- Lauron Kerher "Who Slays? Queer Resonances in Beyoncé’s Lemonade"
- Matthew D. Morrison "Black men, Queerness, and Contemporary Popular Performance"
- Stephan Pennington "Details Baby, Details”: Listening for Gender in The Crying Game"
Moderator: Meagan Sylvester
Kimberlé Crenshaw first coined the term “intersectionality” in 1989 to refer to the particular experiences of marginalization of black women, particularly through the interlocking systems of racism and sexism. This concept has been usefully expanded to explore the relationship between other modes of identity, including sexuality, class, disability, and what this intersectionality
means for those most marginalized. In this panel, we will explore the particular intersection of race, gender, sexuality, class, and region in popular music, as well as explore how these intersectional identities resonate within popular culture. In using intersectionality as a framework for examining the musical, visual, and textual aspects of pop, we seek to demonstrates ways in which these identities are co-constructed and sometimes co-opted through performance. Through musicology, sound studies, black feminism, and queer theory, our panelists will use intersectional approaches to explore Beyoncé’s
Lemonade, transgender identity and performance in
The Crying Game, and the complex reception of black male queer performativity through contemporary musicians such as Frank Ocean, Mykki Blanco, and Tyler the Creator.
