Frederik Dhaenens
Ghent University, Political and Social Sciences, Department Member
- Cultural Studies, Gender, Media Studies, Culture, Gender and Sexuality, Media, and 13 moreCinema, Queer Theory, Queer Studies, Identity politics, Film & Digital Video, Structuralism/Post-Structuralism, Pop Culture, Fan Theory and Culture, Gender Communication, TV, LGBT Youth, Normativity (Gender), and Sexualityedit
- Frederik Dhaenens (PhD) is a member of CIMS - Centre for Cinema and Media Studies at the Department of Communication ... moreFrederik Dhaenens (PhD) is a member of CIMS - Centre for Cinema and Media Studies at the Department of Communication Studies, Ghent University, Belgium. In 2012, he successfully defended his doctoral thesis, entitled “Gays on the Small Screen: A Queer Theoretical Study into the Articulations of Queer Resistance in Contemporary Television Fiction”. He lectured cultural studies and critical media studies-inspired courses on popular media, diversity and society at Erasmus University Rotterdam and courses on popular culture and film/television genres at Antwerp University.
Currently, he is working as an assistant professor at Ghent University, where he teaches courses that deal with media, (popular) culture and diversity. His research is situated within the field of critical media studies and cultural studies, while focusing on queer theory, LGBT representation, sex and sexuality, and masculinities in relation to popular culture, with a particular interest for television studies, popular music studies and fan studies.
Further, Frederik Dhaenens is vice-chair of the management team of the gender and communication section ECREA (European Communication Research and Education Association). The section is concerned with questions of gender and media and stimulates research that deals with issues regarding sexualities. He is also involved in the newly formed European CEDAR network (Consortium on Emerging Directions in Audience Research), the Dutch-Flemish LGBT expert network and the Flemish LGBT Forum.edit
International film festivals (IFFs) are increasingly taking an interest in offering programs that target LGBT audiences. Since this practice can be understood as an emancipatory and commercial strategy, this article examines the... more
International film festivals (IFFs) are increasingly taking an interest in offering programs that target LGBT audiences. Since this practice can be understood as an emancipatory and commercial strategy, this article examines the implications of this ambiguity within an IFF’s politics of representation. Drawing on the results from a textual and contextual analysis of the films and programming strategies of the 2014 Film Fest Gent in Belgium, this article argues that an IFF has the potential to engage in moderately queer programming. By offering an identity-based program that makes room for alternative and critical negotiations of identity and intimacy and that looks for ways to offer LGBT content to diverse audiences in various settings, this festival demonstrates how programming LGBT content can be a critical and commercial success without having to rely on homonormative tropes and practices.
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Abstract Despite a significant increase in gay representation in contemporary television fiction, many media scholars argue that the representation of gay men and women is governed by heteronormativity. They postulate that even rounded... more
Abstract Despite a significant increase in gay representation in contemporary television fiction, many media scholars argue that the representation of gay men and women is governed by heteronormativity. They postulate that even rounded and heterogeneous ...
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With the emergence of alternative R&B, contemporary R&B and hip hop culture are being confronted with a subgenre that challenges its key characteristics. One of the aspects that typify alternative R&B is the emergence of an... more
With the emergence of alternative R&B, contemporary R&B and hip hop culture are being confronted with a subgenre that challenges its key characteristics. One of the aspects that typify alternative R&B is the emergence of an alternative masculinity. The aim of this study is to research whether the alternative masculinities represented in alternative R&B resist the hegemonic masculine ideal established within R&B and hip hop culture. To this end, this study conducts a textual analysis of the representations of gender in the work of Frank Ocean and The Weeknd, artists considered representative for alternative R&B. The analysis reveals that Ocean’s work features successful nonnormative masculine identities, whereas The Weeknd refrains to representing postmodern exaggerations of the hegemonic male. Despite divergent representational strategies, both artists do engage in questioning what it means to be a man in R&B and hip hop culture and thereby at least attempt to challenge the supremacy of hegemonic masculinity.
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ABSTRACT This article studies the representation of queer characters and themes in the contemporary adult animated sitcom. We argue that even though popular culture is often assumed to reiterate and consolidate the discourse of... more
ABSTRACT This article studies the representation of queer characters and themes in the contemporary adult animated sitcom. We argue that even though popular culture is often assumed to reiterate and consolidate the discourse of heteronormativity, adult animated sitcoms create space for queer resistance. Since the genre draws on postmodern strategies of representation, we argue that queer resistance is subversively articulated through instances of pastiche and parody. It is embedded in content that is both complicit with and critical of the heteronormal. Through a textual thematic analysis of Family Guy, this case study illustrates how postmodern textual strategies create deconstructionist instances that expose and subvert the hegemony of heteronormativity.
