There’s no shortage of studies on the topic, such as this 2014 report in the Journal of Gay and Lesbian Mental Health, which emphasized the significance of ‘new media’ on identity development and coming-out processes for queer youth in particular the impact of YouTube videos and other social media in shaping individuals’ expectations and experiences of coming-out.Ĭomics may not be a ‘new media’, but they are an important form of media and the recent explosive growth in popularity of comics and graphic novels means that they too play an important role in shaping popular perceptions of queer identity. While coming-out experiences are shaped by a wide range of individualized factors, popular culture continues to exert a strong influence on how the coming-out process plays out. In a society which, for all its progress, remains heavily heteronormative, coming out often remains a fraught process. Two decades ago, Jen Bacon observed (in a 1998 article for the journal World Englishes) that “As stories about rhetorical selves, coming out narratives may also serve political functions”, especially in terms of identity management and community building. Nor should they - their importance transcends simply narrative qualities. Coming-out narratives have always comprised a core theme for queer comics and they show no sign of abating.
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