The Generic Closet - Black Gayness and the Black-Cast Sitcom

Jr. Martin

Summary

Even after a rise in gay and Black representation and production on TV in the 1990s, the sitcom became a "generic closet," restricting Black gay characters with narrative tropes.Drawing from 20 interviews with credited episode writers, key show-runners, and Black gay men, The Generic Closet situates Black-cast sitcoms as a unique genre that uses Black gay characters in service of the series' heterosexual main cast. Alfred L. Martin, Jr., argues that the Black community is considered to be antigay due to misrepresentation by shows that aired during the family viewing hour and that were written for the imagined, "traditional" Black family. Martin considers audience reception, industrial production practices, and authorship to unpack the claim that Black gay characters are written into Black-cast sitcoms such as Moesha, Good News, and Let's Stay Together in order to closet Black gayness.By exploring how systems of power produce ideologies about Black gayness, The Generic Closet deconstructs the concept of a monolithic Black audience and investigates whether this generic closet still exists.

Available since: 04/06/2021.

Other books that might interest you

Duffy's Tavern and Adventures By...

Carl Amari

This week on Hollywood 360, we’ll pay a visit to Duffy's Tavern. We will also hear Larry Thor in Broadway is My Beat. Plus, international intrigue on Rocky Jordan and the next chapter in our adventure with Adventures by Morse.
A Falcon Picture Group audio production.

Show book

Reframing Spirituality

Joel Kramer, Ph.D. Diana Alstad

Diana Alstad and Joel Kramer feel there is a tremendous amount of human potential that is untapped, but we have been stunted by various beliefs, limited identities, and rigid worldviews. In particular, they feel spiritual traditions make people feel inadequate and bad about themselves for not being selfless enough and for being self-centered.

Show book

Healing Sounds And Shifting...

Jonathan Goldman

Jonathan and Andi Goldman describe Hindu, Tibetan Buddhist, and other concepts of tantra, and its relationship to sound, vibration, and enlightenment. The Goldmans teach that using our voices and other sounds in new ways can attract greater harmony and creativity within our lives and relationships.

Show book

Tiny Easter Island deals with...

PBS NewsHour

Easter Island off the coast of Chile has a major trash problem. It’s near what’s known as a “trash vortex” in the middle of the South Pacific and floating waste is constantly washing ashore. Local officials estimate the growing population is producing more than 20 tons of trash per day. What’s to be done? Jeffrey Brown explores some creative solutions, including a music school made of garbage.

Show book

Rescue Restore Redecorate - Amy...

Amy Howard

“[The] step-by-step instructions are clear and practically foolproof . . . an essential guide to DIY restoration and antiquing.” ?Publishers Weekly (starred review) 
 
Whether you dream of restoring an heirloom to its former beauty, or just want to modernize a flea market treasure, Amy Howard has the design and refinishing secrets you need. Here are all the furniture finishing recipes, techniques, and tips that have made Howard’s beloved classes sold-out success stories, and made Howard herself the go-to guru of refinishing and “use what you have” redecorating.  
 
Try your hand at unique painted and faux finishes, and experiment with gold leaf, distressing, and marvelous graining effects. Along the way, you will learn a treasure trove of techniques, as Howard shares before-and-after makeovers from her studio and offers impeccable step-by-step instruction in all that is needed to achieve each look.

Show book

Picasso

Jp. A. Calosse

Picasso was born a Spaniard and, so they say, began to draw before he could speak. As an infant he was instinctively attracted to artist’s tools. In early childhood he could spend hours in happy concentration drawing spirals with a sense and meaning known only to himself. At other times, shunning children’s games, he traced his first pictures in the sand. This early self-expression held out promise of a rare gift. Málaga must be mentioned, for it was there, on 25 October 1881, that Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born and it was there that he spent the first ten years of his life. Picasso’s father was a painter and professor at the School of Fine Arts and Crafts. Picasso learnt from him the basics of formal academic art training. Then he studied at the Academy of Arts in Madrid but never finished his degree. Picasso, who was not yet eighteen, had reached the point of his greatest rebelliousness; he repudiated academia’s anemic aesthetics along with realism’s pedestrian prose and, quite naturally, joined those who called themselves modernists, the non-conformist artists and writers, those whom Sabartés called “the élite of Catalan thought” and who were grouped around the artists’ café Els Quatre Gats. During 1899 and 1900 the only subjects Picasso deemed worthy of painting were those which reflected the “final truth”; the transience of human life and the inevitability of death. His early works, ranged under the name of “Blue Period” (1901-1904), consist in blue-tinted paintings influenced by a trip through Spain and the death of his friend, Casagemas. Even though Picasso himself repeatedly insisted on the inner, subjective nature of the Blue Period, its genesis and, especially, the monochromatic blue were for many years explained as merely the results of various aesthetic influences...

Show book