Abstract

This session at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA 2025) annual conference explores the relationship between queer and trans cultural productions and the politics of censorship and obscenity.

Description

This panel will examine how mechanisms of censorship have affected the publication, dissemination, creation, and reception of cultural productions (broadly defined) from queer and trans authors and creators. Queer and trans cultural productions exist at the complex intersection of artistic expression, legal frameworks, and moral panics. From historical forms of censorship to contemporary struggles for representation, these cultural works function as sites of knowledge production, resistance, and community building. Panelists will discuss innovative approaches to understanding the ways between queer and trans creators navigate and transform regulatory systems of censorship.

Possible Panel Topics may include, but are not limited to:

- Legal contexts that create atmospheres of self-censorship

- The role of governing bodies (such as the Comics Code Authority and MPAA) in setting the standards for obscenity

- The role of underground publishers and zine cultures in circulating obscene literature

- Negotiating broadcast standards in queer and trans television representations

- Young adult literature with queer and trans characters facing school district challenges and bans

- Social media platform policies on gender and sexual expression

- Content moderation algorithms and their impact on creators

- Drag performance bans

- Histories of public decency laws and their impact on queer and trans art

- Recent attempts at banning pornography and pornographic publishers through age verification laws

- How queer and trans creators respond to claims of obscenity

- Queer and trans archive building as resistance to institutional erasure

Please submit a 200-word abstract to Matthew Mills at mmil427@lsu.edu by July 1.