Assimilation, hybridity and encountering. The cinematic representation of queer migrants from Muslim backgrounds living in Europe
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Gerard Coll-Planas
Abstract
Muslim migrants are the counter-figures through whom the modern Western identity is shaped. In Islamophobic discourses, they are constructed as inherently sexist and homophobic. In this ideological context, queer migrants coming from Muslim countries occupy an intersectional social location between Islamophobia and homophobia. In this paper we analyze the cinematic representation of queer migrants living in Europe coming from Muslim backgrounds. The aim of the paper is to analyze whether the films reproduce or subvert the Western “gay narrative”. The corpus of analysis is made up of 19 films which were studied through a process of categorization of the relevant fragments in a matrix. The films are classified in three categories according to their approach. The first gathers those films that hold an assimilationist discourse, according to which queer migrants should embrace the Western “gay narrative” and abandon the values of the communities of origin. In the second category, the films propose a hybrid perspective in which characters merge elements from both the country of residence and the cultural background of origin in the exploration of their sexuality and gender. The films in the third category revolve around a metaphorical relationship between a queer migrant and a native person, promoting a reflection on the possibilities of transformative encounters that break the boundaries between supposedly opposed social groups.
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- Assimilation, hybridity and encountering. The cinematic representation of queer migrants from Muslim backgrounds living in Europe
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Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Articles
- Editorial 2020
- Understanding appreciation among German, Italian and Spanish teenagers
- Gender role portrayals in television advertisements: Do channel characteristics matter?
- Cultural differences in motivation for consumers’ online brand-related activities on Facebook
- Assimilation, hybridity and encountering. The cinematic representation of queer migrants from Muslim backgrounds living in Europe
- Context matters: Professionalization of campaign posters from Adenauer to Merkel
- Book Reviews
- Mascheroni, M., Ponte, C., & Jorge, A. (Eds.) (2018). Digital parenting – The challenges for families in the Digital Age. Göteborg: Nordicom. 239 pp.
- Boden, J. (2019). Chinese propaganda seducing the world. Brussels: PUNCT. 296 pp.
- Wright, K. (2018). Who’s reporting Africa now? Non-governmental organizations, journalists, and multimedia. New York: Peter Lang Publishing. 280 pp.