[C]lassic [film] texts and personalities actually can be more queer-suggestive than “openly” gay, lesbian, or bisexual texts. That is, the coding of classic or otherwise “mainstream” texts and personalities can often yield a wider range of non-straight readings because certain sexual things could not be stated baldly—and still cannot or will not in most mainstream products—thus often making it more difficult to categorize the erotics of a film or a star. Of course, if you aren’t careful, this line of thought can begin to sound like an argument valorizing the closet, for understanding queerness as always something “connotated” or suggested (and never really there “denotatively”), for “subtexting,” and for “subcultural” readings. But since I don’t see queer readings as any less there, or any less real, than straight readings of classic or otherwise “mainstream” texts, I don’t think that what I do in this book is colluding with dominant representational or interpretive regimes that seek to make queerness “alternative” or “sub” straight. [Alexander Doty, Flaming Classics, pp. 1-2]
In short, my whole life had led me to that piece on The Wizard of Oz. Only by drawing together aspects of autobiography, fandom, pedagogy, and academic training could I express (and, for some, justify) my “queer reception” love for the film, while also recognizing its ideological lapses–largely centered on the butch Elmira Gulch/the Wicked Witch of the West, I might add. [Alexander Doty, in Henry Jenkins et al, 'Acafandom and Beyond: Alex Doty, Abigail De Kosnik, and Jason Mittell (Part One)', Confessions of an Acafan, September 28, 2011]
Film Studies For Free was shocked and very saddened at the news, just over a week ago, of the untimely death of Alexander Doty, a truly trailblazing film and media scholar.Doty, Indiana University
Professor of Gender Studies and Communication and Culture (and chair of the latter department) was the author of two classic and highly enjoyable books in queer audiovisual cultural studies:
Making Things Perfectly Queer (
University of Minnesota Press, 1993) and
Flaming Classics: Queering the Film Canon (Routledge, 2000
). He also co-edited, with Corey Creekmur, the hugely important collection
Out in Culture: Lesbian, Gay, and Queer Essays on Popular Culture (Continuum, 1995) and edited two special issues of
Camera Obscura on divas.
While Doty didn't claim to have invented queer cultural reading as a scholarly practice, he wowed us with the brilliance, daring and
sincerity of his interpretations, ones often deeply rooted in his personal, affective experiences of the cultural forms he was studying. In so doing, he succeeded in showing countless other students of film and media texts why it is so vital to engage in these critical practices
in public, why it is essential to be
good at them, as well as what is seriously at stake in many identity or, indeed,
existence-based scholar-fandoms, like those often engaged in by
LGBT subjects.
If, as the Wizard of Oz tells us, 'A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others', the many tributes to Doty that have appeared in the last week prove, beyond any doubt, that he had an excellent heart. He certainly had a very courageous one. He, his unique voice, and the work he would have gone on to produce, had his life not been so cruelly cut short, will be hugely missed.
As well as putting together the video collage at the top of this entry, which introduces Doty's compelling justification for queer reading, if not the (possibly even more compelling) details of his
actual queer reading of
The Wizard of Oz (
Victor Fleming, 1939),
FSFF has also assembled a list of links in Doty's memory to online studies which perform queer readings of films and moving image culture, as well as openly accessible studies of some films that perform their own queer readings. Two further
FSFF video essays are embedded--on Elizabeth Taylor and on "queer Hitchcock", both of which intersect with, and were partly inspired by Doty's own work on these and other themes.
That long list is preceded by a growing collection of links to the online tributes to Doty that have appeared since his death (this will be kept updated), as well as to his own, openly accessible, scholarly work online.
FSFF's author very gratefully acknowledges the generosity of
Anthony Bleach and the
Facebook group Friends of Alexander Doty in assembling the first two of these three lists. Although she only knew Doty through his published work, she would like to convey her condolences for his loss to all those whose lives were graced, as so many evidently were, by knowing him personally.
Finally, at the very foot of today's entry is a call for contributions to a new website for the
Global Queer Cinema project (to be launched in September). It will seek to live up to the high standards that Doty's work set for queer cultural critique as it aims to provide a new, openly accessible, internationalist resource for queer film and cultural studies.
