In the 1930s, Freud observed that "when you meet a human being, the first distinction you make is `male or female?' and you are accustomed to make the distinction with unhesitating certainty." As Freud suggests, society is divisible by gender. We are taken to be either "male" or "female." This notion seems to be fixed within our culture and is often unquestioned. In this dynamic book, fashion journalist Laura Cherrie Beaney examines gender as a concept and as a practice that is also challenged and contested in the fashion industry. While gender has been relatively fixed within our society, we are nevertheless entertained by "gender bending." The media and entertainment industries now represent a range of gender identities. As much as it is a cultural phenomenon, gender is also an individual practice. Social theorists describe some individuals as "gender outlaws" for actively choosing to blend and shape their own gender identities. Fashionable clothing makes multiple statements about the wearer. It can identify social status and tell the viewer, "This is the type of person I am." In contemporary culture, fashion designers, stylists, photographers, and other media professionals have been fascinated with the idea of gender and its ever-changing boundaries. In recent years, the fashion industry has also focused on ideas of unisex identity and androgyny. Indeed, the fashion industry seems to afford a decadent sense of power to alternative gender identities. Fashion designers and stylists have been inspired by alternative gender identities when creating images and when showcasing their designs. Crossing the Catwalk explores fashion to understand how this mediated image of gender equality in the twenty-first century relates to reality by examining cross-dressing and transvestism through the construction of personal style. By using case studies from a range of different sources, the book will give a clear idea of how the reality of cross-dressing compares to the glamorous and decadent images portrayed by the fashion industry. It will aim to uncover the true motivations for those who cross dress and analyze the construction of gendered personal styles in relation to fashion.

This book is the first to establish the relevance of same-sex desires, pleasures and anxieties in the cinema of post-war Italy. It explores cinematic representations of homosexuality and their significance in a wider cultural struggle in Italy involving society, cinema, and sexuality between the 1940s and 1970s. Besides tracing the evolution of representations through both art and popular films, this book also analyses connections with consumer culture, film criticism and politics. Giori uncovers how complicated negotiations between challenges to and valorization of dominant forms of knowledge of homosexuality shaped representations and argues that they were not always the outcome of hatred but also sought to convey unmentionable pleasures and complicities. Through archival research and a survey of more than 600 films, the author enriches our understanding of thirty years of Italian film and cultural history.

The NBC series Hannibal has garnered both critical and fan acclaim for its cinematic qualities, its complex characters, and its innovative reworking of Thomas Harris's mythology so well-known from Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs (1991) and its variants. The series concluded late in 2015 after three seasons, despite widespread fan support for its continuation. While there is a healthy body of scholarship on Harris's novels and Demme's film adaptation, little critical attention has been paid to this newest iteration of the character and narrative. Hannibal builds on the serial killer narratives of popular procedurals, while taking them in a drastically different direction. Like critically acclaimed series such as Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, it makes its viewers complicit in the actions of a deeply problematic individual and, in the case of Hannibal, forces them to confront that complicity through the character of Will Graham. The essays in Becoming explore these questions of authorship and audience response as well as the show's themes of horror, gore, cannibalism, queerness, and transformation. Contributors also address Hannibal's distinctive visual, auditory, and narrative style. Concluding with a compelling interview with series writer Nick Antosca, this volume will both entertain and educate scholars and fans of Hannibal and its many iterations.

From Sia to Elton John, Dusty Springfield to Little Richard, LGBT voices have changed the course of modern music. But in a world before they gained understanding and a place in the mainstream, how did the queer musicians of yesteryear fight to build foundations for those who came after? Pulling back the curtain on the colourful world that shaped our musical and cultural landscape, Darryl W. Bullock reveals the inspiring and often heartbreaking stories of internationally renowned stars, as well as lesser-known names, who have led the revolution from all corners of the globe. David Bowie Made Me Gay is a treasure trove of moving and provocative stories that emphasise the right to be heard and the need to keep up the fight for equality in the spotlight.

A trailblazing collection of writing from Binyavanga Wainaina's extraordinary life

'In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don't get bogged down with precise descriptions.'

Binyavanga Wainaina was a seminal author and activist, remembered as one of the greatest chroniclers of contemporary African life. After his death in 2019, this ground-breaking collection brings together his pioneering writing on the African continent for the first time.

