Queer Images: A History of Gay and Lesbian Film in America

by Harry M. Benshoff, Sean Griffin

From Thomas Edison's first cinematic experiments to contemporary Hollywood blockbusters, Queer Images chronicles the representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer sexualities over one hundred years of American film. The most up-to-date and comprehensive book of its kind, it explores not only the ever-changing images of queer characters onscreen, but also the work of queer filmmakers and the cultural histories of queer audiences.

Queer Images surveys a wide variety of films, individuals, and subcultures, including the work of discreetly homosexual filmmakers during Hollywood's Golden Age; classical Hollywood's (failed) attempt to purge "sex perversion" from films; the development of gay male camp in Hollywood cinema; queer exploitation films and gay physique films; the queerness of 1960s Underground Film practice; independent lesbian documentaries and experimental films; cinematic responses to the AIDS crisis; the rise and impact of New Queer Cinema; the growth of LGBT film festivals; and how contemporary Hollywood deals with queer issues.

This entertaining and insightful book reveals how the meaning of sexual identity―as reflected on the silver screen―has changed a great deal over the decades, and it celebrates both the pioneers and contemporary practitioners of queer film in America. Queer Images is an essential volume for film buffs and anyone interested in sexuality and culture.

Genres: LGBT, Film, Nonfiction, Queer, History, Research

330 pages, Paperback

First published October 28, 2005

About the author

Dr. Harry Benshoff's research interests include topics in film genres, film history, film theory, and multiculturalism. He has published essays on Dark Shadows fan cultures, blaxploitation horror films, Hollywood LSD films, The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), and Brokeback Mountain. He is the author of Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film (Manchester University Press, 1997). With Sean Griffin he co-authored America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality at the Movies (Blackwell Publishers, 2004), and Queer Images: A History of Gay and Lesbian Film in America (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006). He was also the co-editor of Queer Cinema: The Film Reader (Routledge, 2004). His most recent books include Dark Shadows (Wayne State University Press, 2011), A Companion to the Horror Film (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014), and Film and Television Analysis: An Introduction to Theories, Methods, and Approaches (Routledge, 2015).

At UNT, Dr. Benshoff regularly teaches a wide array of film studies classes, including "Film and Television Analysis," "African American Film," "Lesbian, Gay, and Queer Film and Video," and "Gender and Sexuality in the Horror Film." He also teaches a graduate seminar in qualitative media theory every year, and a rotating series of "Film Authors" classes on such noted directors as David Cronenberg, Federico Fellini, Ken Russell, and Robert Altman.

Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Dr. Benshoff earned a BA in English from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Penn., in 1985. He attended Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia for almost three years before he decided to follow his primary interest in life: film and media studies. He then earned an MA and a PhD in Critical Studies at the University of Southern California's prestigious School of Cinema-Television. He taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz, for three years before coming to UNT.

Reviews

[lou paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

a very essential book to anyone who wishes to learn the history of queer visibility and representation. i only ask that the authors please write an updated version!! the language is outdated! the content is too good to be relegated to a school textbook! let’s expand the bounds of debate!

[Jillian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was assigned chapters out of Queer Images a few years ago in grad school, but I never read the entire book. I kept it because I thought, "One day, I'll get back to it." One day finally came, and honestly I probably should have just resold it years ago after I took my film class. Queer Images has two main problems. First, it's deeply an academic text, which is fine except for it is a deep slog to read. I maintain reading about gay and lesbian film shouldn't make me wish I was doing literally anything else. Also, at some points, I questioned why certain films were focused on/analzyed versus others. Second, my copy was published in 2006. For Benshoff, this is where queer film stops. It's 2025. We have nearly 20 years of queer film since then that is deeply rich and worth exploring. I think an updated version of Queer Images or a text like it would be worthwhile. I mean, Todd Haynes hasn't made Carol in this book. There's no Brokeback Mountain, no Portrait of a Lady on Fire. What Benshoff make of Emilia Perez or Pariah or countless other queer films? I was more curious about that then the text I was reading.

[Cullen B · Rating 4 out of 5]

holy info dump i feel like i took a year long class and cooked it down to this month long reading process. this book was awesome i learned so much about queer history not only in a cinematic context but also through a cultural and worldly lens. it was written in 2006 so some of the terms are outdated or are a little behind but i felt like it still managed to hit many important marks, especially as it pertains to queerness outside of the white cis circle. now i’ve got at least 20 movies to watch…

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

Because it was published in 2006, it is rather dated. It does however prove to be an excellent resource for the history of queer cinema in the 20th century.

[Liz Derrington]

I had this book checked out from the library for almost exactly two years—February 2020 to January 2022. I managed to read the introduction and the first five chapters in that time. I’m returning it to the library tomorrow; I think two years is long enough! 😅 But from what I read, this is a solid primer!

Update, January 2023: I checked this out again in May 2022 for a film theory project and returned it in January 2023. I think I read like half of Chapter 6. And then I got the stern email about how I’d had the book out too long and was getting charged for a replacement so I hurried to return it. At this rate I’ll have the whole thing read in about a decade…

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy read with a lot of great background. I actually would have enjoyed if it were longer and even more in depth; there were a lot of movies that only got a brief mention that I would have liked to hear more about.

Also, it's now several years old, so there's nothing about the cinema of the last 7 years.

[Anastasia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't quite the book I thought it would be. It reads like a film class textbook; it assumes the reader has a substantial knowledge of film jargon. I also got a biased vibe from the way the author worded certain things that irritated me. I did learn a lot of history, though, so I liked that.

[Jordan Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

A useful and straightforward history of queer films and filmmaking in the U.S. Though it lacks a strong political perspective, its catalog of films is quite thorough and the authors provide a lot of helpful historical context at every turn.

[Bridget]

read this for a course i took. very interesting.