In Stuart Hall’s “Encoding, Decoding” the cultural theorist discusses the relationship between producer and consumer during circulation and distribution of media, and the relationship between what the producer encodes into the media piece and what the consumer decodes from it. (1) An example of this that I believe fits into this discussion is that of the subtext found in many TV shows and movies between characters of the same gender, and the resulting interpretations of fans. For those unfamiliar, queer coding characters in cinema and television has been around for a long time. The idea of queer coding characters came into being in the 1950s, with the introduction of “the Hays Code”, a response to the criticisms of “immorality” at the time. This meant that filmmakers could not put explicitly queer characters into their content, so they took to expressing it through characters’ mannerisms and subtext. (2)/(3)
Nowadays, this is often done unintentionally. Much of this decoding comes from LGBTQ+ consumers recognising many themes, circumstances and actions that characters display or go through that many members of the community can relate to being apart of their own experiences. This decoding stemming from their own social context. This is not however always the intention of the creators, with a few of the cast members themselves “[dismissing] that segment of the audience” (4).
A recent example of this that I have witnessed myself is on the CW network television show Supergirl with two of its characters, Kara Danvers — the main character of the series — and Lena Luthor. Many of the interactions and behaviours between the two women have been interpreted by some fans to be romantic, however this particular decoding is not in fact what the creators were intending, or encoded. There is a lot of subtext that these fans pick up on, with Kara’s behaviours towards Lena often highly resembling that of which with her male love interests (to the interpretation of these fans), that has not been put there purposefully on the part of the creator. This is a fact that the producers of the show have been clear about, though that does not really stop fans from continuing to decode the characters in this way — just showing the contrast between what is encoded and what is decoded, and how powerful decoding can be. While certain fans translate these moments between the two characters to be romantic in nature, the message the producers intent for is that of a close friendship between the two women.
This particular case of decoding often extends into a “participatory culture”, as consumers take agency in serving a collective interest for more diverse representation of sexuality in the media. (5)
(1) Hall, Stuart. The Cultural Studies Reader, Ch. 6 Encoding, decoding. Routledge, 1993.
(2) “Queer Representation in Film and Television.” Media Smarts. http://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/media-issues/diversity-media/queer-representation/queer-representation-film-television. Accessed 30 September 2018.
(3) Ennis, Tricia. “The Strange, Difficult History of Queer Coding.” Syfywire, 8 June 2018, https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/the-strange-difficult-history-of-queer-coding. Accessed 30 September 2018.
(4) Burlingame, Russ. “Katie McGrath on How ‘Supergirl’ Courts Controversy and the SuperCorp Shippers.” comicbook/dc, 16 October 2017, https://comicbook.com/dc/2017/10/17/katie-mcgrath-on-how-supergirl-courts-controversy-and-the-superc/. Accessed 30 September 2018.
(5) Jenkins, Henry, et al. Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture, Introduction: Why Media Spreads. New York University Press, 2013.