3/25 - Book Chat: Karen Tongson in Conversation about Her Book "Normporn"

3/25 – Book Chat: Karen Tongson in Conversation about Her Book “Normporn”

Dr. Karen Tongson is the Co-Chair of the Gender and Sexuality Studies Department at USC.

Please join us for a conversation Karen Tongson in conversation about her book “Normporn” on March 25^th at 12:00pm on Zoom!

Hosted by the USC Levan Institute for the Humanities, Dr. Tongson will be in conversation with Scott Poulson-Bryant (University of Michigan), Sarah Gertrude Shapiro (Co-Creator of UnREAL) and Tara McPherson (Division of Cinema & Media Studies). This event is co-organized by USC Division of Cinema & Media Studies and the English Department.

To register, please click here.

“Normporn” explores the TV dramadies that we turn on to soothe us, make us cry, and live in for a while. These shows (This is Us and Gilmore Girls), often are designed to appeal to liberal, white, heterosexual America. These depictions of “normal” are often at odds with the realities of queer communities. So what makes us keep watching? “Normporn” looks at the love-hate feelings queer viewers experience watching liberal family-centric shows, and asks – “What are queers to do—what is anyone to do, really—when we are forced to confront the fact of our own normalcy, and our own privilege, inherited or attained?”