Departmental Papers (ASC)

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of this Version

January 2005

Comments

Postprint version. Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication, Volume 23, Issue 2, June 2006, pages 131-151.
Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07393180600714505

Abstract

This paper moves beyond a conventional critique of Bravo's popular makeover show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy that focuses on gay stereotyping to consider how the show puts gay cultural expertise to work to reform a heterosexual masculinity that is compatible with the neoliberal moment. By analyzing 40 episodes of the show, in addition to a number of related texts, the author considers the newly public acknowledgement of gay taste and consumer expertise; the "crisis of masculinity" that requires that heterosexual men must now attend to their relationships, image, and domestic habitus; and the remaking of the straight guy into not only an improved romantic partner - the metrosexual - but a more flexible, employable worker. The author concludes by considering how camp deconstructs some of Queer Eye's most heteronormative aims, even while leaving its class and consumption rationales intact.

Keywords

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, metrosexual, neoliberal, neoliberalism, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, camp, reality television

Date Posted: 24 April 2008

This document has been peer reviewed.