Identifying a queer aesthetic in amateur video manipulations of Disney content as part of a utopian visualisation of lesbian desires

Abstract

In traditional applications of queer theory onto the cinematic medium, reading the subtext as a spectator becomes the main way in which queerness can be uncovered within past texts that might at first glance be considered part of the heteronormative sphere. However, I intend to upend this notion by foregrounding the work being done by online video editors to reformulate one of the more traditional culture makers; Disney, through a re-contextualisation of their animated canon to create an exploration of lesbian desire. By analysing the aesthetic concerns of these videos, freely available on YouTube, from their jagged editing seams to their wide-ranging narrative paths, a link will emerge between amateur fan content and the queer spectator as an active participant rather than a passive watcher. I will take this link to its inevitable conclusion, that digital bodies severed from their original context prove fertile grounds for the next steps in the intersection of queer theory and fan studies.