Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Setting Up Shop Down South: Gay Visibility And Identity Formation At A New Orleans Bookstore, Katelyn N. Spencer

LSU Master's Theses

Looking specifically at the South’s first gay bookstore, Faubourg Marigny (FM) Books, this thesis will connect the existence of gay literature and space as impetuses of gay community identity within New Orleans. It will use the political, social, and cultural histories of the 1970s through the 2010s to contextualize the gay bookstore as a microcosm of its time and location. In doing so, it will examine how FM Books’ New Orleans location affected its function and its relationship with its community. It will also analyze how the bookstore fit into the city’s history of social tradition and aversion to flagrant …

It's Not All Rainbows & Glitter, Jerry B. Lockaby

LSU Master's Theses

The goal of this exhibition is to contextualize the struggles of the LGBTQ+ community by anchoring personal stories with collage and poetry to demonstrate the ongoing difficulties of growing up queer. Mixed media digitized collages have been created and paired with companion typographic treatments of poems and narratives from diverse points of view.

The word queer as a term to describe gay men, lesbians, and other non-conforming sexual identities, has evolved over the past 100 years. This evolution of the word parallels the struggles of LGBTQ+ people to achieve equal rights, marriage equality, protection in housing and employment, and an …

[Thoughts On] The Painter & The Act Of Painting, Samantha Rosado

LSU Master's Theses

In the satirical manifesto that accompanies my work, humor, and sarcasm play an important role in understanding the narrator’s tone. The information included is both factual and imagined, pulled from stories and experiences of a group of painters. My hope is to help aspiring painters develop their own rules and philosophies based on what they learn through the canon of art history. As a writer I aim to motivate those who feel under-represented in the world of fine art and craft to reject feelings of inadequacy. As an artist I make with the intention of being vulnerable and honest.

The False Idealization Of Heteronormativity And The Repression Of Queerness, Catherine Lynn Thurmond

LSU Master's Theses

In this thesis, entitled “The False Idealization of Heteronormativity and the Repression of Queerness,” I examine heteronormativity as a social structure that is idealized over, and against, queerness. In the first chapter, I define heteronormativity and queerness. “Heteronormativity,” here, is simply a set of standards that dictate what one must do with their gender and sexuality, such as having sexual relations with the opposite sex, getting married, or having children. Heteronormativity is visible, validated, and normalized in society. Conversely, “queerness” refers to the social structures that dictate what one must not do with their gender and sexuality. Thus, queerness is …

Public Sexuality: A Contemporary History Of Gay Images And Identity, Shaun Erwin Sewell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study is an examination of the public imaging of gay men and lesbians during the latter part of the twentieth and early part of the twenty-first centuries. The study looks at public imaging as it is performed in the service of the political aims of gay people, with an eye towards the kinds of tensions and erasures that occur when one monolithic identity is promoted. Through these examinations, I create a kind of contemporary history of the gay political rights movement. In the study, I examine theoretical approaches to identity from several postmodern theorists and then use these approaches …

Ball And Chain, Eloise Holland

LSU Master's Theses

Ball and Chain is a coming-of-age story that explores the pain and joy of an unusual first love. Patsy is a twenty-six-year-old virgin. As her body begins to deteriorate as the result of an unknown ailment, she finds herself intrigued by the beautiful and vibrant Anita. Initially unwilling to admit her attraction, Patsy distracts herself with work, her best friend’s quest to find the perfect tattoo artist, and the politics of her wealthy Houston family. When Patsy grows increasingly ill, she decides that she must find a way to get Anita’s attention before it’s too late.