Media texts and audiences
Essay question: Drawing on understandings gained on this module, reflect on an aspect of your own media consumption. Has it reflected your own lived reality (family relationships, school experiences etc), provided the means for symbolic distancing etc? You can draw on one or more media texts. Alternatively, with the same theoretical focus, you can interview someone else on an aspect of their consumption of media.
Introduction
The topic to be discussed in this essay is the perspective on homosexuality that arises from the Zimbabwean context. In analysing this, the movie Rocketman will be analysed; Elton John, a homosexual male, struggles through drug addiction and a hard-lived family upbringing whilst coming to terms with his sexuality. Through symbolic distancing, an individual who exists in a country where homosexuality is considered an illegal act can gain perspective through media that is different from one's lived reality. The essay will also document perspectives taken from specific instances in Rocketman whilst drawing final conclusions about the final message that emerges from the musical.
Zimbabwean culture
In a Zimbabwean context, male homosexuality is criminalised and lesbianism societally outlawed. Robert Mugabe, in 1996, stated that homosexuals were "lower than pigs and perverts" and followed by saying they have "no rights" (Tiripano&Smith, 2000: 1). Penal Code, Article 73. of 2006 stated that "Sodomy or any other act regarded by a reasonable person to be indecent" was punishable by 1-year imprisonment (Mendos, 2019: 50). In 2019 same-sex marriages were banned in a bill drafted by the Zimbabwe cabinet (echoed by the national constitution) (Mendos, 2019: 19). As sodomy refers to anal intercourse, the constitution directly targeted an act undertaken in male homosexual intercourse as legally punishable. Lesbianism is not legally punishable and is rather societally outlawed.
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Zimbabwean society upholds the persecution of the LGBTQI+ community, yet takes pride in a morally just and principled upbringing. Family life in a white middle-class Zimbabwean context has followed the Zimbabwean legal perspective. My father grew up in Zimbabwe and has experienced little beyond its community perspective. This led to an open condemnation of homosexuality and stern directive that a same-sex relationship would not be accepted within his household. My mother had a very different upbringing and as a result, was more open to letting us be whoever we felt we were as people. A quote she stated will remain with me. Thowever this is not a direct quote, rather an idea of what was said, "I know your father won't consider homosexuality for his children but if you were ever to bring a man home I feel he would grow and come to understand it".
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In a schooling context, the message of the Zimbabwean government and older generation carried strongly in students. As a man, when you were seen to act in a manner that did not fit the masculine role in society, you would be bullied into submission with phrases such as "don't be gay", "you act/dress/look gay", the list could go on and on. I was as guilty of any of my peers condemning homosexuality as it was all I had experienced in my short-lived narrow experience. Gender roles were narrowly fixed and any person that attempted to defy this would be bullied into submission. In my family setting, gender roles were never fixed to the same extent as wider Zimbabwean society. My father cooked and my mother hated the kitchen. My sister and mother fished and hunted with the males in our family but cousins and a certain uncle condemned this viewing it as unfit practices for women, they still do. As children, we were free to pursue what we pleased with the phrase “If it makes you happy, chase it”. Yet homosexuality was still a 'taboo' topic and highly outlawed within my immediate family.
Theoretical grounding
Zimbabwean legal ramifications for homosexuality focus specifically on males and sodomy. Hellman (2020: 337-338) draws on the term homosexism to explain prejudice toward sexual erotic activity preference instead of a phobia toward sexual orientation. Whilst widespread homophobia is present in society, wrongful beliefs about male homosexual behaviour often aired in media "depict anal intercourse (referred to in Zimbabwe's constitution as sodomy) as the predominant behaviour of men who have sex with men (MSM)" (Hellman, 2020: 337). However, nearly 100 years of research in MSM find anal intercourse to be the least common male homoerotic activity (Hellman, 2020: 337). As lesbianism in Zimbabwe is not criminalised there is room to argue that society is grounded, firstly in patriarchy and secondly in homosexism. In breaking up the word homosexism; homo refers to "man" and "same" and sexism refers to "gender" and also denotes "sexual activity" (Hellman, 2020: 338). Continuing this train of thought, homosexism can refer to "prejudice based on the particular sexual activities of MSM" (Hellman, 2020: 338).
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There is little to no formal sex education on male homoerotic behaviour in schools worldwide (Hellman, 2020: 338). In Zimbabwe, it is societally outlawed and constitutionally banned leaving homosexual males little chance for education beyond the internet and global media. Rocketman does not fixate on anal intercourse highlighting oral sex as well unlike global media and porn sites such as pornhub. Studies on MSM has shown roughly around 30 percent of homosexual males engage in anal intercourse but sites like pornhub show 70 percent of MSM to be anal intercourse creating twisted perspectives on what 'normal' MSM do during sex (Hellman, 2020: 339). The evidence provided does not aim to diminish anal intercourse as an MSM sexual activity but rather shows "an active, hegemonic, cultural conviction is stereotyping MSM" (Hellman, 2020: 339).