FSFF will update its readers about this exciting project in the coming weeks.
In the meantime,
FSFF is sad that one of those who have most inspired LGBT film studies scholarship will not be around to witness his influence on this project.
Rest in queer peace, Alexander Doty.
Online tributes to Alexander Doty- Corey Creekmur, 'Remembering Alexander Doty', FlowTV, August 7, 2012
- Kyra Hunting, 'In Memoriam: Thanking Alexander Doty', Antenna, August 12, 2012
- Taylor Cole Miller, 'A Star Was Born: The Inspiring Life and Work of Alexander Doty', Antenna, August 10, 2012
- Society for Cinema and Media Studies, 'SCMS Tribute to Alexander Doty', Society for Cinema and Media Studies website, August 8, 2012
- Camera Obscura Collective, 'Alexander Doty', Facebook, August 10, 2012
- 'IU mourns passing of faculty member Alex Doty', Indiana University Newsroom, August 6, 2012
- 'Pioneering queer studies scholar Alexander Doty dies...', University of Minnesota Press, August 6, 2012
- Lolachrome, 'You: A Glee multi/metavid', All Things Know, All Things Know, August 7, 2012
- Alex Doty - In Memoriam website
- Ceola Wilson, 'Tributes to "outstanding scholar and teacher"’, Royal Gazette Online, August 7, 2012
Online work by Alexander Doty - Alexander Doty, 'I Love Shari: My Queerly Feminist Life with TV', Republished in FlowTV, August 7, 2012
- Alexander Doty, 'Modern Family, Glee, and the Limits of Television Liberalism', Republished by FlowTV, August 7, 2012
- Alexander Doty, 'Hot in Cleveland: Everything Old is New Again?', Republished in FlowTV, August 7, 2012
- Henry Jenkins et al, 'Acafandom and Beyond: Alex Doty, Abigail De Kosnik, and Jason Mittell (Part One)', Confessions of an Acafan, September 28, 2011
- Henry Jenkins et al, 'Acafandom and Beyond: Alex Doty, Abigail De Kosnik, and Jason Mittell (Part Two)', Confessions of an Acafan, September 30, 2011
Online studies, or performances, of queer reading - John S. Bak, 'Suddenly Last Supper: Religious Acts and Race Relations - Tennessee Williams's 'Desire', Journal of Religion and Theatre, Vol. 4, No. 2, Fall 2005
- John Bannister, 'Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Williams, and Susan Sontag: Campaigners of Camp and the Carry On films', Forum, Issue 4, Spring 2007
- Harry Benshoff, '[Review] of Flaming Classics: Queering the Film Canon by Alexander Doty', Scope, August 2001
- Jenna Bond, 'Homosexuality and the Italian Spaghetti Western', Offscreen, November 30, 2007
- Orla Juliette Borreye, 'The Significance Of The Queer And The Dog In Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Amores Perros (2000): A Masculinity At War', Wide Screen Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2009
- Michael Bronski, 'From The Celluloid Closet to Brokeback Mountain: The Changing Nature of Queer Film Criticism', Cineaste, 2008
- Vincent Brook and Allan Campbell, '“Pansies don't float”– gay representability, film noir, and The Man Who Wasn’t There', Jump Cut, 46, Summer 2003
- Shannon Brownlee, 'Masculinity Between Animation and Live Action, or, SpongeBob v. Hasselhoff', Animation Studies Online Journal, Vol. 6, September 2011
- Kathy Burdette, 'Queer Film Theory - Bibliography'
- Alain Chouinard, 'Queering the Québécois and Canadian Child in Jean-Claude Lauzon’s Léolo', Synoptique, 13, February 2009
- Lesley Chow, 'The Double Standard: The Twins of Two-Faced Woman and Sylvia Scarlett,' Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 59, February 2008
- Douglas Crimp, 'Getting the Warhol we Deserve: Cultural Studies and Queer Culture', Invisible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Studies, 1999
- Zachary Dorsey, ' Slick Moves: Queer Fight Choreography in The Transporter', In Media Res, December 5, 2007
