Queer youth suicide: Discourses of difference, framing suicidality, and the regimentation of identity

Résumé

In this chapter, the author explores the issue of suicide and suicidal behaviour among queer (i.e., nonheterosexual and non–gender normative) youth. Drawing on dominant representations of queer youth suicide in popular culture as well as in mainstream suicidology, he offers an original and powerful critique informed by poststructural analysis. Arguing that current explanatory frameworks are often dated, oversimplified, and limited, he offers some fresh alternatives. Specifically, he suggests that rather than continuing to focus narrowly on preventing suicide among queer youth, it might be more productive to shift attention to “how sexual subjectivity is produced through narrow discourses that continue to posit a heterosexual norm and a tolerated homosexual other.” GENRE HOMME FEMME ADOLESCENT HOMOSEXUALITÉ CINÉMA MÉDIA DÉPRESSION IDENTITÉ-SEXUELLE MARGINALISATION PERCEPTION-SOCIALE