Homonormative stories typically show that for a queer identity to be valid, it must be permanent and public through self-identification. This self-identification process is called coming out. Many queer people feel that the practice of coming out is a necessary step in their queer identity due to the heteronormative notion that identity cannot be valid unless it is officially recognized. In I Saw the TV Glow, queerness is seen as fluid and subtle. The main character, Owen, experiences their own queer identity through their relationship to television media and their queerness is felt by the audience instead of explicitly stated. Owen’s search for their missing female best friend, serves as a metaphor for them finding and accepting their own queer self. Rather than the film having Owen directly come out and state their queer identity, Owen’s queerness is shown through subtle, metaphorical, and ephemeral gestures which directly reject conformity to the categories that are expected in homonormative assimilation.
José Esteban Muñoz's idea of disidentification is prevalent in this film. Muñoz explains that in order to navigate dominant culture, marginalized people use disidentification, which includes “neither opt[ing] to assimilate within such a structure nor strictly oppos[ing] it; rather, they negotiate a third modality that is both resistant and transformative” (Muñoz, Disidentifications 11). Owen disidentifies with their favorite television show called The Pink Opaque, which is not a queer television show, nor is it for a queer audience, but they interpret it with a queer perspective. This helps them find comfort and make space for their queerness to exist within the show. While this idea does not fully subvert homonormative dominant culture, it does in part subvert this culture by imagining a queer space.
Another way in which this film subverts the idea of homonormativity is through its use of queer ephemera. Owen’s obsession with The Pink Opaque demonstrates how queer people tend to use television and the fictional worlds they create to help define and shape their identities before they actually enact their identity in reality. In the journal article “Ephemera as Evidence: Introductory Notes to Queer Acts” by José Esteban Muñoz, he describes ephemera as “traces, glimmers, residues, and specks of things” that offer evidence of queer life (Muñoz, Ephemera as Evidence 10). Owen’s queerness is preserved not in homonormative ideas of what it means to be queer but instead is held within television episodes and the nostalgia they feel for these episodes. This use of ephemera for queer worldmaking works in contrast with homonormative ideas that demand visibility, tangible evidence, and documentation. Instead of queerness existing as something that must be officially recognized to be valid, I Saw the TV Glow conveys that queerness can exist in “innuendo, gossip, fleeting moments, and performances” (Munoz, Ephemera as Evidence 6), such as a TV glow, an episode, or a song lyric.
The idea of homonationalism is important to discuss when looking at I Saw the TV Glow because the film directly rejects homonormativity and shows the violence that comes with forced or expected conformity. Jasbir Puar develops the term homonationalism as a shorthand for homonormative nationalism (Puar 38). This concept describes how LGBTQ+ individuals are often encouraged to conform to nationalist, heteronormative logics in order to be recognized as legitimate citizens. A key part of this process is the idea that queer people must assimilate to societal norms in order to be accepted. For Owen to fit in, they have to conform in order not to stand out in school or be seen by society as an outcast or traitor. I Saw the TV Glow uses the horror genre to depict the violence that occurs from forced conformity to heteronormative structures of power. The main character's depression, discomfort, and dysphoria, along with the eerie energy and music throughout the film, shows how their conformity to heteronormative structures has separated them from their friends, family, and environment. Towards the end of the film, we see Owen’s metaphorical break from homonormative and homonationalist ideals as they cut out their heart, smiling in the mirror as they do it. This symbolizes their violent and drastic decision to embrace their queer identity rather than assimilate to standards of society. This shows how conformity is not a liberating process; instead, it diminishes the idea of queer possibility. This reflects José Esteban Muñoz’s idea in Cruising Utopia which states that “queerness is not yet here” and that “queerness exists for us as an ideality that can be distilled from the past and used to imagine a future” (Muñoz, Cruising Utopia 1). In other words, queerness exists in the future separate from restraints of assimilating and recognition.
I Saw the TV Glow challenges homonormativity by rejecting the idea of a fixed queer identity and the idea of conforming to societal expectations. Through the use of the terms disidentification and ephemera, the film depicts queerness as subtle and existing far from the restraints that are places upon queerness by homonormativity. The film shows how dangerous and damaging assimilating with mainstream norms can be for queer people and how rejecting these norms can offer a queer futurity. I Saw the TV Glow stands as a powerful film that accurately and properly addresses and critiques homonormative ideals about queerness.
Sources:
Muñoz, José Esteban. “Ephemera as Evidence: Introductory Notes to Queer Acts.” Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory, vol. 8, no. 2, 1996, pp. 5–16.
Muñoz, José Esteban. “Introduction: Feeling Utopia.” Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity, NYU Press, 2009, pp. 1–18.
Muñoz, José Esteban. “Preface: Jack’s Plunger” and “Introduction: Performing Disidentifications.” Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1999, pp. ix-34.
Puar, Jasbir. “The Sexuality of Terrorism.” Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times, Duke University Press, 2017, pp. 37–78.
Schoenbrun, Jane. I Saw the TV Glow. A24, 2024.
