It’s odd, because it was often argued that disidentification occurred because of a lack of actual queer representation. What is new with this online phenomenon is that LGBT+ people are projecting queerness onto a broader range of ostensibly non-queer activities: not just cultural activities, but economic activities, consumption patterns, consumer goods, actions and even inactions (like not driving). Throughout history, queer people have become attached to non-queer figures, onto whom they project some facet of queerness (for example, it’s thought Judy Garland was beloved because she was so self-destructive, and hence embodied the queer art of failure). Stanning Carly Rae Jepsen is just a current example of a very old gay practice called ‘disidentification’, which occurs when queer people identify in great numbers with a non-queer piece of culture, e.g. A good place to start to understand queer stereotyping is with cultural figures, because there already exists significant academic literature on the subject.
