Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

"I'm Gay": Declarations, Desire, and Coming Out on Prime-Time TV

Herman, Didi (2005) "I'm Gay": Declarations, Desire, and Coming Out on Prime-Time TV. Sexualities, 8 (1). pp. 7-29. ISSN 1363-4607. (doi:10.1177/1363460705049572) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:138)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://sexualities.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/8/1/7

Abstract

Discourses of ‘coming out’ play a significant role in the construction of lesbian and gay sexualities, and in the politics of lesbian and gay movements. Although the critique of ‘identity claiming’ has been well established in the literature, popular culture representations of coming out have only recently begun to proliferate. My focus here is on prime-time television; I explore two lesbian coming out texts in some detail in order to consider how different forms of coming out have different meanings and effects. I argue this is due to the two competing discourses at work: identity versus desire. I also explore what these two seemingly different coming out moments share, how, at the end of the day, they may be more similar than it appears at first. And while much scholarship in the field prefers transgressive acts to identity declarations, I use these case studies to suggest that this critique may be misplaced.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1177/1363460705049572
Uncontrolled keywords: coming out, desire, identity, lesbian, television
Subjects: K Law
K Law > K Law (General)
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Kent Law School
Depositing User: Katrin Steinack
Date Deposited: 19 Dec 2007 18:01 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 09:39 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/138 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.