Chapter 6: The Closet

Alexander, J. & Losh, E. (2010). “A YouTube of one’s own?”: “Coming out” Videos as rhetorical action. In C. Pullen & M. Cooper (Eds.), LGBT identity and online new media (pp. 37–50).  New York, NY: Routledge.

Billings, A.C., Moscowitz, L.M., Rae, C., & Brown, N. (2015).  The art of coming out: Traditional and social media frames surrounding the NBA’s Jason Collins. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 92(1).

Draper, J.  (2012). Idol speculation:  Queer identity and a media-imposed lens of detection.  Popular Communication, 10, 201–216.

Gudelunas, D. (2012). There’s an app for that: The uses and gratifications of online social networks for gay men. Sexuality & Culture, 16 (4), 347–365.

Heinz, M. (2012). Transmen on the web: Inscribing multiple discourses. In K. Ross (Ed.), The handbook of gender, sex and media (pp. 226–240). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

McCune, J.Q. (2008). “Out” in the club: The down low, hip-hop and the architecture of black masculinity. Text and Performance Quarterly, 28 (3), 298–314.

Phillips, L. (2005). Deconstructing “down low” discourse: The politics of sexuality, gender, race, AIDS and anxiety. Journal of African American Studies, 9 (2), 3–15.

Pitt, R.N. (2006). Downlow mountain? De/stigmatizing bisexuality through pitying and pejorative discourse in media. The Journal of Men’s Studies, 14 (2), 254–258.

Complicating Closet Narratives

View “The Pilot” of FOX’s television series Empire (2015- ).  The drama series focuses on the hip hop music company, Empire Enterprises, its founders, Lucious (Terrance Howard) and Cookie (Taraji Henson) Lyon and their three sons, Andre (Trai Byers), Jamal (Jussie Smollett), and Hakeem (Bryshere Gray).  How does the program’s treatment of Jamal’s sexuality complicate traditional narratives of the closet?

Frozen’s Gay Agenda

Celebrated for featuring not one, but two female protagonists, and for centering the love between the sisters rather than between a prince and princess “wannabe,” Disney’s Frozen represented a continuing departure for the company in terms of its historical film offerings.   Its catchy anthem, “Let It Go,” became the girl power anthem of the pre-school age children and the bane of their parents’ existence.  But, is “Let It Go” a song about coming out? Following along the tradition of Closeted Children’s Characters, draw on the questions in the textbox and apply them to the case of Frozen.  You can read the following links to learn more about the controversy.