Author: Grzanka, P.R.; Mann, E.S.
Description: This article investigates a mass-mediated campaign against a perceived increase in suicides among gay (or presumed-to-be-gay) youth in the USA since September 2010. “It Gets Better” (IGB) became a rallying cry for “anti-bullying” activists, politicians, celebrities and ordinary people who created YouTube videos addressed to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth who might be considering suicide. A critical discourse analysis of a sample of IGB videos reveals a neoliberal frame that places the burden of a “better” life onto the emotional lives of LGBT youth, who are instructed to endure suffering in the interest of inevitable happiness. Drawing on Foucault and Orr’s work on the construction and management of mental illness, we use the concept of “psychopower” to explore how these IGB videos render queer youth suicide both a psychological disorder and a sociological crisis for which the only viable solution is “homonormative” subjectivity.
Subject headings: Homonormativity; Mental health; Neoliberalism; Suicide; Youth; LGBT; Mass media; Social media
Publication year: 2014
Journal or book title: Sexualities
Volume: 17
Issue: 4
Pages: 369-393
Find the full text: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1363460713516785
Find more like this one (cited by): https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=17212031778751495330&as_sdt=1000005&sciodt=0,16&hl=en
Type: Journal Article
Serial number: 2338