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ABSTRACT Fantasy films and television series have generally taken an ambivalent position toward homosexuality. On the one hand, the genre has omitted representations of gay characters or displaced homosexuality onto the victims, villains,... more
ABSTRACT Fantasy films and television series have generally taken an ambivalent position toward homosexuality. On the one hand, the genre has omitted representations of gay characters or displaced homosexuality onto the victims, villains, or nonhuman others. Hence, from a queer theoretical perspective, homosexuality has been represented as a threat to the hegemonic discourse of heteronormativity. On the other hand, deconstructionist practices have revealed how the other may be read as a form of cultural resistance and a powerful metaphor for gay men and women. However, a few 21st-century fantasy series are breaking the tradition by representing characters and themes explicitly marked as gay. Using a textual analysis of two contemporary fantasy series (Torchwood and True Blood), this study illustrates how the inclusion of gay characters rearticulates this ambivalent position of the fantasy genre toward homosexuality. The ambivalence no longer serves to read the others as metaphors for homosexuality and/or queerness, but allows us to imagine queer subject positions and transgressive norms and values in close relation to actual gay characters.
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This article acknowledges that contemporary representations of gay domesticity in popular television fiction are often shaped by the discourse of heteronormativity. However, drawing on the potential of popular culture to resist... more
This article acknowledges that contemporary representations of gay domesticity in popular television fiction are often shaped by the discourse of heteronormativity. However, drawing on the potential of popular culture to resist heteronormativity, this article argues that representations of gay domesticity can also be interpreted in terms of queer resistance. To this end, a textual thematic analysis of Brothers & Sisters and Six Feet Under was conducted to illustrate how these instances of resistance are articulated. This analysis has shown that the series rely on strategies of queer deconstructions to expose how heteronormativity governs and restrains gay domestic arrangements. They also rely on strategies of queer reconstructions to renegotiate gay domesticities in which the boundaries defined by the discourse of heteronormativity are defied, transgressed, and queered.
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Makeover television is generally interested in transforming individuals. Often these programmes alter participants on an individual basis, ignore structural problems, and enforce normative ideas of the good citizen. An important role is... more
Makeover television is generally interested in transforming individuals. Often these programmes alter participants on an individual basis, ignore structural problems, and enforce normative ideas of the good citizen. An important role is preserved for celebrities, considered able to help these individuals by performing the role of expert. This article aims to demonstrate how celebrities are legitimised with the power to transform young individuals in a television programme. Specifically, the article inquires how celebrities are represented as key actors in the process of transforming young individuals within a Dutch context in which ordinariness is promoted. To this end, a textual analysis is conducted of the Dutch programme It Gets Better. This article reveals how the programme constructs celebrities as the only way to solve the participants’ problems. On the one hand, they are able to connect with audiences and participants because their ordinariness eases identification and access. The programme particularly emphasises the ordinariness of Dutch celebrities while connecting it to their personal experiences with the issue at stake in the past. On the other hand, their extraordinary status in society gives them authority. The articulation of the celebrity status to personal experiences is pivotal for the transformation to take place. The critical moment of change is when celebrities deliver their messages to the individuals personally and act as a friend; consequently, individuals feel honoured to interact with them and take celebrities’ messages seriously.
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Dhaenens, Frederik. 2011. “Gays on the Small Screen : a Queer Theoretical Study into Articulations of Queer Resistance in Contemporary Television Fiction”. Ghent, Belgium: Ghent University, Department of Communication studies. ...... more
Dhaenens, Frederik. 2011. “Gays on the Small Screen : a Queer Theoretical Study into Articulations of Queer Resistance in Contemporary Television Fiction”. Ghent, Belgium: Ghent University, Department of Communication studies. ... Dhaenens, F. (2011). Gays on the small ...
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... Record Details. Record ID, 673452. Record Type, conference. Author, Frederik Dhaenens [801002101826] - Ghent University Frederik.Dhaenens@UGent.be; Daniël Biltereyst [801001158502] - Ghent University Daniel.Biltereyst@UGent.be; ...
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... Record Type, book. Author, Alexis Dewaele; Johny Vincke [801000462122] - Ghent University John.Vincke@UGent.be; Nele Cox [801001752626] - Ghent University Nele.Cox@UGent.be;Frederik Dhaenens [801002101826] - Ghent University... more
... Record Type, book. Author, Alexis Dewaele; Johny Vincke [801000462122] - Ghent University John.Vincke@UGent.be; Nele Cox [801001752626] - Ghent University Nele.Cox@UGent.be;Frederik Dhaenens [801002101826] - Ghent University Frederik.Dhaenens@UGent.be. ...
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... ision's cultural impact is the product of a chain of events: the multitude oices made by television's creators, which result in a complex combina-of images ... it the commodification of sex can also be seen as a... more
... ision's cultural impact is the product of a chain of events: the multitude oices made by television's creators, which result in a complex combina-of images ... it the commodification of sex can also be seen as a democratization, in most members of a consumer culture have at least ...
