Critical Queer Studies

This volume uses media studies as a frame for a collection of essays about queer theory. Of the five essays in this volume, two are about films: Gus Van Sant's Milk and Brokeback Mountain. The remainder are about actual people, analyzed as fictional/media objects in the context of their murder in hate crimes: Harvey Milk (with Dan White), Matthew Shepard, and Brandon Teena. Readers who prefer to remember them as people rather than fictional/media objects may find this choice offensive, as some of the authors recognize; they deploy quotes from Lacan and proceed. Some media study is considered (two films on the Dan White trial, The Laramie Project, and the torrent of media around the Brandon Teena case). However, the pieces about actual events work mainly to convert human beings into political myths. Mainstream media are not taken to task here for converting human beings into stereotypes, but for failing to convert them into the correct stereotypes: Boys Don't Cry was wrong to depict Brandon Teena as a lesbian icon, not because accuracy or respecting the wishes of the person portrayed are important, but because Brandon Teena should be an icon of rebellion against the evil male gender binary. The book's conclusion, Toward a Queer Political Aesthetic makes the point explicit. Readers who prefer this form of queer theory will be satisfied. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Casey Charles is a former lawyer who now teaches English at the University of Montana. Both his teaching and literature focus on gay and lesbian literature, queer film, and critical theory. His first book, The Sharon Kowalski Case: Lesbian and Gay Rights on Trial (Kansas 2003), was a finalist for the Publishing Triangle Award in non-fiction.