Abstract
Canadian zine J.D.s is often credited with ‘inventing’ homo- or queercore, a queer punk movement emerging in the 1980s in critical altercation with punk and gay movements. By investigating the aesthetic strategies employed in the hard-core pin-ups—a photo/collage work that appeared in the publication’s first issue (1985)—this chapter will trace, how J.D.s contributed to challenging hegemonic representations and subject positions in punk. I argue that these strategies—bricolage, irony, and playing with the gaze—also work together to create queer utopian notions of punk collectivity and subjectivity. Classic concepts from (British) cultural studies analysing punk’s politics of style (e.g. Hall et al., 1975; Hebdige in Subculture: The meaning of style. Routledge, London, 1979) must be queered to read the hard-core pin-ups: by employing concepts from queer theory and feminist film theory.
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Notes
- 1.
I should add here that I can access these photocopied qualities of the image/zine only via my digitized version of it.
- 2.
In email conversation, G.B. Jones confirmed that she did all the stencil spray painting for J.D.s.
- 3.
See e.g. J.D.s, No. 5, n.p. and No. 7, n.p.
- 4.
See e.g. J.D.s, No. 5, n.p. and No. 7, n.p.
- 5.
I can’t help but also detect some resemblance to the pop star posters in teen magazines within these pin-ups.
- 6.
G.B. Jones, in email conversation, explained that they had played in Toronto, where J.D.s collaborator Tab Twain took the picture.
- 7.
Such expansions can, for example, occur when political and social discourses yield new representations/images that in turn become absorbed by the screen (see Engel, 2008: 150).
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Beyer, A.I. (2020). The Queer Punk Visions of J.D.s. In: Guerra, P., Quintela, P. (eds) Punk, Fanzines and DIY Cultures in a Global World. Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures and Popular Music. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28876-1_8
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