchell Fink
      • Olivia Gatwood
      • David Gerrold
      • Cynthia Graham
      • Ernest Hilbert
      • Paul Lisicky >
        • The Roofers
      • Scott McCloud
      • Jan Millsapps
      • Anis Mojgani
      • Pedram Navab
      • Michael Pagdon
      • Aimee Parkison >
        • The Petals of Your Eyes
      • Brad Parks
      • Chris Rakunas
      • Carlos Ramos
      • Mary Salvante
      • Jill Smolowe
      • Julie Marie Wade
      • Melissa Wiley
  • flash glass
    • flash glass 2019
    • flash glass 2018
    • flash glass 2017
    • flash glass 2016
    • flash glass 2015
  • media
    • art
    • photography
    • audio
    • video
    • new media
  • archive
    • past issues
    • order print issues
  • Master of Arts in Writing program
    • about Writing Arts at Rowan University
    • application and requirements
  • Newsletter

Pronoun Rediscovery: Media as a Platform for Change

5/1/2017

0 Comments

 
​by Sarah Knapp
The above videos contain clips from two very different, but two very popular TV shows: RuPaul’s Drag Race and Steven Universe. What do all of these seemingly unrelated scenarios have in common? In each clip, there are quite a few different uses of pronouns, some of which seem confusing or don’t exactly fit our expectations. There is a powerful force at work here: gender is being redefined. Subtly, and sometimes very overtly, the language used to talk about gender is being changed and shaped by the media that surrounds us.
RuPaul’s Drag Race has been around for years, gaining popularity steadily with each season. What is Drag Race? Think Project Runway meets America’s Next Top Model meets Paris is Burning. Simply, it’s a reality competition show to find America’s next drag superstar! For anyone unfamiliar with the art of drag, it’s basically men who take on a female persona in performance. Each season, twelve or so drag queens enter the race and face challenges and try not to be the queen eliminated that week by the fabulous RuPaul herself.
​
But here’s where it gets interesting: the contestants on the show are, for the most part, cisgender men (meaning they were assigned “male” at birth, and have continued to identify as “men”). But while on the show, most of the contestants use feminine pronouns such as “she, her, hers,” whether they are in drag/character or not. This can be perplexing, but after several episodes, it becomes natural to refer to a male-presenting, male-identifying, out-of-drag contestant as “she.” I feel that this fluidity in the use of pronouns when referring to a particular person is blurring the lines between the strict binary differences we have been taught exist between what is inherently “male” and what is inherently “female.”
​
By using pronouns that do not “fit” the appearance of the person we are referring to, it becomes normalized to think of pronouns as ambiguous. Viewers begin to understand that “Oh, Katya identifies as a man outside of drag, but is still comfortable with female pronouns.” Even though that sentence does not go through a viewer’s brain verbatim, it’s an understanding that develops as the pronouns are repeated and normalized throughout the course of the show.
<-- (Note the use of pronouns in the video)
PictureImage credit: PopMatters
This normalization is especially important because Drag Race is growing in popularity outside of the LGBTQ+ community. The show has been airing on Logo for years, but only within the past two seasons or so has the show gone mainstream. The more popular the show becomes, the more widely spread is the normalization of fluidity in pronoun use. This is not, of course, to imply that RuPaul is single-handedly changing the entire pronoun discourse, but that popular media has a hand in influencing the minds of the general public. With shows like RuPaul gaining popularity, more of the population is being  indoctrinated into the discussion of gender and pronouns. And the more people who begin to understand and grasp onto a non-binary way of thinking when it comes to gender identity and expression.

