Queer Media?

Queer theory is a rather new branch of study, as it has only been named as an area since about 1991. But in Sweden it has also been rather influential, both in the scientific field and outside it; in the media, exemplified by the television serial Queer as folks, and in the political discourse. Nowadays politicians not only describes themselves as ‘feminists’ but also as ‘pro queerness’. Maybe queer is on its way to become a widely disseminated and even trendy term? But, when looking at the scientific field in Sweden, one recognise that the influents from queer theory is only visible in film- and theatre studies and, of course, in the area of gender studies. In media studies, on the other hand, queer and queer theory is still rather unknown. Therefor, what this paper is aiming to is, first, to investigate queer theory and, second, to estimate what the concept and the theory can do for media studies. The question is why it has been so widely adopted and why it might be important to consider it? And what, if something, might media studies, on the other hand, bring to queer theory?