Media and Communication at
Muhlenberg College |
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JOSHUA GAMSON
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Straight Eye for the Queer Guy: Reality Television, Shopping, and the New Gay Visibility.
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A prominent sociologist of culture, author of a leading treatment of celebrity culture (Claims to Fame, 1994), and frequent contributor to debates on gay and lesbian media exposure, Joshua Gamson's award-winning Freaks Talk Back: Tabloid Talk Shows and Sexual Nonconformity (1998) explores the unintended consequences of Jerry Springer-style, ratings-driven outrageousness for "deviant" sexual identities. Gamson's Muhlenberg address raised questions of conscience around media visibility and identity. He focused on the intersection of gay representation and social class as they have been structured by reality TV. Inviting students to scrutinize the unstable relations between media portrayals and group identities, Dr. Gamson discussed the commercialization of identity, the pursuit of "respectability," and how gay men are being positioned as tutors for class-specific behaviors. Gamson's work on media-refracted sexuality asks us to ponder the fluidity and consequences of categories like "marginal" and "respectable."
(Part of the Center for Ethics series: The Ethics and Politics of Identity, Fall 2005)
Lecture Series
