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Review of Jeffrey P. Dennis, Queering teen culture: All American boys and same-sex desire in film and television

Clarke, Victoria

Authors

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Dr Victoria Clarke Victoria.Clarke@uwe.ac.uk
Associate Professor in Qualitative & Critical Psychology



Abstract

In Queering Teen Culture, Jeffery Dennis displays an encyclopaedic knowledge of US television shows and films that foreground teenage characters. Focusing on representations of teenage boys, Dennis aims to ‘queer’ US teen culture. Citing Foucault and Derrida, among others,
Dennis defines queering as finding ‘evidence for same-sex desire, romantic interactions or identities…where, according to the dominant ideology, they do not and cannot exist’ (p. vii). His intention is to look beyond the surface representation of heteronormative desire in teen-oriented soap operas, sitcoms and films, to understand how ‘same-sex desire will not be silenced, how it informs the plot lines of the most doggedly boy-meets-girl teen-idol ballad and waits quietly in the background of the most tenaciously girl- and boy-crazy sitcom characters’ (p. vii).

Citation

Clarke, V. (2008). Review of Jeffrey P. Dennis, Queering teen culture: All American boys and same-sex desire in film and television. Culture, Health and Sexuality, 10(4), 427-429. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691050701654941

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jan 1, 2008
Journal Culture, Health & Sexuality
Print ISSN 1369-1058
Publisher Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Peer Reviewed Not Peer Reviewed
Volume 10
Issue 4
Pages 427-429
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/13691050701654941
Keywords Jeffrey P.Dennis, teen culture, same-sex desire, film, television
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1017653
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13691050701654941