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Out in Culture

Gay, Lesbian and Queer Essays on Popular Culture

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Pages: 544

Illustrations: 41 b&w photographs

Published: April 1995

Editors: Corey K. Creekmur, Alexander Doty

Contributors: Robin Wood, Edith Becker, Chris Straayer, Al LaValley, Patricia White, Valerie Traub, Sabrina Barton, Rhona Berenstein, Lucretia Knapp, Michael Moon, Thomas Waugh, Heather Findlay, Nayland Blake, Jan Zita Grover, Bruce La Bruce, Essex Hemphill, Richard Dyer, Arlene Stein, Michael Musto, Anthony Thomas, Mark Thompson, Jeffrey Hilbert, Marlon Riggs, Danae Clark, Alexander Doty, Michelle Citron, Julia Lesage, B. Ruby Rich

Out in Culture charts some of the ways in which lesbians, gays, and queers have understood and negotiated the pleasures and affirmations, as well as the disappointments, of mass culture. The essays collected here, combining critical and theoretical works from a cross-section of academics, journalists, and artists, demonstrate a rich variety of gay and lesbian approaches to film, television, popular music, and fashion. This wide-ranging anthology is the first to juxtapose pioneering work in gay and lesbian media criticism with recent essays in contemporary queer cultural studies.
Uniquely accessible, Out in Culture presents such popular writers as B. Ruby Rich, Essex Hemphill, and Michael Musto as well as influential critics such as Richard Dyer, Chris Straayer, and Julia Lesage, on topics ranging from the queer careers of Agnes Moorehead and Pee Wee Herman to the cultural politics of gay drag, lesbian style, the visualization of AIDS, and the black snap! queen experience. Of particular interest are two "dossiers," the first linking essays on the queer content of Alfred Hitchcock’s films, and the second on the production and reception of popular music within gay and lesbian communities. The volume concludes with an extensive bibliography—the most comprehensive currently available—of sources in gay, lesbian, and queer media criticism.
Out in Culture explores the distinctive and original ways in which gays, lesbians, and queers have experienced, appropriated, and resisted the images and artifacts of popular culture. This eclectic anthology will be of interest to a broad audience of general readers and scholars interested in gay and lesbian issues; students of film, media, gender, and cultural studies; and those interested in the emerging field of queer theory.

Contributors. Sabrina Barton, Edith Becker, Rhona J. Berenstein, Nayland Blake, Michelle Citron, Danae Clark, Corey K. Creekmur, Alexander Doty, Richard Dyer, Heather Findlay, Jan Zita Grover, Essex Hemphill, John Hepworth, Jeffrey Hilbert, Lucretia Knapp, Bruce La Bruce, Al LaValley, Julia Lesage, Michael Moon, Michael Musto, B. Ruby Rich, Marlon Riggs, Arlene Stein, Chris Straayer, Anthony Thomas, Mark Thompson, Valerie Traub, Thomas Waugh, Patricia White, Robin Wood

Praise

“[A] significant contribution to the important field of queerness in popular culture.” - Lauri Mullens , International Gay and Lesbian Review

"Out in Culture is out at last! Professors: cast aside your tattered old photocopies of the classic queer pop essays. General readers: fasten your seat belts; its going to be a bumpy night. In the spirit of Bette Davis (with sidekicks like Agnes Morehead and Pee Wee Herman), Creekmur and Doty take us on a wild ride through the pioneering work of 70s gay and lesbian criticism to the most recent essays in queer cultural studies." - Constance Penley, University of California, Santa Barbara

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Table Of Contents Rights Additional Information

Table Of Contents

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Introduction / Corey K. Creekmur and Alexander Doty 1

Responsibilities of a Gay Film Critic / Robin Wood 12

Lesbians and Films / Edith Becker, Michelle Citron, Julia Lesage, and B. Ruby Rich 25

The Hypothetical Lesbian Heroine in Narrative Feature Film / Chris Straayer 44

The Great Escape / Al LaValley 60

There's Something Queer Here / Alexander Doty 71

Supporting Character: The Queer Career of Agnes Moorehead / Patricia White 91

The Ambiguities of "Lesbian" Viewing Pleasure: The (Dis)articulations of Black Widow / Valerie Traub 115

Acting Like a Man: Masculine Performance in My Darling Clementine / Corey K. Creekmur 167

Dossier on Hitchcock / Introduction by Alexander Doty 183

Hitchcock's Homophobia / John Hepworth (with "Letter to the Editor" by Robin Wood and "Response" by John Hepworth) 186

The Murderous Gays: Hitchcock's Homophobia / Robin Wood 197

"Crisscross": Paranoia and Projection in Strangers on a Train / Sabrina Barton 216

"I'm not the sort of person men marry": Monsters, Queers, and Hitchcock's Rebecca / Rhona J. Berenstein 239

The Queer Voice in Marnie / Lucretia Knapp 262

Flaming Closets / Michael Moon 282

Men's Pornography: Gay vs. Straight / Thomas Waugh 307

Freud's "Fetishism" and the Lesbian Dildo Debates / Heather Findlay 328

Tom of Finland: An Appreciation / Nayland Blake 343

Visible Lesions: Images of the PWA / Jan Zita Grover 354

Pee Wee Herman: The Homosexual Subtext / Bruce La Bruce 382

In Living Color: Toms, Coons, Mammies, Faggots, and Bucks / Essex Hemphill 389

Dossier on Popular Music / Introduction by Corey K. Creekmur 403

In Defense of Disco / Richard Dyer 407

Crossover Dreams: Lesbianism and Popular Music since the 1970s / Arlene Stein 416

Immaculate Connection / Michael Musto 427

The House the Kids Built: The Gay Black Imprint on American Dance Music / Anthony Thomas 437

Children of Paradise: A Brief History of Queens / Mark Thompson 447

The Politics of Drag / Jeffrey Hilbert 463

Black Macho Revisited: Reflections of a Snap! Queen / Marlon Riggs 470

All Dressed Up But No Place to Go? Style Wars and the New Lesbianism / Arlene Stein 476

Commodity Lesbianism / Danae Clark 484

Gay, Lesbian, and Queer Popular Culture Bibliography 501

Acknowledgments of Copyright 525

Contributors 528

Index 531

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Paper ISBN: 978-0-8223-1541-4 / Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-8223-1532-2 / eISBN: 978-0-8223-9744-1 / DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822397441

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