Queer Externalities

W. C. Harris

Description

In television shows such as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and movies like Brokeback Mountain, as well as gay young adult novels and other media coverage of queer people—including the outing of several prominent Republicans—queer lives are becoming more visible in the media and in U.S. culture more generally. How does the increasing visibility of queer subjects within mainstream culture affect possibilities for radical and transformative queer activism? Provocative and challenging, W. C. Harris argues that rather than simply being a cause for celebration, this "mainstreaming" of queer lives may have as many negative effects as positive ones for contemporary gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. Harris builds on the work of queer and political theorists such as Eve Sedgwick, David Halperin, Michael Warner, and Wendy Brown to examine the side effects that can be generated when queers assimilate, and argues for a reinvigorated queer essentialism in order to claim a separate and visible political and activist space within U.S. culture.
Acknowledgments
Introduction: A Hazard of Queer Fortunes

1 At the End of the Rainbow: Q-topian Literature and the Lure of Apolitical Identities

2 “In my day it used to be called a limp wrist”: Flip-Floppers, Nelly Boys, and Homophobic Political Rhetoric

3 Queer Eye on the Prize: Homo Hands and the Activism of Camping

4 Broke(n)back Faggots: Hollywood Gives Queers a Hobson’s Choice

5 The IMs Are Coming from Inside the House: Recruitment, the Closet, and the Right

Conclusion: Like a Faggot from the Ashes

Notes
Works Cited
Index

Sujets

• Gay Studies
• History of film

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 10 septembre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438427676
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

QUEER EXTERNALITIES

hazardous encounters in american culture

w.c. harris

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Queer Externalities

SUNY series in Queer Politics and Cultures

Cynthia Burack and Jyl J. Josephson, editors

Queer Externalities

Hazardous Encounters in American Culture

W. C. Harris

Cover photography and design by Marie Hathaway.

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 Diane Ganeles Marketing by Fran Keneston

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Harris, W. C. (William Conley) Queer externalities : hazardous encounters in American culture / W. C. Harris. p. cm. — (SUNY series in queer politics and cultures) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4384-2751-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4384-2752-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Gays—United States—Social conditions. 2. Gay and lesbian studies— United States. 3. United States—Social conditions. I. Title.

HQ76.3.U5H3695 2009 306.76'60973—dc22

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2008048484

for Karl, with love and gratitude

“you married me for it”

It’s a very strange feeling. I’m not used to being hated.

—David Levithan,Boy Meets Boy

A people as chosen as gays are must erect a ghetto not so much for segregation as for concentration: to learn what gay is. . . . It is not rebellious sex habits that define us as much as the rebel coterie itself, the act of not bothering to adjust to gringo [straight] procedures.

—Ethan Mordden,Buddies

Acknowledgments

Contents

Introduction: A Hazard of Queer Fortunes

1

2

3

4

5

At the End of the Rainbow: Q-topian Literature and the Lure of Apolitical Identities

“In my day it used to be called a limp wrist”: Flip-Floppers, Nelly Boys, and Homophobic Political Rhetoric

Queer Eye on the Prize: Homo Hands and the Activism of Camping

Broke ( n ) backGives Queers a Hobson’sFaggots: Hollywood Choice

The IMs Are Coming from Inside the House: Recruitment, the Closet, and the Right

Conclusion: Like a Faggot from the Ashes

Notes

Works Cited

Index

vii

i

x

1

2

9

75

105

127

143

177

197

225

247

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