2005

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.

This talk will raise questions of conscience around media visibility and identity. Dr. Gamson focuses on the intersection of gay representation and social class as they have been structured by reality T.V. His lecture explores the commercialization of identity, the pursuit of “respectability,” and how gay men are being positioned as tutors for class-specific behaviors. What are we to make of the new gay visibility on shows like Queer Eye for the Straight Guy? Gamson’s work on media-refracted sexuality asks us to ponder both the fluidity and consequences of categories like “marginal” and “respectable.”

Gamson’s appearance at Muhlenberg is co-sponsored by the Faculty Humanities Seminar.

The Ethics and Politics of Identity is a year long series of programs, sponsored by the Muhlenberg College Center for Ethics , about the ethical challenges that surround the changing categories of social, national, and global identities.