A rule-breaker full of wry satire and piercing wisdom, this collection includes many of Binyavanga's most critically acclaimed pieces, including the viral satirical sensation How to Write About Africa. Writing fearlessly across a range of topics - from politics to international aid, cultural heritage and redefining sexuality, this is a remarkable illustration of a writer at the height of his power.

Terry and Jeff are writers of gay erotica. They talk of their experiences and fantasy. If you are offended by gay sex do not buy this book. It is meant for adults 18 years and older. Buy this book part of the proceed goes gay youth organization.

In the second installment of the Glen & Tyler series, the guys find out what happens when you inherit a Scottish castle, tussle with international crime gangs and host formal balls. Yes, balls -- with dancing and everything In typical Hardy Boys--er, Glen & Tyler fashion, there are secret passages, irascible old men, caves, missing treasure, fine liquor and kilts. Ok, the kilts thing is new -- but believe me, you'll like 'em. Although there isn't much hockey this time around, there is shinty*. There's also some romantic anniversary thing, but really, stay for the shinty. * For those readers unfamiliar with the ancient sport of shinty, think hockey played on a field, without protective gear and with a solid rugby sensibility. Or a riot with sticks and a score keeper.

In Private Affairs, Phillip Brian Harper explores the social and cultural significance of the private, proposing that, far from a universal right, privacy is limited by one's racial-and sexual-minority status. Ranging across cinema, literature, sculpture, and lived encounters-from Rodin's "The Kiss "to Jenny Livingston's "Paris is Burning"-Private Affairs demonstrates how the very concept of privacy creates personal and sociopolitical hierarchies in contemporary America.

"Important...a truly fascinating reading on this controversial subject."
-- "Library Journal"

"The reprinted documents are what makes Burg's book valuable, and they allow readers to judge for themselves whether gays and lesbians deserve to be fully integrated into the modern military."--"The Journal of Sex Research"

In Ancient Greece and Rome, in Crusader campaigns and pirate adventures, same-sex romances were a common and condoned part of military culture. From the Peloponnesian War to the Gulf War, from Achelleus to Lawrence of Arabia gays and lesbians have played a crucial but often hidden role in military campaigns. But recent debates over the legality of gay service in the military and the "don't ask, don't tell" policy have obscured this rich aspect of military history. Richard Burg has recovered important documents and assembled an anthology on these often invisible gay and lesbian warriors.

Burg shows us that the Amazons of legend weren't just fictional. We learn about the richness and variety of their culture in documents from Plato, Seneca and Suetonius. From courts-martial proceedings we discover women warriors in seventeenth century England who passed as men in order to serve, and army officers whose underground culture fostered long-term romantic friendships.

There are also sections on the American Civil War, World War I and II, the contemporary U.S. military as well as sailors and pirates. This anthology will forever change the way we think about "gays in the military."

"Passionate and revealing love letters from the iconic lesbian novelist . . . Radclyffe Hall is getting a fresh look. . . . Glasgow has chosen these letters well and provides helpful context."
"--Kirkus Review"

"Many assumptions have been made about the degree to which Radclyffe Hall's lesbian classic, "The Well of Loneliness," may be autobiographical. Your John dismisses such notions. This exhaustive collection of letters written between 1934 and 1942 to Evguenia Souline, a White Russian emigre with whom Hall fell deeply in love are detailed, intimate records of Hall's personal life and convictions. . . . the collection is a heart-wrenching record of how politics, money, and geography converged to undermine these women's dreams."
"--Publisher's Weekly"

This landmark book represents the first publication of original writing by Radclyffe Hall, author of "The Well of Loneliness," in over 50 years.

One of the most famous and influential lesbian novelists of the twentieth century, Hall became a cause clbre in 1928, upon the publication of her novel "The Well of Loneliness," when the British government brought action on behalf of the Crown to declare the book obscene. Probably the most widely read lesbian novel ever written, the book has been continuously in print since its first publication and remains to this day an important part of the literary landscape.

