Sexual Identities and the Media by Kathleen Battles; Wendy Hilton-Morrow

This introductory text encourages students to consider the complex role that media industries play in producing discourses about sexuality. Taking a critical/cultural studies approach, the authors combine theory, syntheses of existing research and original analysis of contemporary media examples. Topics include a historical overview of LGBTQ representation; the advantages and limits of media visibility and of stereotype research; consumer culture and narrowly defined LGBTQ images; queer reading strategies and media made by and for LGBTQ communities; comedy and camp; media spectacle, including coverage of transgender people; the closet as an organizing metaphor and tabloid interest in LGBTQ celebrities; post-gay discourses; masculinity and gay visibility; and the media's role in constructing heterosexuality. Rather than asking what a 'correct' representation is, the authors encourage students to examine media as a site of negotiation about the relationship between sexuality and identity.