Hetero

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Description

Just as feminist scholars have turned to considerations of masculinity and scholars of race have begun to consider whiteness as a category, this collection brings the insights of queer theory to bear on cinematic representations of straightness. Spanning decades and cultures, from silent Hollywood films to modern Mumbai cinema, the essays in Hetero uncover multiple forms of heterosexual desire and demonstrate that heterosexuality is in fact a heavily contested terrain. Movies often become a place where one specific "heteronormative" ideal is upheld as proper, while other types of heterosexuality are denied or pathologized. By investigating how heterosexuality functions as a social construct, these essays deconstruct normative heterosexuality's simultaneous omnipresence and invisibility, effectively breaking down the barriers of sexual identity. Hetero offers a collective call to expand the ways in which queer theory is applied and put into practical use, and exposes the queer nature of the love that does dare speak its name.
List of Illustrations

Introduction
Sean Griffin

1. Stop the Wedding! William Haines and the Comedy of the Closet
Victoria Sturtevant

2. Flirting with Hetero Diversity: Film Promotion of A Free Soul
Mary Beth Haralovich

3. “Pintele” Queer: The Performance of Jewish Male Heterosexuality in Yiddish American Cinema of the Great Depression
David Lugowski

4. Straight Heroes with Queer Inclinations: Male Film Stars in the Swedish 1930s
Louise Wallenberg

5. Putting ’Em Down Like a Man: Eleanor Powell and the Spectacle of Competence
Adrienne L. McLean

6. Turned Inside/Out: Violent Inversions of Heterosexuality in Vincente Minnelli’s Home from the Hill
David A. Gerstner

7. Mispronouncing “Man and Wife”: The Fate of Marriage in Hollywood’s Sexual Revolution
Michael DeAngelis

8. Hetero-nation: Toward a “New and Improved” Global Public Image
Bhaskar Sarkar

9. Time Crisis and the New Postfeminist Heterosexual Economy
Diane Negra

10. “Are You Saying My Son Is a Bitch Boy?”: The Perilously Achieved Hegemonic Masculinity of Ben Stiller
Kevin Heffernan

11. “Fuck Boy Meets Girl”: Heterosexual Aspirations and Masculine Interests in the World of Quentin Tarantino
Allan Campbell

12. A Straight Cowboy Movie: Heterosexuality According to Brokeback Mountain
Harry M. Benshoff

Works Cited
List of Contributors
Index

Sujets

• Película fotográfica
• Popular culture
• Visual culture
• History of film
• Gender studies
• Film

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 07 mai 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438426389
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 51 Mo

Extrait

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Hetero

Also in the series

William Rothman, editor,Cavell on Film

J. David Slocum, editor,Rebel Without a Cause

Joe McElhaney,The Death of Classical Cinema

Kirsten Thompson,Apocalyptic Dread

Francis Gateward, editor,Seoul Searching

Michael Atkinson, editor,Exile Cinema

Bert Cardullo,Soundings on Cinema

Paul S. Moore,Now Playing

Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann, editors, Ecology and Popular Film

William Rothman, editor,Three Documentary Filmmakers

Hetero

Queering Representations of Straightness

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Edited by Sean Griffin

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2009 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu

Production by Marilyn P. Semerad Marketing by Anne M. Valentine

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hetero : queering representations of straightness / edited by Sean Griffin.  p. cm. — (SUNY series, horizons of cinema)  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 978-1-4384-2617-4 (hbk. : alk. paper)  ISBN 978-1-4384-2618-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)  1. Heterosexuality in motion pictures. 2. Motion pictures—United States—History. I. Griffin, Sean.

PN1995.9.H45H48 2009 791.43'653—dc22

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2008028298

List of Illustrations

Introduction Sean Griffin

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 2.  3.

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 5.

Contents

Stop the Wedding! William Haines and the Comedy of the Closet Victoria Sturtevant

Flirting with Hetero Diversity: Film Promotion of A Free Soul Mary Beth Haralovich

“Pintele” Queer: The Performance of Jewish Male Heterosexuality in Yiddish American Cinema of the Great Depression David Lugowski

Straight Heroes with Queer Inclinations: Male Film Stars in the Swedish 1930s Louise Wallenberg

Putting ’Em Down Like a Man: Eleanor Powell and the Spectacle of Competence Adrienne L. McLean

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Contents

Turned Inside/Out: Violent Inversions of Heterosexuality in Vincente Minnelli’sHome from the Hill David A. Gerstner

Mispronouncing “Man and Wife”: The Fate of Marriage in Hollywood’s Sexual Revolution Michael DeAngelis

Hetero-nation: Toward a “New and Improved” Global Public Image Bhaskar Sarkar

Time Crisis and the New Postfeminist Heterosexual Economy Diane Negra

“Are You Saying My Son Is a Bitch Boy?”: The Perilously Achieved Hegemonic Masculinity of Ben Stiller Kevin Heffernan

“Fuck Boy Meets Girl”: Heterosexual Aspirations and Masculine Interests in the World of Quentin Tarantino Allan Campbell

12. A Straight Cowboy Movie: Heterosexuality According  toBrokeback Mountain Harry M. Benshoff Works Cited

List of Contributors

Index

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Cover. Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4.

Figure 5. Figure 6.

Illustrations

Uma Thurman as the Bride inKill Bill (2003–04). Photo courtesy of A Band Apart/Miramax/Kobal Collection

A worried David (Johnny Mack Brown) and an intrigued Diana (Greta Garbo) in their honeymoon bed inA Woman of Affairs (1928) Photo courtesy of MGM/The Kobal Collection

An autographed publicity photo of William Haines, circa 1930 Author’s personal collection

Advertisement forA Free Soul, Photoplay inside back cover (August 1931)

Itke (Molly Picon), in male disguise as Yidl, yearns for athletic Froim (Leon Liebgold) inYidl mitn Fidl (1936) Photo courtesy of the Archives of YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York

Gosta Ekman as Sigge Wulf inBrokiga blad(Colorful Leaves, 1931) Author’s personal collection

Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell dance to “Begin to Beguine” inBroadway Melody of 1940 (1940) Author’s personal collection

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Illustrations

Hannah (Eleanor Parker) and son Theron (George Hamilton) square off among the manly accoutrements in the den of Wade Hunnicutt (Robert Mitchum) inHome from the Hill (1960) 121

Sandy (Art Garfunkel) and Jonathan (Jack Nicholson) inCarnal Knowledge (1971) Photo courtesy of Springer/Photofest

Swapna (Kajol) and her uncle Vicky Nath (Anupam Kher) inDilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995)

Cover ofNewsweek (April 24, 2006)

Jack (Robert DeNiro) gauges the appropriateness of Greg/Gaylord (Ben Stiller) as his daughter’s fiancée inMeet the Parents (2000) Author’s personal collection

Uma Thurman as the Bride inKill Bill (2003–2004) Photo courtesy of A Band Apart/Miramax/Kobal Collection

Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhall) inBrokeback Mountain (2005) Author’s personal collection

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