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Whilst I do not associate as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Rocketman helps to distances myself from my lived experience (Strelitz, 2005: 114). Whilst learning at Rhodes University has drawn an understanding beyond my lived experience it is theoretical and relating to real events in life can be challenging. Elton John created a musical experience that is celebrated in the Zimbabwean context I have come from. Through Rocketman, global media images provide a context that is "a resource for individuals to think critically about their own lives and life conditions" (Strelitz, 2005: 114). The life of Elton John is as iconic as any, people in Zimbabwe love and listen to his music but fail to relate to his experience as a homosexual male.
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Local Zimbabwean media fails to deal with homosexuality as a concept and thus symbolic distancing becomes an important method to create understanding about the LGBTQ+ community. In Strelitz (2005: 117) the author draws on his student Rebecca’s contrast between Emzini Wezintsizwa (a South African comedy) and Seinfeld (a global sitcom). Whilst local South African media discusses relevant issues for South African miners, it also promotes traditional culture and is constructed along patriarchal lines (Strelitz, 2005: 117-118). Similarly to Rocketman, Seinfeld deals with issues that lie outside of traditionally accepted values. Where Rocketman provides a developed and culturally sensitive perspective on homosexuality, Seinfeld casts women as successful and independent making them desirable to male characters (Strelitz, 2005: 118).
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Whilst Robert Mugabe constructed homosexuality as a western construct brought to Africa by the white man referred to as a “western perversion” (Amory, 1997: 5). African sexual practice has been heavily affected by colonialism and missionization pointing toward the fact that homophobia is actually the true effect of westernisation at work in society (Amory, 1997: 5). In Zimbabwe sexual orientation (along with a number of other classifications -culture and race to name two-) have been used as an excuse for political persecution and personal violence (Amory, 1997: 5). Since Zimbabwe’s independence, ZANU-PF is the only political party to hold power and both presidents have taken radical steps toward authoritarian rule, the perspective on homosexuality being one example. The rights of citizens have been limited and an unfortunate consequence is that society conforms to this authoritarian perspective and outlaws homosexual people.
Linking Rocketman
Many critics from the LGBTQI+ community have given their perspectives on Rocketman and with the movie Bohemian Rhapsody. The latter has been largely praised at the expense of the take on the homosexuality of Freddy Mercury’s life. Rocketman has been in production for over ten years due to the highly controversial content that was the life of Elton John. Where Bohemian Rhapsody aimed to cater to a wider audience with its content, there was a deep-lying error in the construction of the homosexual narrative in the film. The homosexuality of Mercury was constructed as ‘dirty’ in its narrow and limited portrayal. The scene in question (and the only scene that implied homosexual intercourse) was a couple of men going into a grungy, rundown bathroom with no further explanation. The result for the Zimbabwean viewer is to uphold the narrow view of homosexuality as an outlawed and ‘dirty’ act.
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In Rocketman, the interactions around homosexuality are cast as normal acts like any heteronormal sex scene would be cast. It shows the pure nature of intercourse even if it is between two males. The musical goes further in depicting homosexuality as normal when addressing the marriage of Elton John to Renate Blauel (a woman). In the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that carries throughout the film he is asked whether he was happy in his marriage (that ended in divorce), he answers “no, I’m gay”. John’s drug addiction and family upbringing were the two issues that created problems in his life yet when he informs his mother of his homosexuality she states that she knew, but he should keep it to himself and that he will never find true happiness because of it. Yet he overcomes the drug habits and harsh childhood to now have been married to his husband David Furnish for almost three decades, homosexuality did not make Elton John miserable.
Conclusion
Growing up in Zimbabwe where homosexuality is considered an illegal act had a damaging effect on my view of a minority group of people. Being homosexual had negative connotations and when males in society did not conform to their fixed gender roles they were outlawed by society with homosexual ‘slurs’. Society conformed to the ZANU-PF’s legislation which focused specifically on outlawing homosexism. The legislation targeted ‘sodomy’ which is anal intercourse and threatened homosexual males with 1-year imprisonment if they were found committing such acts or any act deemed deviant by the ‘reasonable’ person. This, in turn, drove the ‘reasonable’ person to view homosexuality as unreasonable deviant behaviour.
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Emerging from Zimbabwean society to study in South Africa these were views that appeared ‘normal’ as they were my lived experience. However, South African middle-class society did not share the views that I held. I did not understand why this was the case but it meant that I held these views back in order to understand why this could be. After moving to Rhodes University and studying identity in the journalism department, theory was provided that did not conform to the lived experience that informed my position. The effect was a broadening perspective on the rights of people; it highlighted individual people’s rights and showed why I did not have the right to infringe on these rights.
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It is in this context that Rocketman was shown to me and I began to contrast this to the general media lens with which I have experienced homosexuality. Homosexuality has been predominantly portrayed through the dominant heterosexual perspective and as a result, has largely failed to shine a light on the true homosexual experience. When Elton John was asked why he did not make a movie for a wider audience that was rated PG-13 he responded by saying “I just haven’t lived a PG-13 rated life”. Telling the story through an R-rated lens allowed for a true account of the sex and drugs that frequented the life of a true music icon.