Deviant Eyes, Deviant Bodies: Sexual Re-orientation in Film and Video

by Chris Straayer

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.

Genres: Cultural Studies, LGBT, Transgender, Nonfiction, Film

360 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 1996

About the author

Chris Straayer is a professor of Cinema Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts.

Reviews

[Jordan Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this book valuable mostly because of its wide ranging coverage of queer and explicit video art. The argument is a bit too invested in negotiating and recuperating pyschoanalytic accounts of sexuality and gender for my tastes, but Straayer's theorization of lesbian spectatorship is useful.

[Farren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I think part of the problem with this book is that the video art it references sounds really really BAD.