The heterogeneity of family: responses to representational invisibility by LGBTQ parents
The heterogeneity of family: responses to representational invisibility by LGBTQ parents
This article draws on qualitative research data collected in semistructured interviews conducted during 2013 and 2014 with 30 lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) parents living in England and Scotland. It explores how LGBTQ parents respond to media representations of families like theirs and build narratives of family identity from limited cultural resources. Media, encompassing a range of cultural representational resources, including advertisements, television shows, books, and films, produces specific knowledges about LGBTQ families. Participants argued that popular entertainment media (including Modern Family) offered a limited range of representations of LGBTQ parents and concretized knowledge about the shape of families. I argue that available representations fail to acknowledge the diversity of non-heterosexual family forms and that this representational gap results in sociocultural invisibility. I explore the responses LGBTQ parents had to such gaps and how they negotiated or rejected representational meanings in order to consolidate new narratives of family.
4204-4225
Reed, Elizabeth
06fc34da-5626-478a-9c54-327cf6e82f50
1 December 2018
Reed, Elizabeth
06fc34da-5626-478a-9c54-327cf6e82f50
Reed, Elizabeth
(2018)
The heterogeneity of family: responses to representational invisibility by LGBTQ parents.
Journal of Family Issues, 39 (18), .
(doi:10.1177/0192513X18810952).
Abstract
This article draws on qualitative research data collected in semistructured interviews conducted during 2013 and 2014 with 30 lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) parents living in England and Scotland. It explores how LGBTQ parents respond to media representations of families like theirs and build narratives of family identity from limited cultural resources. Media, encompassing a range of cultural representational resources, including advertisements, television shows, books, and films, produces specific knowledges about LGBTQ families. Participants argued that popular entertainment media (including Modern Family) offered a limited range of representations of LGBTQ parents and concretized knowledge about the shape of families. I argue that available representations fail to acknowledge the diversity of non-heterosexual family forms and that this representational gap results in sociocultural invisibility. I explore the responses LGBTQ parents had to such gaps and how they negotiated or rejected representational meanings in order to consolidate new narratives of family.
Text
Heterogenity of Family
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 20 April 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 9 November 2018
Published date: 1 December 2018
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 433808
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/433808
ISSN: 0192-513X
PURE UUID: 67dc0417-f3b4-4aaf-8498-71f492f1acb7
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 04 Sep 2019 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:40
Export record
Altmetrics
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics
