Synopses & Reviews
Though many in the gay community strive to be accepted into mainstream society, assimilation is watering down a once vibrant culture, rendering it as bland as a production of Streetcar without Blanche Dubois. As corporate America opens its arms and the gay population comes running, the commercialization of gay culture makes it conventional--imagine Valley of the Dolls with M&M's.
In this provocative, brilliantly reasoned book, charged throughout with a penetrating eye and stinging wit, Daniel Harris examines the many shadings of the gay experience as they have evolved over time, including the demise of camp and kink, the evolution of personal ads, the origins of the underwear revolution, the changing face of porn and glossy magazines, the morph of drag queens and leathermen, and the marketing of AIDS as commodity.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of Contents
Death of a camp; gay men and Hollywood diva worship, from reverence to ridicule -- Evolution of the personals and gay romance -- Invention to the Teflon magazine; from after dark to out -- Psychohistory of the homosexual body -- Evolution of gay pornography film -- Evolution of gay pornography; film -- Evolution of gay pornography; literature -- Origins of the underwear revolution in the gay subculture -- Death of kink; five stages in the metamorphosis of the modern dungeon -- Aesthetic of drag -- Kitshification of AIDS -- Glad-to-be-gay propaganda.