The Fosters In The Kids Are All Right

Deeply engaging with social issues, The Fosters’ ideological development departs from the quotidian inclusion in The Kids Are All Right. Visibility of lesbian characters in The Kids Are All Right is both apolitical and constrains queer visibility. Whereas The Fosters, albeit homonormative inclusion, effectively criticizes the ideological system that embeds the character narratives. Specifically, The Fosters’ meaningfully represents a family that is diverse and challenges the tropes of kinship. To illustrate, Lena alerts Stef to a racist comment she makes and follows up with an explanation of why her comment is problematic. Moreover, the episode explores the roots in the twin’s Latinx heritage and how this factors into their sense of familial belonging. These examples demonstrate The Fosters will to address institutional and personal struggles with identity formation and familial belonging. Offering a
This is a divisive strategy that aims to produce a consumable queer, fit for a mainstream audience. Subsequently, this strategy risks straight culture subsuming both lesbians and the queer community (Moody 2011). To subsume lesbian and queer culture would erode the common political identity that allows for community organization against heterosexism. Like bell hooks (1992) contends, “Communities of resistance are replaced by communities of consumption” (33). Effectively, the apolitical representation of lesbianism obliterates the movement’s historical allegiance to working class culture, butches, interracial socializing and feminism (Moody 2011). Both productions exemplify this shift from queer sexuality to homonomative-domestic lesbian, although The Kids Are All Right epitomizes this because it fails to acknowledge the oppressive culture and diverse identities. Homonormative representations normalized the broader lesbian community and foster