Deaf Queer world-making: A thick intersectional analysis of the mediated cultural body

ABSTRACT

Nyle DiMarco, a Deaf, sexually fluid celebrity, helps audiences reimagine ways of being through mediated representations of his cultural body. Within the framework of a critical intercultural communication study and through a thick intersectional approach, we analyze DiMarco’s personae as texts across three TV shows: America’s Next Top Model, Dancing with the Stars, and Difficult People. First, we attend to his moments of sexual fluidity. Next, we attend to his moments of Deaf Gain. Finally, we attend to his character’s denouncing of the hearing homonormative. Through each performance, a Deaf Queer world-making is conjured, offering discursive possibilities beyond the normative.

KEYWORDS:

• American Sign Language
• critical intercultural communication
• fluid sexuality
• Nyle DiMarco
• reality television

ORCID

Shane T. Moreman http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6595-2761