straightwashing
straightwashing – sostantivo
straightwash – verbo
If there’s a gold standard for “straightwashing,” the widely accepted term for erasing a queer character’s sexuality, it’s got to be what Hollywood did to John Constantine, the protagonist of the “Hellblazer” series.
In many parts of the world, straight-washing is practically mandated – as the Russian makers of a film about Tschaikovsky have found.
Though he claims the show doesn’t “straight-wash” anything, in reality, by the comments and marketing so far it seems very, very likely that it will in fact “straight-wash” a lot.
Our view of the animal kingdom is straight-washed as well: … biologists never bothered to sex couples of birds; they just assumed one was female, and the other male.
In un post precedente abbiamo parlato di farmwashing, ovvero la strategia adottata da certi supermercati di appropriarsi dell’immagine positiva, in chiave nostalgica, dell’agricoltura e della campagna, solo per profitto. Un altro neologismo creato con -washing è straightwashing, cioè il presentare al pubblico un personaggio reale o fittizio gay (o bisessuale), come eterosessuale. Gli esempi sono numerosi: da Ercole a Leonardo da Vinci, da Abramo Lincoln ad Alan Turing e all’eroe della serie televisiva Constantine.
Origini del termine
La prima citazione di straightwashing che sono riuscita a trovare risale al 2009; il motore di ricerca Google Ngram viewer, che permette di scoprire con quale frequenza una parola compare nei libri pubblicati tra il 1500 e il 2008 (per ora) e presenti in Google Books, non ha dato risultati. Come farmwashing, anche straightwashing è coniato per analogia con il termine greenwashing e ha la medesima connotazione negativa. Il termine è formato semplicemente aggiungendo l’aggettivo straight (nel significato di ‘eterosessuale’) ai suffissi -washing e -wash.
straightwashing – noun
straightwash – verb
If there’s a gold standard for “straightwashing,” the widely accepted term for erasing a queer character’s sexuality, it’s got to be what Hollywood did to John Constantine, the protagonist of the “Hellblazer” series.
In many parts of the world, straight-washing is practically mandated – as the Russian makers of a film about Tschaikovsky have found.
Though he claims the show doesn’t “straight-wash” anything, in reality, by the comments and marketing so far it seems very, very likely that it will in fact “straight-wash” a lot.
Our view of the animal kingdom is straight-washed as well: … biologists never bothered to sex couples of birds; they just assumed one was female, and the other male.
A few posts back I wrote about farmwashing, the attempt by supermarkets to co-opt farming’s positive image for their own commercial purposes. Another new (to me) -washing compound is straightwashing, the recasting of gay (or bisexual) figures from life or fiction as straight. Recently cited examples range from portrayals of the demigod Hercules in films and comic strips via historical figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, Abraham Lincoln and Alan Turing, to the demon-hunting comic book hero of the TV show Constantine.
Origins
The first use I have found of straightwashing dates from 2009; Google’s Ngram viewer, which searches books up to 2008, produces no result. Like farmwashing, straightwashing comes ultimately from whitewashing by way of greenwashing, the practice of firms that give their activities and products an environmentally-friendly veneer without actually changing their practices. It is formed simply by adding the adjective straight to the suffixes -washing and -wash.
