Eastern others: Homonationalism in the Flemish press. (October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Dhoest, Alexander
• Is Part Of: International communication gazette. Volume 83:Number 6(2021)
• Page Start: 616
• Page End: 635
• Publication Date: 2021-10
• Subjects: Flanders -- discourse -- homonationalism -- bisexual, lesbian -- gay -- transgender and queer rights -- newspapers -- Russia; Journalism -- Periodicals; Mass media -- Periodicals; 384
• DOI: 10.1177/1748048520918495
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1748-0485

Abstract

Jasbir Puar introduced the notion of 'homonationalism' to describe the increasing acceptance of sexual minorities in Western nations, leading to their incorporation in the national in-group which is increasingly opposed to homophobic 'others'. While Muslims constitute the main out-group, other groups and nations are also targeted, in particular Russia and related countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Such discourses create a binary opposition between two homogenized parties, the uniformly LGBTQ-friendly in-group versus the uniformly homophobic 'other'. While the literature on homonationalism mostly discusses politics in the U.S. and a number of other nation-states, this article explores homonationalism in a smaller sub-national region in Western Europe, Flanders, focusing on the press as a tool for spreading homonationalist discourse. Exploring three months of Flemish newspapers, this article identifies some instances of explicit homonationalism but more implicit homonationalism which does not explicitly mention the in-group but does paint a one-sided picture of Russia and related countries as homophobic.