Queering a film (Hotel Transylvania 2012) - Essay Example

Firstly and most obviously, Doty discusses the means by which the word “queer” is “used as an attempt to account for the existence and expression of a wide range of positions within the cutlrue that are ‘queer’ or non-anti, or contra-straight” (Doty 3). In this way, the reader rapidly understands that rather than merely promoting a certain point of view, the use and inclusion of such a phrase as an overarching world view denotes as much of what is not as what is. For this reason rather than merely denoting that the queer lifestyle exists and is an alternative to the pervasive expressions of straightness that exist, both societally and culturally, this specific use of the term helps to engage the viewer with an understand of what specifically queer is not and how it attempts to differentiate itself from the mainstream.

As a function of accomplishing such an end there are multiple ways in which a filmmaker could seek to “queer” a movie. . However, as Doty notes, a more equitable and fair representation of the queer world view and lifestyle goes beyond a simple representation of “homosexuality”. In this sense, the filmmaker is greeted with a difficult construct in which to work. On the one she may wish to incorporate these more nuanced interpretations of queerness; however, on the other hand, she may find herself somewhat stymied by that such nuanced representations of queerness would necessarily reduce to artistic expressions of highly sophisticated stereotypes.

As a means to avoid such a simplistic approach, this author would recommend that rather than focussing on indvidiual aspects of “queerness” within the movie Hotel Transylvania, a clear contrast could be drawn between characters that represented both straight and queer worldviews/perspectives. Although imperfect, such a representation would be able to have a stronger effect than merely representing a gay couple or uniquely and perhaps cheap representation of singluarly queer point of view on a given issue/topic.

Moreover, as the word itself has developed a life of its own, Doty uses it in ways that are not traditionally associated with a homosexual lifestyle or worldview. As such, the therm has come to represent the many multifacted ways in which a rebellion against normality and standard definitions of the world exist. As the author states in the article, queerness was as much about a clear renunciation of societal mores/norms as it was about the ability to fall in love with and be romantically or sexually involved with a member of one’s own sex.

In this way, one of the best ways to “queer” the movie would be