• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Towleroad Gay News

Gay Blog Towleroad: More than gay news | gay men

  • Travel
  • Sports
  • Law/Justice
  • Celebrities
  • Republicans
  • Madonna
  • Books
  • Men
  • Trans Rights
  • Royals
  • Monkeypox
  • Sophia Bush’s girlfriend ‘proud’ the actress has opened up about coming out as queer
  • Mel B declares she’ll ‘always be open’ when it comes to her sexuality!
  • Megan Thee Stallion being sued for ‘forcing cameraman watch her having lesbian sex!’

Yale Professor: Buttigieg ‘TIME’ Cover is ‘a Vision of Heterosexuality Without Straight People’ or Women

Towleroad May 24, 2019 Leave a Comment

Greta LaFleur, an Associate Professor of American Studies at Yale who identifies as ‘queer' and a self-described “angry homosexual” on Twitter, has offered a take on the Pete and Chasten Buttigieg TIME magazine cover in the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Writes LaFleur: “This photo also tells a profound story about whiteness, above and beyond the fact that almost everything in this photo is, itself, white. It's such an all-consuming aesthetic, here, that it practically resists interpretation; like the generically familiar (to me, a white person) porch, the cover photo claims that there's nothing to see, because we already know what it is. We have seen this image, we know this couple, ‘we' should be comfortable. My ‘we' is particular to me, but then again, I am more or less exactly who this photo is aimed at. As a queer person, I also notice the quasi-uniform-like aesthetic of Pete and Chasten — I wondered, for a second, if they were actually wearing the same pair of pants — marveling for a moment at the sartorial doppel-banging that at first seems to claim center stage in this photo, before realizing that, instead, there's actually no sex at center stage, here. And that is part of the point.”

LaFleur argues of the “structural power” image: “one of its defining features is its heterosexuality. It's offering us the promise that our first gay first family might actually be a straight one.”

She goes on to argue that the image co-opts an idea of “family” usually reserved for conservatives as the “antidote to the homosexual” and asks, “is this homonormativity? Or just heterosexuality? If straight people can be queer — as so many of them seem so impatient to explain to me — can't gay people also be straight?”

The Buttigieg's clothing, the tulips, the porch, everything in the photo, “the awkwardly minimal touching that invokes the most uncomfortable, unfamiliar, culturally-heterosexual embrace any of us have ever received — offers a vision of heterosexuality without straight people,” LaFleur adds.

LaFleur notes that Pete and Chasten, despite their “heterosexual” coding, will probably face an extreme amount of homophobia and argues that “heterosexuality has become portable” – its latest incarnation, apparently, in this image. And it's a heterosexuality that doesn't include women.

Topics: Books, Politics, towleroad More Posts About: 2020 Election, 2020 Election, Greta LaFleur, Pete Buttigieg, TIME magazine

Related Posts
  • Pete Buttigieg Net Worth: A Closer Look at His Finances
  • Buttigieg: Republicans target LGBTQ people because they ‘don’t want to talk about’ their ‘radical positions’
  • Mike Pence Refuses To Apologize For Homophobic Maternity Leave Joke Directed At Pete Buttigieg
  • Mel B declares she’ll ‘always be open’ when it comes to her sexuality!

    Mel B declares she’ll ‘always be open’ when it comes to her sexuality!

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Mel B will “always be open” when it comes to her sexuality. The Spice Girls singer, 48, who reunited with her bandmates including the group's ex-singer Victoria Beckham for the fashion …Read More »
  • Megan Thee Stallion being sued for ‘forcing cameraman watch her having lesbian sex!’

    Megan Thee Stallion being sued for ‘forcing cameraman watch her having lesbian sex!’

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Megan Thee Stallion is being sued for allegedly creating a hostile work environment and forcing her cameraman to watch her having lesbian sex. The 29-year-old ‘Savage' rapper faces the salacious claims …Read More »
  • Mean Girls star Jonathan Bennett recalls the moment his life ‘changed forever’

    Mean Girls star Jonathan Bennett recalls the moment his life ‘changed forever’

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Jonathan Bennett's life was “changed forever” by his role in ‘Mean Girls'. The 42-year-old actor starred as heartthrob Aaron Samuels in the 2004 cult classic – which followed Lindsay Lohan, Rachel …Read More »
  • Sir Elton John sent Lance Bass gift basket to celebrate coming out

    Sir Elton John sent Lance Bass gift basket to celebrate coming out

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Sir Elton John sent Lance Bass a gift basket after he came out as gay. The 44-year-old NSYNC star revealed the legendary singer showed his support when Lance decided to reveal …Read More »
Previous Post: « Theresa May Resigns as British Prime Minister Over Brexit Revolt: WATCH
Next Post: Sultan of Brunei Returns Honorary Oxford Degree After Backlash Over Anti-Gay Stoning Law »

Primary Sidebar

Most Recent

  • Sophia Bush’s girlfriend ‘proud’ the actress has opened up about coming out as queer

    Sophia Bush’s girlfriend ‘proud’ the actress has opened up about coming out as queer

  • Mel B declares she’ll ‘always be open’ when it comes to her sexuality!

    Mel B declares she’ll ‘always be open’ when it comes to her sexuality!

  • Megan Thee Stallion being sued for ‘forcing cameraman watch her having lesbian sex!’

    Megan Thee Stallion being sued for ‘forcing cameraman watch her having lesbian sex!’

  • Mean Girls star Jonathan Bennett recalls the moment his life ‘changed forever’

    Mean Girls star Jonathan Bennett recalls the moment his life ‘changed forever’

  • Sir Elton John sent Lance Bass gift basket to celebrate coming out

    Sir Elton John sent Lance Bass gift basket to celebrate coming out

  • Relationship status influences heterosexual women’s sexual prejudice towards lesbians

    Relationship status influences heterosexual women’s sexual prejudice towards lesbians

  • JoJo Siwa had a challenge transitioning to new grown-up image

    JoJo Siwa had a challenge transitioning to new grown-up image

  • Liz Hurley defends lesbian sex scene in new movie that was directed by her son

    Liz Hurley defends lesbian sex scene in new movie that was directed by her son

Partner Links

  • WATCH: ‘And Just Like That’ cast breaks down their best looks, from ‘Sex and The City’ to now
    Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Nicole Ari Parker, Sarita […]
  • Oh No, The O.J. Simpson Slow Car Chase
    ON June 17, 1994, I was riveted to the television set […]
  • “Lewis Hamilton is so sorry about running over a groundhog in Canada” links
    Lewis Hamilton is so sorry he ran over a groundhog at […]
  • What if Princess Kate’s wardrobe issues are really a staffing issue?
    Here are more photos from the Order of the Garter service […]
  • Logo Legend Jinkx Monsoon’s surprise witchy dinner with Michelle Visage, Kathryn Hahn, DeLa & more
    BenDeLaCreme, Alok, Anania, Chris Klemens & Murray Hill join this year’s […]

Most Commented

Social

Twitter @tlrd | Facebook | Instagram @tlrd

About

  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy
[towleroadmr] [towleroadtn]

Footer

Ptown Hacks 2018

Read

  • Travel
  • Film
  • Law – LGBT Rights
  • Columns
  • Specials

About

  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 · Log in

×
×