Queering Teen Culture: All-American Boys and Same-Sex Desire in Film and TelevisionWhy did Fonzie hang around with all those high school boys? Is the overwhelming boy-meets-girl content of popular teen movies, music, books, and TV just a cover for an undercurrent of same-sex desire? From the 1950s to the present, popular culture has involved teenage boys falling for, longing over, dreaming about, singing to, and fighting over, teenage girls. But Queering Teen Culture analyzes more than 200 movies and TV shows to uncover who Frankie Avalon’s character was really in love with in those beach movies and why Leif Garrett became a teen idol in the 1970s. In Top 40 songs, teen magazines, movies, TV soap operas and sitcoms, teenagers are defined by their pubescent “discovery” of the opposite sex, universally and without exception. Queering Teen Culture looks beyond the litany to find out when adults became so insistent about teenage sexual desire—and why—and finds evidence of same-sex desire, romantic interactions, and identities that, according to the dominant ideology, do not and cannot exist. This provocative book examines the careers of male performers whose teenage roles made them famous (including Ricky Nelson, Pat Boone, Fabian, and James Darren) and discusses examples of lesbian desire (including I Love Lucy and Laverne and Shirley). Queering Teen Culture examines:
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Contents
1 | |
Learning
GirlCraziness on TV | 13 |
The Juvenile
Delinquent Films | 33 |
Monster Movies | 49 |
The Teen Idols | 65 |
The Beach Movies | 83 |
The Love Generation | 103 |
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Queering Teen Culture: All-American Boys and Same-sex Desire in Film and ... Jeffery P. Dennis No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
actor adolescence adults Annette antigay Arch Hall Jr audience beach movies Beaver best buddy biker-hippie Billy Bobby boy-girl boyfriend Brat Packers brother buddy bonding career character dance Darren David Dobie Dwayne Hickman Elvis episode erosexual erotic Fabian film Frankie Avalon gang Gidget girl-craziness girlfriend hetero heteronormative heterosexual heterosexual desire heterosexual destiny heterosexual interest heterosexual practice high school Hollywood homoerotic homosexuality horror interest in girls Jack James Darren Jimmy jock Johnny juvenile delinquent kids kiss Leif Garrett lesbian look male masculine McCarthy Michael Mickey Moondoggie never night nuclear family ogling Ozzie and Harriet party percent played queer rejected Ricky Nelson romance Sal Mineo same-sex desire scene Scott Baio season sexual shirtless sitcom star Steve swimsuit teen idol teen magazines teen nerd teenage boys teencom television Tommy Kirk undeniably straight Wally wants Werewolf William Asher Wyatt York young