ABSTRACT

This article discusses the ‘Netflix imaginary’ and how it shapes our understanding of queer taste and legibility in contemporary visual culture. While Netflix has promoted itself as a bastion of LGBTQ inclusivity and other forms of ‘diversity’, this article considers the platform not on the basis of celebrated LGBTQ ‘Netflix Originals’ such as Sex Education or Queer Eye but rather on how our navigations of the platform’s content throw our queer attachments and recommendations into pleasurable chaos. If the ‘Netflix imaginary’ is built around personalisation – that is, the promise of knowledge and insight – it more often generates bewilderment and surprise. But the article argues that this uncanny algorithmic meddling also has the potential to generate its own source of fun, entertainment and queer pleasure. By analysing what consumers are led to understand of the site’s dependence on and commitment to collaborative filtering, algorithmic signposting and customer agency and choice, I consider how we might employ a queer method for engaging subversively with Netflix’s representational inconsistencies and inadequacies – how we might see Netflix itself as a queer method for reconfiguring queer taste.

摘要

本文讨论了“Netflix 想象”以及它如何塑造我们对当代视觉文化中酷儿品味和易读性的理解。虽然 Netflix 将自己宣传为 LGBTQ 包容性和其他形式“多样性”的堡垒，但本文认为该平台并非基于《性教育》或《粉雄救兵》等著名的 LGBTQ“Netflix原创作品”而是我们对平台内容的导航如何将我们的酷儿附件和推荐陷入令人愉快的混乱。如果“Netflix 想象”是围绕个性化（即知识和洞察力的承诺）构建的，那么它通常会产生困惑和惊喜。但文章认为，这种不可思议的算法干预也有可能产生自己的乐趣、娱乐和酷儿快乐的来源。通过分析消费者对网站对协作过滤、算法路标以及客户代理和选择的依赖和承诺的理解，我考虑了我们如何采用酷儿方法来颠覆性地解决 Netflix 的代表性不一致和不足之处——我们如何看待Netflix 本身就是一种重新配置酷儿品味的酷儿方法。