Table of Contents

Introduction : the importance of gay-themed TV
Straight panic and American culture in the 1990s
Thinking about gay people : civil rights and the confusion over sexual identity
Network narrowcasting and the slumpy demographic
The affordable, multicultural politics of gay chic
Gay material and prime-time network television in the 1990s
"We're not gay!" : heterosexuality and gay-themed programming
Straight panic in the 2000s

About the Author

Ron Becker is an assistant professor of communications at Miami University in Ohio.

Reviews

"From beginning to end, this book is a highly engaging and impeccably researched study of the cultural anxieties produced in the destabilization of straight and gay identity."
*DePaul University*

"An insightful, well-written, and well-argued book."
*professor of sociology, SUNY at Stony Brook*

"Becker's analysis of the connections between sexual representation and industrial strategy is original and compelling. An example of the best kind of television scholarship, Gay TV and Straight America is a rare find."
*author of Black, White and In Color: Television and Black Civil Rights*

"From beginning to end, this book is a highly engaging and impeccably researched study of the cultural anxieties produced in the destabilization of straight and gay identity."
*DePaul University*

"An insightful, well-written, and well-argued book."
*professor of sociology, SUNY at Stony Brook*

"Becker's analysis of the connections between sexual representation and industrial strategy is original and compelling. An example of the best kind of television scholarship, Gay TV and Straight America is a rare find."
*author of Black, White and In Color: Television and Black Civil Rights*