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Summary
Uncovers the queer nature of heterosexuality on film.
Just as feminist scholars have turned to considerations of masculinity and scholars of race have begun to consider whiteness as a category, this collection brings the insights of queer theory to bear on cinematic representations of straightness. Spanning decades and cultures, from silent Hollywood films to modern Mumbai cinema, the essays in Hetero uncover multiple forms of heterosexual desire and demonstrate that heterosexuality is in fact a heavily contested terrain. Movies often become a place where one specific “heteronormative” ideal is upheld as proper, while other types of heterosexuality are denied or pathologized. By investigating how heterosexuality functions as a social construct, these essays deconstruct normative heterosexuality’s simultaneous omnipresence and invisibility, effectively breaking down the barriers of sexual identity. Hetero offers a collective call to expand the ways in which queer theory is applied and put into practical use, and exposes the queer nature of the love that does dare speak its name.
“This book proves that the analytical tools of queer theory are substantial and revelatory and should not be ghettoized to films that feature gay or transgendered characters.” — CHOICE
“By bringing the lessons of queer theory to the analysis of representations of heterosexuality, this book demonstrates that ‘hetero’ is as complex a category as ‘homo.’” — Kristen Hatch, University of California, Irvine
Sean Griffin is Associate Professor in the Division of Cinema-Television at Southern Methodist University. His previous books include Queer Images: A History of Gay and Lesbian Film in America and America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction Sean Griffin
1. Stop the Wedding! William Haines and the Comedy
of the Closet Victoria Sturtevant
2. Flirting with Hetero Diversity: Film Promotion of
A Free Soul Mary Beth Haralovich
3. “Pintele” Queer: The Performance of Jewish Male
Heterosexuality in Yiddish American Cinema
of the Great Depression David Lugowski
4. Straight Heroes with Queer Inclinations: Male Film Stars
in the Swedish 1930s Louise Wallenberg
5. Putting ’Em Down Like a Man: Eleanor Powell and the
Spectacle of Competence Adrienne L. McLean
6. Turned Inside/Out: Violent Inversions of Heterosexuality
in Vincente Minnelli’s Home from the Hill David A. Gerstner
7. Mispronouncing “Man and Wife”: The Fate of Marriage
in Hollywood’s Sexual Revolution Michael DeAngelis
8. Hetero-nation: Toward a “New and Improved” Global
Public Image Bhaskar Sarkar
9. Time Crisis and the New Postfeminist Heterosexual
Economy Diane Negra
10. “Are You Saying My Son Is a Bitch Boy?”: The Perilously
Achieved Hegemonic Masculinity of Ben Stiller Kevin Heffernan
11. “Fuck Boy Meets Girl”: Heterosexual Aspirations and
Masculine Interests in the World of Quentin Tarantino Allan Campbell
12. A Straight Cowboy Movie: Heterosexuality According
to Brokeback Mountain Harry M. Benshoff