- Richard Dyer, 'Homosexuality in Film Noir', from Jump Cut, No. 16, 1977
- Brett Farmer and Stacy Wolf, 'Stage Door Jennies', Genders OnLine Journal, 38, 2003
- Jane Gaines, 'Dorothy Arzner's trousers', Jump Cut, 37, July 1992
- Jane Gaines, 'Deviant Eyes, Deviant Bodies: Queering Feminist Film Theory', Jump Cut, 41, May 1997
- 'Gays, Lesbian, and Transgendered People in Motion Pictures: A Bibliography of Materials in the UC Berkeley Library'
- David Gerstner, 'Queer Modernism: The Cinematic Aesthetics of Vincente Minnelli', Modernity, Vol. 2, 2000
- David Greven, American Medusa: Bette Davis, Beyond the Forest, femininity, and Camp', Jump Cut, 46, Summer 2003
- Todd Haynes interviewed by Richard Dyer [audio recording from the Tate Modern], 'Double Indemnity: Todd Haynes/Edward Hopper' (4 June 2004)
- Peter Kemp, 'Bi-Polar Gender-Blender: Sylvia Scarlett,' Senses of Cinema 22, Sept-Oct 2002
- Ewan Kirkland, 'Romantic Comedy and the Construction of Heterosexuality', Scope Issue 9, 2007
- Cheuk Yin Li, 'The Absence of Fan Activism in the Queer Fandom of Ho Denise Wan See (HOCC) in Hong Kong', edited by Henry Jenkins and Sangita Shresthova, special issue, Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 10, 2012
- Dennis Lo, 'The Politics and Aesthetics of “Asian American” Sexuality in Ang Lee’s Cross-Cultural Family Dramas: A Case Study on The Wedding Banquet and The Ice Storm', Stanford Journal of Asian American Studies, Vol. 1, 2008
- Patricia MacCormack, 'Barbara Steele's Ephemeral Skin: Feminism, Fetishism, and Film', Senses of Cinema, September 2002
- James MacDowell, 'What Value is There in Gus Van Sant's Psycho?', Offscreen Journal, Vol. 9, Issue 7, 2005
- Stephen Maddison, 'Pedro Almodóvar and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown: the Heterosocial Spectator and Misogyny', Chapter 4 of Fags, hags, and queer sisters : gender dissent and heterosocial bonds in gay culture (New York : St. Martin's, 2000)
- Joseph McBride, 'George Cukor: The Valor of Discretion', Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 32, April 2001
- Deborah Mellamphy, 'The Paradox Of Transvestism In Tim Burton’s Ed Wood', Wide Screen Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2009
- Matthew Ogonofski, 'Queering the Heterosexual Male in Canadian Cinema: An Analysis of Jean-Claude Lauzon’s Léolo', Synoptique, 13, February 2009
- Rebecca Panosky, 'Dorothy Arzner and Gender Representation.” In: “International Female Film Directors: Their Contributions to the Film Industry and Women's Roles in Society.” Chapter 4 of e-Thesis
- Susan Pelle and Catherine Fox, 'Queering Desire / Querying Consumption: Rereading Visual Images of ‘Lesbian’ Desire in Lisa Cholodenko’s High Art', Third Space, Vol. 6 Issue 1, Summer 2006
- Ryan Powell, 'Putting on the Red Dress: Performative Camp in Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows,' Forum, Issue 4, Spring 2007
- Kate Rennebohm, 'Queering Childhood: An Examination of Claude Jutra’s Dreamspeaker', Synoptique, 13, Feburary 2009
- Elena del Rio, 'Performing the Narrative of Seduction: Claire Denis's Beau Travail', Kinoeye, Vol. 3, Issue 7, Spring 2003
- Julian Savage, 'The Conscious Collusion of the Stare: The Viewer Implicated in Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul,' Senses of Cinema, 16, Sept-Oct 2001
- Steven Jay Schneider, 'A Tale of Two Psychos', Senses of Cinema, 2000
- Ian Scott Todd, 'Outside/In: Abjection, Space, and Landscape in Brokeback Mountain', Scope13, February 2009
- Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, 'Paranoid reading and reparative reading, or, You're so paranoid, you probably think this introduction is about you', Novel gazing : queer readings in fiction / edited by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (Durham: Duke University Press, 1997)
