Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Queer as Folk and the Spectacularization of Gay Identity

  • Chapter
Queer Popular Culture

Abstract

This chapter explores the problem of homosexual visual exclusion in mass-mediated societies. It examines the public debates on questions of gay visibility that followed the U.K. broadcast of Queer as Folk: the first gay TV drama in English and worldwide televisual history. It considers mainstream and gay press concerns about Queer as Folk’s contribution to the visual commodification of homosexuality in the popular representational arena. In particular, it discuss the accusations that the program’s glamorized portrait of gayness was a cynical commer¬cial strategy to entice homosexual audiences in an overcompetitive visual market rather than a symptom of homosexual visual and social enfanchisement.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Works Cited

  • Berlant, Lauren, and Elizabeth Freeman. “Queer Nationality.” Warner, 193–229.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, Judith. “Merely Cultural.” New Left Review 227 (1998): 33–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crary, Jonathan. “Spectacle, Attention, Counter-Memory.” October 50 (1989): 97–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Debord, Guy. Society of the Spectacle. Detroit: Black and Red, 1983.

    Google Scholar 

  • —. Comments on the Society of the Spectacle. London: Verso, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dyer, Richard. The Matter of Images: Essays on Representation. London: Routledge, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gamson, Joshua. Freaks that Talk Back: Tabloid Talk Shows and Sexual Nonconformity. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1998.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, Larry. Up from Invisibility: Lesbians, Gay Men, and the Media in America. New York: Columbia UP, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hebdige, Dick. Subculture: The Meaning of Style. London: Methuen, 1979.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hennessy, Rosemary. “Queer Visibility in Commodity Culture.” Social Postmodernism: Beyond Identity Politics. Ed. Linda Nicholson and Steven Seidman. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995. 142–83.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Jay, Martin. Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth-Century French Thought. Berkeley: U of California P, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee-Potter, Lynda. “Why There’s Nowt So Queer as TV Bosses.” Daily Mail 23 Feb. 1999:8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munt, Sally R. “Shame/Pride Dichotomies in Queer as Folk.” Textual Practices 14.3 (2000): 531–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phelan, Peggy. Unmarked: The Politics of Performance. London: Routledge, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Queer as Folk. Channel 4. 23 Feb. 1999–22 Feb. 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richardson, Diane. Rethinking Sexuality. London: Sage, 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanderson, Terry. “Mediawatch.” Gay Times Apt. 1999: 64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sawyer, Toby. “This Is the Gayest Television Show I’ve Ever Seen.” Pink Paper. 26 Feb. 1999: 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seidman, Steven. “Identity and Politics in a ‘Postmodern’ Gay Culture: Some Historical and Conceptual Notes.” Warner, 105–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skeggs, Beverley. “The Re-Branding of Class: Propertising Culture.” Rethinking Class: Culture, Identities and Lifestyles. Ed. Fiona Devine, Mike Savage, John Scott and Rosemary Crompton. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2005. 46–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skeggs, Beverley, Leslie Moran, Paul Tyrer, and Jon Binnie. “Queer as Folk: Producing the Real of Urban Space.” Urban Studies 41.9 (2004): 1839–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thynne, Lizzie. “Being Seen: ‘The lesbian’ in British Television Drama.” Territories of Desire in Queer Culture: Reconfiguring Contemporary Boundaries. Ed. David Alderson and Linda Anderson. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2000. 202–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walters, Suzanna Danuta. All the Rage: The Story of Gay Visibility in America. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warner, Michael, ed. Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weeks, Jeffrey. Coming Out: Homosexual Politics in Britain. London: Quartet, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, Precious. “Mum, I’ve Something to Tell You … : Queer as Folk May Have Attracted Thousands of Complaints—But It Also Helped Change Lives.” The Independent. 23 Jan. 2000: 4.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Giovanni Porfido
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Thomas Peele

Copyright information

© 2007 Thomas Peele

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Porfido, G. (2007). Queer as Folk and the Spectacularization of Gay Identity. In: Peele, T. (eds) Queer Popular Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230604384_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation