Queer cultural movements and local counterpublics of sexuality: a case of Seoul Queer Films and Videos Festival 1
2007; Routledge; Volume: 8; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/14649370701568086
ISSN1469-8447
Autores Tópico(s)LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy
ResumoAbstract Abstract This study is an attempt to examine the ways in which popular culture can restructure the relationship between sexuality and power, through the case of Seoul Queer Films and Videos Festival, a cultural arena of newly emerged queer discourses in Korean society. In the past 10 years, queer discourses in Korea have undergone a rapid change. With heterosexual normativity being challenged and 'queer' being consumed as a cultural code, Korean spectators come to engage with a queer film festival in multilateral and sometimes contradictory contexts. This study will try to pose a controversial question to the heterosexual society by reading the complex interactions between film festivals, films and spectators while paying attention to the experiences of the participants in the Seoul Queer Films and Videos Festival and pointing at the political implications of queer films now in 2006. Through this, I try to look for possibilities of a queer cultural movement which rejects being co‐opted by the heterosexual society, constructs new ideas of social powers in relation with sexuality, and seeks alternative visions for such change in relations. Notes 1. In accordance with the rules of the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), I am notifying that this paper won first place in the Best Research Contest of KOFIC in 2006. 2. In Korea, non‐heterosexual subjects have been referred to in various terms such as lesbian, gay, homosexual, sexual minority and queer. Each term involves a different category and political position depending on the context and critical moment in which it emerged. I have noted the political choice of Seoul Queer Films and Videos Festival to use the term 'queer,' which targets heteronormativity and the dichotomous definition of homosexuality/heterosexuality as the most important targets of counteraction, and decided to use terms such as 'queer community' and 'queer spectators' in relation to the festival in this paper. Therefore, sexual minorities including those who identify themselves as lesbians or gays will be called 'queer spectators' here and their material and discursive space will be called 'queer community.' When quoting from other activist groups or interview participants, their words – heterosexual, lesbian, gay, sexual minority – will be used as originally said. 3. It is almost impossible to establish a range or boundary of 'queer communities' as they actually exist. From visibly noticeable activist groups, social get‐togethers and queer subjects who gather in clubs on weekends to numerous 'potential' queers living 'among' the heterosexual society, 'queer communities' exist everywhere and the boundaries are ambiguous. In this paper, 'queer communities' will be used as a temporary term to refer to places where activities and discourses of queers have been formed, such as clubs and bars for communication and exchange among queer subjects, telephone bulletin boards and extracurricular clubs in colleges. 4. Queer As Folk, a TV series shown in the 2000 Seoul Queer Films and Videos Festival, is being telecast in Korea with huge popularity, the fan site boasting close to 50,000 members. A special program on the Seoul Queer Films and Videos Festival has been telecast on a cable channel, and it is not unfamiliar to see TV commercials employing homosexual codes. 5. In discussing women as feminist subjects, Joan Scott points out that women are a mythic projection for men to confirm their expectations and fears, their masculinity and sovereignty and borrows Simone de Beauvoir's words to say that a woman 'stands before man not as a subject but as an object paradoxically endued with subjectivity' (Scott 2006 Scott, Joan. 2006/1996. Only Paradoxes to Offer: French Feminists and the Rights of Man, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Google Scholar]/1996). 6. Kaja Silverman suggests turning gender into a different meaning in explaining the woman subject with Lacan's concept of lack. According to Silverman, Lacan deals with the subjectification process through the lack of mother and the learning of language, where women are always explained as the 'lack' and an unspoken existence, in relation to the penis and phallus (Silverman 1983 Silverman, Kaja. 1983. The Subject of Semiotics, New York: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar]). She asks questions such as, 'If gender is oppressed, is that gender 'woman'?' and 'Do all oppressions against women in a gendered society match those of women subjects?' to explain that the dichotomous relationship of men/women is only random. She sees women as existing completely outside and deconstructs the random relationship. On this, I received a lot of help during discussions in a graduate seminar in Spring 2005 on 'Women and Cultural Theory' at Ewha Woman's University taught by Professor Eun‐Shil Kim. 7. Regarding arguments on queer counterpublics, I received a lot of help from discussions at a graduate seminar in Fall 2005 on 'History and Culture of Sexuality' at Yonsei University taught by Professor Dongjin Seo. 8. The Dongsoong Art Center later retracted its offer to co‐host the film festival and the preparing committee for the Seoul Queer Films and Videos Festival was left to find funding on its own while continuing to prepare for the festival. 9. The organizing committee had pushed forward with the festival even after the films had failed the review, but on the opening day of the festival, the electricity was shut down by the theater who considered the festival an illegal public performance. 10. This part was reconstructed from accounts by an interviewee who had participated in the film festival since 1996. She expressed her wish not to be quoted, directly or indirectly, but only for her accounts to be referenced in reconstructing the occurrences around the film festival. Therefore, I only used what I heard from her to mention facts I was told about the festival. 11. 'As citizens of Korea, we are enraged by the prohibition of the Queer Film Festival last year and strongly demand that the Queer Film Festival be permitted to open this year' (BUDDY 1998 BUDDY. 1998. 'A signature‐seeking campaign for homosexual rights'. '', 5: 20 [Google Scholar]). This was one of the four demands in the petition by 10,000 in support of homosexual human rights. 12. Having one's homosexuality disclosed against one's will. (The Sexual Minority Dictionary ; and also Korean Sexual‐minority Culture & Rights Center: www.kscrc.org). 13. A message written by an interview participant posted on the bulletin of a film community of which he had been a member. 14. In fact, this crisis has been felt by cinematheques all over, which had spearheaded the small‐scale spectators' movement. Activities of spectators' movement groups which had brought together cinephiles in the mid 1990s have diminished and the Korean Association of Cinematheques is hardly functioning as a space of discourse production anymore, with a persistently low participation rate of spectators. See The Korean Association of Cinematheques: www.kotheque.org. 15. A term used to call male homosexuals who live as heterosexuals during weekdays but come weekend, enjoy life in Itaewon, gay bars in Jongro or steam saunas. There are lesbians leading similar lives, but the term 'weekend lesbians' is not in common use. (Korean Sexual‐Minority Culture and Rights Center ) 16. A word used to indicate the tendency of frequently coming to meetings and bars when single, but disappearing as soon as becoming a couple. This is called egotism because of the lack of any sense of responsibility toward the past networks or activities and no interest in the future of the community or advancement of human rights but an engrossment in one's personal partner (Han 2004 Han, Chae Yoon. 2004. "'Homosexual Community, the reality – very diverse, still drifted, but hopeful' ". In Korea, Now, Queer: Korean Sexual‐Minority Culture and Rights Center 1st Anniversary Symposium book Korean Sexual‐Minority Culture and Rights Center 2004 [Google Scholar]). 17. In the Korean Sexual‐Minority Culture and Rights Center First Anniversary Symposium, the assistant head of the Center, Chae‐yoon Han pointed out the difficulties currently faced by 'homosexual communities,' questioning if the communities have a unity, a sense of belonging, a common culture or familiarity worthy of the term, community.
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