- Craig Snyder, 'Fear and loathing on Brokeback Mountain', Jump Cut, 53, Summer 2011
- Carter Soles, 'A stalker’s odyssey: arrested development, gay desire, and queer comedy in Chuck&Buck', Jump Cut, 49, 2007
- Carter Michael Soles, Falling Out of the Closet: Kevin Smith, Queerness, and Independent Film, e-Thesis University of Oregon, 2008
- Irini Stamatopoulos, 'Ang Lee's Cowboys', Offscreen Journal, Volume 11, Issue 2 (February 28, 2007)
- K. E. Sullivan, 'Ed Gein and the Figure of the Transgendered Serial Killer', from Jump Cut, no. 43, July 2000, pp. 38-47
- Donato Totaro, 'Psycho Redux', Offscreen Journal, 2004
- Evangelos Tziallas, 'Looking Beneath the Skin: Reconfiguring Trauma and Sexuality', Stream: A Graduate Journal of Communication, Spring 2008 1(1)
- Stacy Wolf, 'Barbra’s “Funny Girl” Body', S[&]F Online, 3.3 and 4.1, Fall 2005
- Amy Villarejo, 'Interview with Tish Pearlman for Out of Bounds/Cornell University' [about Queer film and queer film theory] RealPlayer file, 29 mins 30 seconds
- Nicholas de Villiers, 'Glancing, Cruising, Staring: Queer Ways of Looking', Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 57, August 2007
- Nicholas de Villiers, '”The vanguard - and the most articulate audience”: Queer Camp, Jack Smith and John Waters', Forum, Issue 4, Spring 2007
Framing Incandescence: Elizabeth Taylor in JANE EYRE by Catherine Grant Skipping ROPE (with audio commentary) by Catherine Grant. First published in Frames, 1, 2012. Transcript available.Call For Queer Reading/Writing Contributions to the new Global Queer Cinema website
Contributions are invited to the Global Queer Cinema website, hosted by the School of Media, Film and Music at the University of Sussex, UK. The site will be launched in early September 2012.
The website forms part of the Global Queer Cinema project, an international academic research network project funded by the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council and based at the University of Sussex. The project is led by Rosalind Galt (University of Sussex) and Karl Schoonover (University of Warwick). The network held its first event in May of this year.
The project website will be run in conjunction with Catherine Grant (University of Sussex and Film Studies For Free) and Laura Ellen Joyce, GQC Project Co-ordinator, and will continue beyond the length of the project, acting in part as an open access archive and news filter for project-generated material, and related queer film studies resources.
We welcome contributions from researchers interested in queer (and queering) cinema, cultural studies, media, global studies, gender and sexuality, filmmakers, artists, writers and interdisciplinary scholars, or those with an interest in the practice, exploration and dissemination of film. The below list of topics and frameworks.
- Queer frames
- Queer uncanny
- Queer sounds and music
- Queer illusions
- Queer film festivals
- Queer decades
- Queer directors
- Queer avant garde and DIY
- New Queer Cinema
- New releases
- Classic films
- Androgyny and pandrogyny
- Queer cosmetics and prosthetics
- In-depth essays on single films
- Short essays on single images
We therefore invite short takes of 250 - 300 words, or longer essays (MLA style) of around 1500-2000 words for more in-depth analysis. Multimedia work (non-copyright infringing - using fair use/fair dealing principles) is very welcome. The above list of topics is not exhaustive, and we invite contributions on any topic or theme which you feel would may (queerly) fit our general ethos. Please correspond with us about any proposals for content by email at GQCproject[at]gmail[dot]com, on Twitter at @g_q_c, and do please 'like' us on Facebook. Thank you.
