Queer TV in the 21st Century: Essays on Broadcasting from Taboo to Acceptance

by Kylo-Patrick R. Hart (Editor)

Overview

Television has historically been largely ineffective at representing queerness in its various forms. In the 21st century, however, as same-sex couples have seen increasing mainstream acceptance, and a broader range of queer characters has appeared in the media, it seems natural to assume TV portrayals of queerness have become more enlightened. But have they?

This collection of fresh essays analyzes queerness as depicted on TV from 2000 to the present. Examining Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The L Word, Modern Family, The New Normal, Queer as Folk, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, RuPaul's Drag Race, Spartacus and Will & Grace, among other series, the contributors demonstrate that queer characters in general have achieved visibility at the expense of minimizing much of their queerness--with a few eye-opening exceptions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476625607
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	06/05/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	232
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Kylo-Patrick R. Hart is chair of the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media at Texas Christian University. He is the founding co-editor of the academic journal Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture and the author of several books about media.
Kylo-Patrick R. Hart is chair of the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media at Texas Christian University, where he teaches courses in film and television history, theory, and criticism and queer media studies. He is the founding co-editor of the academic journal Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture and the author of several books about media.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction: Media Representation and Sensitive Subjects (Kylo-Patrick R. Hart)
Gay It Forward: How Will & Grace Made Gay Male Couples Okay on Television (Zachary Snider)
Skeletons in the Closet: The Contradictory Views of the Queer in the Works of Joss Whedon (Don Tresca)
Beyond Golden Gardenias: Versions of ­Same-Sex Marriage in Queer as Folk (Gael Sweeney)
We’re Here, We’re Queer—and We’re Better Than You: The Representational Superiority of Gay Men to Heterosexuals on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (Kylo-Patrick R. Hart)
From Good to Bad Stories: Examining the Narrative of Pregnancy in The L Word as a Means to Teach and Destabilize Queerness (Anna Ciamparella)
The Stylized Image of the White Lesbian: A Model Minority (Renee DeLong)
Digital Drag: Queer Potentiality in the Age of Digital Television (Looi van Kessel)
Gay Fathers in Modern Family and The New Normal: Class, Consumption, Sexuality and Parenting (Julia Erhart)
Brothers in Arms: Spartacus, Historical Television and the Celebration of Queer Masculinity (Thomas J. West III)
Leonardo’s Paradoxical Queerness: Da Vinci’s Demons and the Politics of Straightwashing (Dragos Manea)
Racial Homophily and Homogeneity as ­Post-Racial Commodification in BrokeStraightBoys.tv (Michael Johnson, Jr.)
Sexploitation on YouTube: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of the Gay Network (Bridget Kies)
About the Contributors
Index