“The world has always been like a comic book world to me”: Examining representations of queer stories in comics and other media

Abstract

Engagement with media has become the most popular form of leisure in our lives with approximately 40% of leisure time being dedicated to television viewing alone (Mullen, 2020). The consumption of books, graphic novels/comics, videogames, movies, and TV have only increased since the start COVID-19 pandemic (Doherty, Millar & Misener, 2020; Reid, 2021). Due to media’s significant impact on our cultural beliefs, it is becoming increasingly important to be conscious of the messages being relayed particularly those around queer identities as they have historically been reduced to unjust portrayals or erased from media entirely (Gerber et al., 2002; Meyer, 2020; Key, 2015; Corey, 2017). This thesis seeks to examine the ways media, and specifically comic books/graphic novels, represent queer identities. In this thesis, I use a text, context, paratext analysis to explore a graphic novel, The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars; secondary data that examines the lived experiences of bisexual women living in Waterloo Region; and social media posts discussing the queer representation in my chosen graphic novel. I highlight the importance of continuing to include just and meaningful queer representations in mainstream media.