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Ga onmiddellijk naar paginanavigatie. Screening sex. Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: Record Details. Record ID, 1182567. Record Type, misc. Author, Frederik Dhaenens [801002101826] - Ghent University... more
Ga onmiddellijk naar paginanavigatie. Screening sex. Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: Record Details. Record ID, 1182567. Record Type, misc. Author, Frederik Dhaenens [801002101826] - Ghent University Frederik.Dhaenens@UGent.be. Title, Screening sex ...
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... Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: Record Details. Record ID, 609337. Record Type, misc. Author, Frederik Dhaenens [801002101826] - Ghent UniversityFrederik.Dhaenens@UGent.be. Title, Review: Screened Out. ...
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... Record Details. Record ID, 609357. Record Type, conference. Author, Frederik Dhaenens [801002101826] - Ghent University Frederik.Dhaenens@UGent.be; Sofie Van Bauwel [801001224580] - Ghent University Sofie.VanBauwel@UGent.be. ...
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... Record Details. Record ID, 688080. Record Type, conference. Author, Frederik Dhaenens [801002101826] - Ghent University Frederik.Dhaenens@UGent.be; Daniël Biltereyst [801001158502] - Ghent University Daniel.Biltereyst@UGent.be; ...
Notwithstanding a significant increase in queer visibility in popular television fiction, queer representations have often been rebuked by feminist and queer theorists over their heteronormative content. However, representations of queer... more
Notwithstanding a significant increase in queer visibility in popular television fiction, queer representations have often been rebuked by feminist and queer theorists over their heteronormative content. However, representations of queer domesticity align with the salient debate whether or ...
Contemporary media research on queer representation has suggested that there are different strategies to represent queers those who do not consider their gender or sexual identity and/or their acts as strictly heterosexual. Most often... more
Contemporary media research on queer representation has suggested that there are different strategies to represent queers those who do not consider their gender or sexual identity and/or their acts as strictly heterosexual. Most often these studies draw on queer theory, a ...
... Record Details. Record ID, 609354. Record Type, conference. Author, Frederik Dhaenens [801002101826] - Ghent University Frederik.Dhaenens@UGent.be; Sofie Van Bauwel [801001224580] - Ghent University Sofie.VanBauwel@UGent.be. ...
... Record Details. Record ID, 673452. Record Type, conference. Author, Frederik Dhaenens [801002101826] - Ghent University Frederik.Dhaenens@UGent.be; Daniël Biltereyst [801001158502] - Ghent University Daniel.Biltereyst@UGent.be; ...
... Record Details. Record ID, 673393. Record Type, conference. Author, Sofie Van Bauwel [801001224580] - Ghent University Sofie.VanBauwel@UGent.be; Frederik Dhaenens [801002101826] - Ghent University Frederik.Dhaenens@UGent.be; ...
... Record Details. Record ID, 673437. Record Type, conference. Author, Frederik Dhaenens [801002101826] - Ghent University Frederik.Dhaenens@UGent.be; Sofie Van Bauwel [801001224580] - Ghent University Sofie.VanBauwel@UGent.be; ...
As more and more television series feature recurring queer characters, queer visibility seems to have increased in the twenty-first century. Still, even though series such as Will & Grace and Brothers & Sisters... more
As more and more television series feature recurring queer characters, queer visibility seems to have increased in the twenty-first century. Still, even though series such as Will & Grace and Brothers & Sisters have been hailed for foregrounding queer characters and depicting ...
Dhaenens, Frederik. 2011. “Gay Representation, Queer Resistance, and the Small Screen : a Reception Analysis of Gay Representation Among Flemish Fans of Contemporary Television Fiction.” In The Mediation of Scandal and Moral Outrage,... more
Dhaenens, Frederik. 2011. “Gay Representation, Queer Resistance, and the Small Screen : a Reception Analysis of Gay Representation Among Flemish Fans of Contemporary Television Fiction.” In The Mediation of Scandal and Moral Outrage, Abstracts.
Edited by Ranjana Das and Brita Ytre-Arne, with contribution from the CEDAR network. This report brings together the work done by CEDAR - Consortium of Emerging Directions in Audience Research, an Arts & Humanities Research Council... more
Edited by Ranjana Das and Brita Ytre-Arne, with contribution from the CEDAR network.
This report brings together the work done by CEDAR - Consortium of Emerging Directions in Audience Research, an Arts & Humanities Research Council funded consortium of early-career European audience researchers. CEDAR came together to map trends, gaps and priorities emerging over the past decade in the field of audience studies.
This report brings together the work done by CEDAR - Consortium of Emerging Directions in Audience Research, an Arts & Humanities Research Council funded consortium of early-career European audience researchers. CEDAR came together to map trends, gaps and priorities emerging over the past decade in the field of audience studies.