1 Page Number 1 Rachel Jermansky March 18 2014 Sex Relationships and Communication COMM 1131 01 CRN 36714 Test Review Ah Yes I Remember It Well Memory and Queer Culture in Will and Grace Christopher Castiglia and Christopher Reed Memory Gay Identity and the Television Sitcom 1 cultural identities depend crucially on memory collective as well as personal a identity is mutable reciprocal a constant negotiation of memory close to identification not a static and essential identity b assaults on memory therefore threaten not only our knowledge of the past but our ability to imagine reshape and make claims for identifications in the present as well as the future 2 assaults on gay memory attempt to render us sexually anxious isolated in dynamics of shame and guilt a often homophobic initiatives to prevent affirmative acknowledgement of homosexuality in history classes obscuring same sex attractions of historical figures etc b deep in our culture mainstream media i frustrate and impact efforts to strengthen bonds among people old young male female straight gay outside of conventional sex gender norms ii not overtly homophobic media rehearse version of gay history as victims talks in which sexual an political self assertion leads to violent assaults iii mainstream focus on gay martyrs follows two decades of stories featuring the doomed homosexual victimized by an immature culture that in the 1970s promoted the promiscuity that led to AIDS in this memory view the solution to the problem of memory is a willed amnesia in which gay men forget our past in order to assimilate to purportedly healthier mainstream ones iv 3 4 typical of calls on gay men to reject the legacy of the immediate post stonewall generation and reinvent ourselves along supposedly cleaner healthier lines that look like normalcy coupledom conceived as monogamous state sanctioned property rights based and production of progeny this is comic Need to follow the truly man tan party not a child play date event to follow the pleasure principle of Will and Grace a wholehearted identification of gay culture disco musicals fashion trends to reveal the rich resources of gay memory and arouse strong identification with gay subculture antagonistic to heteronormativity as yoked by the term queer 5 claims are based on a strategy of interpretation based on the pleasure of subcultural 6 identification in areas overlooked or dismissed by a more authoritative gaze tv and sitcoms especially go where others fear to tread trouble race gender class politics w queer potential 7 sitcoms offer us sympathetic recurring characters whose eccentric mis readings of their environments constitute the primary pleasure of the genre validating strategies of non 2 normative interpretations that are a hallmark of sub culture and communally shared strategies of pleasureful misreading 8 sitcoms have unique importance in the construction of minority sexuality a addresses our inner life through home and tight close up shots b maximize private personal bond the individual experience with the collective 9 suggests links b w histories of tv and of sexual identity c sharable memory seriality of sitcom shows falseness of identity as unchanging and static emphasizes playfulness and malleability of identity d what about sexual identity formed outside of family race ethnic and class bonds which requires an ability to revise the personal memory narratives i Nonfamilial identifications with non normative or chosen families suture the privatized affect of domestic viewership to increasingly self motivated collectively maintained forms of affiliation OR sitcoms act to create independent viewers beyond family race ethnicity class to create communal affiliations that are collectively maintained unique forms of identification and memory a sitcom s history is about rituals of communion memory and role playing where identities could be changed where time was different than work time and personal desires had openings sharings of personal with communal strangers b same forces that replaced communal rituals with commercial theater social and geographic mobility rapid urbanization higher levels of disposable income all helped to generate modern gay culture c mass media allow audiences to share intimacy without familiarity and to create new memories and hence identities from seemingly impersonal and specularized encounters d parallels b w viewing logic of tv and gay identity suggest that sitcom in general and Will and Grace in particular should be a rich site for dynamics of gay memory as they play out in constructions of subcultural sexual identity today The Players 1 Less coherent believable people than embodiments of competing attitudes or social position a Jack gayest most exemplifies gay cultural code enacted through rehearsals of gay memory to create sexual and social bonds with other gay men Gigi example season 2 episode 5 link here i Memory allows connection to affirm sexuality merging gay eroticism with camp cultural geography and community ii Paradigmatic scene where memory is basis of gay identity 1 An unprecedented spectacle of gay subcultural interaction depicted as a practice of shared pleasure for those involved and deployed to include viewers who take their own pleasure in recognizing which is to say remembering the sexual scenario and camp allusion 2 W G affirms gay memory as a viable basis for identity b Will more ambivalent to memory and gay cultural codes except when under Jack s influence i Conservative critical of Jack for camp and gay codes ii Unhappy and isolated locked into relationship w Grace iii Use of memory results less satisfactory don t pay off 1 Matthew Will placed in dominant cultural values become their undoing iv Not not gay 1 W G demonstrates range of gay identities 3 2 Jack and Will represent deep history of enabling mainstream gay politics Will and camp and cruising Jack 2 Sharing relationships through memory a Grace and Karen b Will and Grace failed heterosexuality c Memory fosters bonds not only across differences within the gay community but across supposed divides of gay and straight male and female 3 Karen demonstrates memory across boundaries a Straight woman matching Jack s pleasure in eroticism repertoire of camp failure to sustain conventional social role w subordinate femininity b Queered by her participation in gay culture and memory 4 Not an offensive reminder of links b w homophobia and misogyny b c more of a campy inversion of