Straight: Constructions of Heterosexuality in the Cinema

By Wheeler Winston Dixon

Book Overview

Explores the ways that stereotypes of heterosexuality are portrayed and constructed in film.

straight / 'strāt (adj.)... without curves... correct... honest... not deviating from the normal... conventional... Heterosexual

Practically all mainstream cinema is "straight," and has been since its inception. In Straight, Wheeler Winston Dixon explores how heterosexual performativity has been constructed in film, from early cinema to the present day. In addition to discussing how cinematic visions of masculine and feminine desire have been commodified and sold to reinforce existing societal constructs, Dixon also documents the recent emergence of "hypermasculinity," a kinetic and exaggerated masculinity that has been created to counter the more gentle, thoughtful male portrayed in While You Were Sleeping, Sleepless in Seattle, and other films that seemingly threaten the established order of patriarchal cinematic discourse.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0791456242
• ISBN13: 9780791456248
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.9" x 9.1"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher