Freaks Talk Back: Tabloid Talk Shows and Sexual Nonconformity

by Joshua Gamson

Overview

Using extensive interviews, hundreds of transcripts, focus-group discussions with viewers, and his own experiences as an audience member, Joshua Gamson argues that talk shows give much-needed, high-impact public visibility to sexual nonconformists while also exacerbating all sorts of political tensions among those becoming visible. With wit and passion, Freaks Talk Back illuminates the joys, dilemmas, and practicalities of media visibility.

"This entertaining, accessible, sobering discussion should make every viewer sit up and ponder the effects and possibilities of America's daily talk-fest with newly sharpened eyes."—Publishers Weekly

"Bold, witty. . . . There's a lot of empirical work behind this deceptively easy read, then, and it allows for the most sophisticated and complex analysis of talk shows yet."—Elayne Rapping, Women's Review of Books

"Funny, well-researched, fully theorized. . . . Engaged and humane scholarship. . . . A pretty inspiring example of what talking back to the mass media can be."—Jesse Berrett, Village Voice

"An extraordinarily well-researched volume, one of the most comprehensive studies of popular media to appear in this decade."—James Ledbetter, Newsday

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226280639
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	02/13/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	295
File size:	709 KB

About the Author

Joshua Gamson is professor of sociology at the University of San Francisco. His research and teaching focus on the sociology of culture, with an emphasis on contemporary Western commercial culture and mass media; social movements, and on the history, theory, and sociology of sexuality. He lives in Oakland, California.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
1. Why I Love Trash
2. The Monster with Two Heads
3. Truths Told in Lies
4. Sitting Ducks and Forbidden Fruits
5. I Want to Be Miss Understood
6. Flaunting It
7. The Tight Rope of Visibility
Appendix: Methods
Notes
Works Cited
Index

Editorial Reviews

Gamson's fascinating study explores the sex and gender nonconformity portrayed in just about every national, topic-driven American television talk show. His book is based on interviews with production staff and talk-show participants, focus groups with talk-show viewers, 106 hours of talk-show programming, and all the available transcripts from the years 1984-86 and 1994-95 in which gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender topics and guests were central. Using this research, Gamson explores the cultural phenomenon of the modern-day talk show, revealing through descriptions of specific programs and direct quotes from participants and audience members what happens on shows like 'Ricki Lake,' 'Donahue,' 'Sally Jessy Raphael,' and 'Geraldo' when the "freaks" talk back. He also offers a glimpse into talk-show culture and a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into producing these shows. Gamson's book is rich in detail and highly readable. -- Jerilyn Veldof, University of Arizona Library, Tucson

Library Journal

A Yale sociologist interviews talk show production staff and former guests, as well as presenting his own observations as a frequent studio audience guest, arguing that talk shows have given much-needed, high-impact public visibility to sexual nonconformists even while exacerbating class and cultural tensions. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

. . .[A] bold, witty look at the genre from a perspective at once highly scholarly and deeply personal. . . .the most sophisticated and complex analysis of talk shows yet. . . .it manages to take the stale and boring formulas of 'high' versus 'low' cultural debate. . .to a new and more complex plane. -- The Women's Review of Books

Elayne Rapping