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Event Website
https://www.mythsoc.org/oms/oms-2023.htm
Start Date
8-5-2023 1:00 PM
End Date
8-5-2023 1:50 PM
Description
In the early years of Hollywood’s Golden Age, The Hays Code functioned as a rigid morality code designed to shape the norms of Western culture. Its far-reaching impacts remain visible even decades after its enforcement was no longer required. In this talk, we will explore one of the most pervasive elements of the code’s legacy: the prohibition against showing LGBTQ characters in a positive light, and the resulting phenomenon of “queer-coding” characters. The practice of portraying LGBT+ characters through a lens of villainy and stereotype to adhere to the Hays Code requirement that queerness be punished and depicted as undesirable has led to a proliferation of villains, demons, and devils who are coded as Queer. We’ll explore why characters across a broad range of Mythopoeic works and adaptations, from Maleficent to Supernatural’s King of Hell to numerous depictions of Lucifer himself in music videos like Call Me By Your Name or television shows like Lucifer are queercoded, and how these norms have become heuristically embedded in mythopoeic storytelling.
Included in
Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, Digital Humanities Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons, Medieval Studies Commons, Modern Languages Commons, Modern Literature Commons, Other English Language and Literature Commons
Those Queer Devils: Queercoding Villains, Devils, and Demons in Mythopoeic Film and Media
In the early years of Hollywood’s Golden Age, The Hays Code functioned as a rigid morality code designed to shape the norms of Western culture. Its far-reaching impacts remain visible even decades after its enforcement was no longer required. In this talk, we will explore one of the most pervasive elements of the code’s legacy: the prohibition against showing LGBTQ characters in a positive light, and the resulting phenomenon of “queer-coding” characters. The practice of portraying LGBT+ characters through a lens of villainy and stereotype to adhere to the Hays Code requirement that queerness be punished and depicted as undesirable has led to a proliferation of villains, demons, and devils who are coded as Queer. We’ll explore why characters across a broad range of Mythopoeic works and adaptations, from Maleficent to Supernatural’s King of Hell to numerous depictions of Lucifer himself in music videos like Call Me By Your Name or television shows like Lucifer are queercoded, and how these norms have become heuristically embedded in mythopoeic storytelling.
Comments
SESSION III
1:00 PM—1:50 Eastern
12:00 Noon—12:50 PM Central
11:00 AM—11:50 Mountain
10:00 AM—10:50 Pacific
5:00 PM—5:50 GMT