Normporn: Queer Viewers and the TV That Soothes Us

The article explores the love-hate relationship between queer viewers and mainstream family TV shows like Gilmore Girls and This Is Us. It examines why these shows continue to be watched, despite their failure to reflect the experiences of queer viewers. The author suggests that queer cultural observers find pleasure in the nuanced pleasures and attraction-repulsion experienced while watching these shows, as they help to process the collective and historical traumas of their contemporary moments. Normporn allows viewers to confront their own normalcy and privilege, creating a productive tension that queer spectators enjoy.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 216 pages
Publication date: 08 January 2024
Publisher: New York University Press

After experiencing personal loss, political upheaval, and the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us sought solace in the familiar, the mundane, and the middlebrow. We turned to television to find these qualities. For nearly four decades, network television has consistently churned out "cry-along" sentimental-realist dramedies aimed at appealing to liberal, heterosexual, white America. However, what keeps us engaged with these shows, even though they inevitably fail to reflect our true selves?

Revisiting soothing network dramedies like Parenthood, Gilmore Girls, This Is Us, and their late-80s precursor, thirtysomething, Normporn delves into the nuanced pleasures and attraction-repulsion experienced by queer viewers when consuming liberal family-centric shows. Karen Tongson explores how queer cultural observers navigate the constant declarations of a "new normal" and fleeting lifestyle trends like "normcore," even as the absurdity, aberrance, and violence of our culture intensify. Normporn provides a platform for us to reflect on how the intimate traumas depicted on certain TV shows, such as love, life, death, and loss, are interconnected with the collective and historical traumas of their contemporary moments, ranging from financial recessions and political crises to the pandemic.

Normporn poses the question: What are queers, and what is anyone to do, really, when faced with the reality of our own normalcy and privilege, whether inherited or attained? The fantasies, utopian impulses, and (paradoxically) the unreality of sentimental realist TV drama create a productive tension that queer spectators particularly relish, even as it may lull us into a sense of boredom or stasis.

In conclusion, Normporn offers a thought-provoking exploration of the complex relationship between queer viewers and mainstream family TV shows. By examining the nuances of attraction and repulsion, it sheds light on the ways in which these shows resonate with us, despite their inherent limitations. Through the lens of Normporn, we can better understand the ways in which television shapes our perceptions of the world and our place within it.

Weight: 248g
Dimension: 126 x 203 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781479846511