Christopher Patterson

My research examined gender nonbinary Indigenous, Black and people of colour (IBPOC) experiences with violence and answers two questions: 1) How do you perceive and understand violence? and 2) How does violence affect your relationships (e.g., friendships, family, intimate partner(s) or colleagues and supervisors)? Participant responses filled in gaps in the literature and provided cultural recommendations on changing how cisgender white groups receive, interpret, and express knowledge on the stories of gender nonbinary IBPOC encountering violence. My theoretical framework includes intersectionality, queer of colour, and trans of colour critique and identified patterns that emerged from the information collected. I reviewed literature by scholars whose work is grounded in gender, race, sexuality studies, including Atmospheres of Violence by Eric A. Stanley (2021), The Sense of Brown by José Esteban Muñoz (2020), Trans Exploits by Jian Neo Chen (2019), The Colonial Problem by Lisa Monchalin (2016), Violence Against Queer People by Doug Meyer (2015), and Aberrations in Black by Roderick A. Ferguson (2004). The work of these scholars supported my literature review and information analysis process. I conducted four semi-structured interviews in the format of storytelling online over Zoom. This study interpreted the experiences of one Indigenous (not specified), Black (Somalian), Middle Eastern (not specified) and agender neutral/non gender affirming participant; one Black (Puerto Rican-American) and androgynous/trans/non-binary participant; one Indigenous (Métis) and trans-mask/nonbinary/left-of-centre leaning participant; and one person of colour (South Asian-European) and nonbinary; three of who had a university degree. All four participants experienced interpersonal and collective violence, and one of the encountered self-directed violence. The study findings revealed challenges amongst participants of intersectional identities and their experiences with violence. The four key themes that emerged from this research are 1) microaggressions 2) gender-based violence, 3) family and relations, and 4) workspace and educational settings. The analysis of findings and key themes are detailed in the discussion chapter and supported by the theoretical framework and research literature.

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Since the mid-2000s, Korean popular music (K-pop) has continued to rise in popularity in Western countries like the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada. As such, Western academic and media discourse on K-pop has revolved around finding answers to explain K-pop’s meteoric and continued rise in popularity in the West since Psy’s viral hit “Gangnam Style” in 2013. However, these analyses often conclude that the reasons for K-pop’s popularity are due to idol groups’ catchy dance routines and pop music that blends Korean and English lyrics with Western musical styles. Although, many critique K-pop’s blend of musical styles, particularly Black musical traditions of hip-hop and rap as ‘inauthentic’. However, K-pop scholarship within cultural, media, and Asia American studies argue that K-pop should be considered as ‘hybrid’ to acknowledge its political and cultural history in addition to the complex ways it is translated transnationally by racialized individuals. Drawing upon scholarship in the disciplines of queer, critical race, media, Asian American and fan studies, this thesis aims to further current discourse on K-pop’s hybridity by exploring the ways K-pop is translated as ‘Asiatic’ and queer, which brings K-pop’s Asianish and campy aesthetics to the forefront. Often missing from the conversation, this thesis centers around transnational queer and Asian K-pop fans to highlight the transformative ways the Asiatic as a queer space facilitates Asiatic disidentifications of K-pop. Theorized by Christopher Patterson, the Asiatic refers to a “style or form recognize as Asianish but [remains] adaptable, fluid, and outside of the authentic/inauthentic binary” (2020, p. 29). In this way, K-pop facilitates a queer space within online fandoms to ‘play’ along with K-pop idolsthrough the process of Asiatic disidentification to challenge and navigate dominant culture. Considering the Covid-19 pandemic, this thesis argues that it is imperative to explore how K-pop and idols are translated by Western social institutions that continue to exacerbate anti-Asian racism. In addition, this thesis considers the ways queer K-pop fans’ translations of K-pop occur within a heteronormative and patriarchal framework in and outside of countries like South Korea as 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals continue to face disproportionate violence and death globally.

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