Description
Book SynopsisDrawing on a wide range of political and cultural indicators to explain the sudden upsurge of gay material on prime-time network television in the 1990s, this book brings together analysis of relevant Supreme Court rulings, media coverage of gay rights battles, debates about multiculturalism, concerns over political correctness, and much more.
Trade Review"From beginning to end, this book is a highly engaging and impeccably researched study of the cultural anxieties produced in the destabilization of straight and gay identity." -- Michael DeAngelis * DePaul University *
"An insightful, well-written, and well-argued book." -- Michael Kimmel * professor of sociology, SUNY at Stony Brook *
"Becker's analysis of the connections between sexual representation and industrial strategy is original and compelling. An example of the best kind of television scholarship, Gay TV and Straight America is a rare find." -- Sasha Torres * author of Black, White and In Color: Television and Black Civil Rights *
"From beginning to end, this book is a highly engaging and impeccably researched study of the cultural anxieties produced in the destabilization of straight and gay identity." -- Michael DeAngelis * DePaul University *
"An insightful, well-written, and well-argued book." -- Michael Kimmel * professor of sociology, SUNY at Stony Brook *
"Becker's analysis of the connections between sexual representation and industrial strategy is original and compelling. An example of the best kind of television scholarship, Gay TV and Straight America is a rare find." -- Sasha Torres * author of Black, White and In Color: Television and Black Civil Rights *
Table of ContentsIntroduction : the importance of gay-themed TV
Straight panic and American culture in the 1990s
Thinking about gay people : civil rights and the confusion over sexual identity
Network narrowcasting and the slumpy demographic
The affordable, multicultural politics of gay chic
Gay material and prime-time network television in the 1990s
"We're not gay!" : heterosexuality and gay-themed programming
Straight panic in the 2000s
