Queer Representation, Visibility, and Race in American Film and Television ─ Screening the Closet

This book examines the proliferation of gay, lesbian, and queer representations in mainstream American media over the past forty years. Kohnen argues that queer media visibility has become a narrowly defined category that upholds normative ideas about sexuality, race, and the American nation. She examines how and why this limited and limiting concept of queer visibility has become the embodiment of progressive and liberatory LGBT media representations and traces the uneven history of queer media visibility through crucial turning points including the early gay liberation movement of the late 1960s/70s, the AIDS crisis of the 80s, the so-called explosion of gay visibility of the 90s and the reimagination of queer citizenship after the events of 9/11. Further, Kohnen reveals how queer visibility shapes and reflects not only media representations, but the real and imagined geographies, histories, and peoples of the American nation.

Melanie E.S. Kohnen is Visiting Assistant Professor at New York University, USA. Her research focuses on the contemporary media industry and cultural diversity. Her previous work has appearedin Journal of Popular Television, Creative Industries, and the essay collectionsTeen Television and Future Texts: Subversive Performance and Feminist Bodies.