Abstract:
This thesis focuses on the dearth of scholarship within queer theory, masculinity studies, and queer television studies on the queering of straight masculinities in media. Furthermore, the work that has been done on the queerness of straight masculinities only focuses on media post 2000 as well as media that focuses on adult characters. For example, Ron Becker is one of the only television studies scholars that focuses on the queerness of straight masculinities, but he only focuses on shows such as Friends, Boston Legal, and Jackass that only focus on adult characters. In this thesis, I argue that these queer representations of straight masculinity existed before 2000 in media (specifically television) and that these representations also existed in teenage sitcoms and soap operas despite these shows focus on maintaining a heteronormative narrative structure. As my point of analyses, I focus on the widely popular Boy Meets World and Dawson’s Creek and how the male character’s emotional intimacies with each other queer how we view
straight masculinities. In this thesis, I use the following theoretical frameworks: Eve Sedgwick’s theory of the erotic triangle and male homosocial desire; Judith Roof’s theory of sexuality and narrative; Robert Heasley’s theory of the queerness of straight masculinities; and Michael Deangelis’s theory of the bromance and its representation in film and television.