Expertly deciphered and edited by Hall scholar and biographer Joanne Glasgow, Your John is a selection of Hall's love letters to Evguenia Souline, a White Russian emigre with whom Hall fell completely and passionately in love in the summer of 1934. Written between this first meeting and the onset of Hall's last illness in 1942, these letters detail Hall's growing obsession, the pain to her life partner Una Troubridge of this betrayal, and the poignant hopelessness of a happy resolution for any of the three women. It was ultimately this relationship, Glasgow argues, which tragically precipitated the decline in Hall's creative work and her health. The letters also provide important new information about her views on lesbianism and take us well beyond the artistic limits she imposed on the characters in "The Well of Loneliness." They shed light on her views on religion, politics, war, and the literary and artistic scene. Illuminating both the nature of her relationships and her views on the current politics of the time, Your John will greatly extend the range of our knowledge about Radclyffe Hall."

This volume uses bioarchaeological remains to examine the complexities and diversity of past socio-sexual lives. This book does not begin with the presumption that certain aspects of sex, gender, and sexuality are universal and longstanding. Rather, the case studies within-extend from Neolithic Europe to pre-Columbian Mesoamerica to the nineteenth-century United States-highlight the importance of culturally and historically contextualizing socio-sexual beliefs and practices. The Bioarchaeology of Socio-Sexual Lives highlights a major shortcoming in many scholarly and popular presentations of past socio-sexual lives. They reveal little about the ancient or historic group under study and much about Western society's modern state of heteronormative affairs. To interrogate commonsensical thinking about socio-sexual identities and interactions, this volume draws from critical feminist and queer studies. Reciprocally, bioarchaeological studies extend social theorizing about sex, gender, and sexuality that emphasizes the modern, conceptual, and discursive. Ultimately, The Bioarchaeology of Socio-Sexual Lives invites readers to think more deeply about humanity's diversity, the naturalization of culture, and the past's presentation in mass-media communications.

When Kevin Riley's parents discover he is gay, they throw him out of the house. He ends up hustling in Los Angeles, where he is abducted and almost killed and his friend is killed. Eventually he comes to New York where he meets Tim19B. He discovers hidden talent, after much work and study, under another name, he becomes Chess Champion of the World.

Servia and Catalina are back, and this time, they find themselves facing new obstacles in their relationship. Boredom in a time of peace sends the empress on a voyage across the Mediterranean she quickly wishes she can undo, as she and her queen encounter a new, cunning foe in Cleopatra, the arrogant former pharaoh of Egypt whose thirst for vengeance will not be so easily quenched. Cleopatra's violent political tactics, together with civil unrest over a controversial law passed in Rome and Catalina's hope for a child, soon give Servia plenty of problems with which to occupy her time, as a terrifying new dilemma confronts her: Trapped in a predicament where she must choose, how can she reconcile loyalty to kingdom and loyalty to love without letting one of them go forever? Warning: This novel contains graphic violence and is not recommended for readers under the age of 18.

Over 16,000,000 men served in the armed forces in WWII. Perhaps as many as 3%, or 480,000, had a homosexual orientation. Admittedly, several thousand were screened out before being inducted, and some later received Undesirable Discharges. 120,000 of these men saw combat action, and undoubtedly hundreds were killed, and thousands were wounded. Jack Scott, by far the most outstanding seventeen-year-old in a small town in Arkansas, is forced to confront this problem both at home and in the military. This story is his, and to a degree, the stories of his family, his friends, and his comrades in combat. The problem is handled sympathetically, if realistically.

This book examines and critiques the fact that Chile's claims to economic exceptionalism have been embodied, often quite aggressively, in a heterosexual, and primarily male, ideal. Despite the many shifts Chilean economics and politics have undergone over the past fifty years, the country's view of itself as a "model" in contrast to other Latin American countries has remained constant. By deploying an artistic, literary, and cinematic archive of queer figures from this period, this book draws parallels among the exceptionalisms of Chile's economic discourse, the subjects deemed most (and least) apt to embody it, and the maneuvers of its cultural production between local and global ideas of gender and politics to delineate its place in the world. Queering the Chilean Way thus sheds light on the sexual, economic, and aesthetic dimensions of exceptionalism-at its heart, a discourse of exclusion that often comprises a major element of nationalism-in Chile and throughout the Americas.