Deviant Eyes, Deviant Bodies: Sexual Re-Orientation in Film and Video / Edition 1

by Chris Straayer

Overview

Engaging feminist and queer theory ranging from Nancy Chodorow to Judith Butler to Valerie Solanis's SCUM Manifesto, Straayer considers the wealth of films made by and for nontraditional viewers. Straayer investigation ranges from Stella Dallas to Mrs. Doubtfire, "experimental" lesbian and gay films from the classic Maedchen in Uniform to the contemporary Go Fish, and music video icons such as David Bowie, Dead or Alive, and Divine to investigate transgressions of traditional gender boundaries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231079792
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	09/12/1996
Series:	Film and Culture Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Chris Straayer is associate professor of cinema studies at New York University.

Editorial Reviews

In the course of this fascinating, polemical book . . . [Straayer] writes interestingly about such films as Some Like It Hot, Victor / Victoria, Adoption, and Orlando and about a number of experimental films. . . . Informative, challenging, thought-provoking, and perhaps unsettling.

Choice

Straayer (cinema studies, NYU) approaches feminist film theory from a queer (primarily lesbian) perspective, examining complex relationships between viewer and film while arguing for a rethinking of rigid sexual dichotomies. After studying mainstream, independent, and pornographic films, particularly those of Annie Sprinkle, Straayer posits multiple nonheterosexual, nonpatriarchal subjectivities for the way we view film, working toward a sexuality/gender continuum. Although the prose relies on deconstructionist terminology, determined readers will find Straayer's thesis compelling. A useful companion to Judith Butler's Gender Trouble (LJ 2/1/89) and Bad Object-Choices' How Do I Look? (LJ 2/1/92), this belongs in all film, gender, and queer studies collections.Anthony J. Adam, Prairie View A&M Univ. Lib., Tex.

Library Journal