Queer Representation in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) Media Essay (Essay Sample)

Queer Representation in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
Name
Institution Affiliation
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) casts Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of a music band known as Queen. The film revolves around the life Freddie, as a bisexual man. This paper argues that Freddie’s sexuality forms the basis of his discriminated by society forcing him to conform to society’s notion of heterosexuality. His swift and anonymous liaisons with gay men and other acts of promiscuity are punished when he is finally diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.
The film presents Freddie as being a gay man, yet many accounts in the film confirm that he was bisexual. For instance, Freddie falls in love with Mary Austin, proposes, and even composes loves songs for her. However, when Freddie comes back home from a long music tour overseas, he confesses to his ex-fiancée Mary that he is bisexual. Mary responds by telling Freddie that he is gay. The scene feeds into the conservative notion of society that sexuality is a dichotomy of straight and gay. By the fact that Freddie’s soul mate, Mary, tells Freddie that he is gay, yet they have been in a romantic relationship for many years, cements a heteronormative perspective of queerness. The binary between heterosexual and queer lifestyle is also exhibited in the scene where Freddie requests his bandmate Roger to stay for dinner. Roger turns down the offer on account of rushing to his wife and kids. Roger’s response clearly emphasizes his straight lifestyle responsibilities of family in contrast to Freddie’s lonely life as a queer man.