Beyond Binary Coping: Embodiments of Mutual Care in Queer Screen Cultures

Abstract

Coping with insidious trauma is a daily reality for many queer and feminized people. Research on coping and North American culture often normalizes ineffective Eurocentric coping models, compounding stressors for this marginalized population. Queer screen cultures departing from individualistic visibility present an expansive perspective, framing coping as mutual care through aesthetic devices and embodied performances. Drawing from corporeal feminist theories of embodiment, queer approaches to trauma, and art politics, this research reconceptualizes coping beyond binary notions. Supported by a performance studies analysis of queer media and literature, the resulting beyond binary coping theory fills gaps in coping research, enhances embodied care ethics, and offers a queer coping archive for broader application.