However, RuPaul’s Drag Race is not the only show on television at the moment that is changing the way we talk about gender. Adding to the layers of gender-expression is the introduction of non-binary identifying characters in the mainstream media. The Cartoon Network original show Steven Universe has exploded in popularity over the past year or so. The show, geared toward children (or is it?), follows the adventures of half-human, half-crystal gem boy Steven and his Crystal Gem guardians as they attempt to save the Earth from not-so-nice Gems (yes, it’s adorable!). All of the gems currently on the show identify as female except for Steven, and there have been confirmed canon threads of Gem relationships, meaning there are canon gay characters on the show. In recent episodes that aired over the summer (spoiler alert here, sorry guys) Steven learned that he could “fuse” just like full gems can. This means he can combine his form with another gem/being and become a whole new being. Steven and his best friend Connie fuse to form an ultimate warrior, adorably named Stevonnie. Stevonnie is canonically referred to by other characters as “they.” Steven also learned he could fuse with his rambunctious Gem companion known as Amethyst, and together they form Smokey Quartz, who also is referred to as “they.”

PictureImage Credit: Tumblr
“But Sarah,” I hear you protesting, “if they fused, they’re two different people, so of course you would have to use ‘they’ to refer to them!” Not so. The show makes a point to explain that once two gems fuse, they become one: a whole new being. So the use of “they” pronouns when referring to Smokey or Stevonnie is, in fact, the use of non-binary pronouns. (Video) The use of gender-neutral pronouns has not yet been explored on many (if any) fronts in mainstream media. And here comes an adorable, animated, meant-for-kids TV show leading the charge on non-binary pronoun use. So, if kids see this show normalizing the idea that “oh, Smokey’s not a boy or a girl, they’re just them,” then they will perpetuate a willingness to embrace new and different identities out in the real world.

Just within the past decade, the way our society as a whole has begun to view gender has changed. We’re a lot more open and accepting as a whole, but there is still a long way to go. Television is a huge industry and reaches so many different kinds of people. If you think TV doesn’t influence our thought process at all, I’ve got news for you: it does. A lot. Television has been the most progressive media for decades, taking on emerging conversations as they were happening. In order to have a conversation, you have to have both the language and platform. Shows like Drag Race and Steven Universe have provided us with the tools to talk about gender, how the binary is breaking down, and how we, as humans, are progressing past the strict, outdated boxes that define “man” and “woman.”

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    thoughts on  writing, art, & new media by glassworks editorial staFF

     


    Archives

    February 2019
    January 2019
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    March 2013
    February 2013


    Categories

    All
    50 Shades Of Grey
    Autocomplete
    Best Seller
    Bibliotherapy
    Book To Movie
    Britannica
    Censorship
    Cliche
    Code Switching
    Controversy
    Drag Queens
    Dystopian
    Editorial
    Education
    Encyclopedia
    Facebook
    Fanfiction
    Fantasy
    Fiction
    Film
    Football
    Future
    Gender
    Genre
    Google
    Google Poetics
    Google Poetry
    Grammar
    Habits
    Health
    Identity
    Insta-love
    Journaling
    Julia Cameron
    Kinesthetic Learning
    Language
    Library
    Literature
    Marginalia
    Media
    Mental Health
    Morning Pages
    Multi Modal
    Multi-modal
    New Media
    Nonfiction
    Normalcy
    Obscenity
    Opinion
    Poetry
    Politics
    Pornography
    Pronoun
    Publishing
    Race
    Research
    Rhetoric
    Sampsa Nuotio
    Scandal
    Science Fiction
    Search
    Self-publishing
    Sequels
    Series
    Sexism
    Slam-poetry
    Social Media
    Spoken Word
    Steven Universe
    Teaching
    Technology
    Television
    The New York Times
    Trigger Warnings
    Trilogy
    Twilight
    Video Games
    Visual Novel
    War
    White Vernacular English
    Wikipedia
    Workshop
    Writing
    YA
    Young Adult

    RSS Feed

Picture

260 Victoria Street • Glassboro, New Jersey 08028 
glassworksmagazine@rowan.edu

All Content on this Site
(C) 2019 glassworks
Photos used under Creative Commons from RomitaGirl67, ** RCB **, George Fox Evangelical Seminary