Freaks Talk Back: Tabloid Talk Shows and Sexual Nonconformity | 
 enlarge | Author: Joshua Gamson
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
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Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 696539
Media: Paperback
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8
ISBN: 0226280659
Dewey Decimal Number: 305
EAN: 9780226280653
ASIN: 0226280659
Publication Date: May 15, 1999
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Condition: New. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 304 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
In the recent past, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people had almost no presence on television. With the invention and propagation of tabloid talk shows such as IJerry Springer/I, IJenny Jones/I, IOprah/I, and IGeraldo/I, people outside the sexual mainstream now appear in living rooms across America almost every day of the week. Often these appearances are rambunctious, ugly, and exploitative, with the "action" of the show predicated upon homophobic responses from the audience. Most gay media watchers question the worth of appearing on such programs: at what price, they ask, visibility? This view is startlingly revised in Joshua Gamson's IFreaks Talk Back/I, an analysis of how tabloid TV may be the best--well, certainly the most engaging on a grassroots level--visibility that sex outsiders have ever garnered. Using surveys, news analysis, discussions of race and class differences, and readings from the shows themselves, Gamson argues that the endless yelling, bickering, and outright displays of homophobia--so different from the pre-packaged, insincere tolerance that passes for discourse in much of the media--give rise to discussions about people's genuine feelings and beliefs. Questioning the very precepts of how we think about media coverage, IFreaks Talk Back/I is as provocative and disturbing as tabloid television itself. I--Michael Bronski/I
Product Description
DIVUsing extensive interviews, hundreds of transcripts, focus-group discussions with viewers, and his own experiences as an audience member, Joshua Gamson argues that talk shows give much-needed, high-impact public visibility to sexual nonconformists while also exacerbating all sorts of political tensions among those becoming visible. With wit and passion, iFreaks Talk Back/i illuminates the joys, dilemmas, and practicalities of media visibility.BRBR"This entertaining, accessible, sobering discussion should make every viewer sit up and ponder the effects and possibilities of America's daily talk-fest with newly sharpened eyes."#8212;iPublishers Weekly/iBRBR"Bold, witty. . . . There's a lot of empirical work behind this deceptively easy read, then, and it allows for the most sophisticated and complex analysis of talk shows yet."#8212;Elayne Rapping, iWomen's Review of Books/iBRBR"Funny, well-researched, fully theorized. . . . Engaged and humane scholarship. . . . A pretty inspiring example of what talking back to the mass media can be."#8212;Jesse Berrett, iVillage Voice/iBRBR"An extraordinarily well-researched volume, one of the most comprehensive studies of popular media to appear in this decade."#8212;James Ledbetter, iNewsday/i/DIV
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| Customer Reviews:
 Gamson raises the watermark on studies of sexuality media November 15, 1998
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Joshua Gamson is a signpost pointing hopefully to a bright new era of scholarly work on popular culture. In the past, books from university presses on everything from Barney to Barbie have either been hopelessly theoretical (usually toked out on Focault) or with the polite condescendion of an overworked television critic. With this book, Joshua Gamson has brilliantly changed the levels of the game. pFreaks Talk Back knows talk shows from the inside, outside and above. Gamson asserts that Oprah, Ricki and Donahue are meeting grounds for ideas on alternative genders, often expressing a progressive, if fleeting, level of acceptance. He underlines the ambivalence he feels as a gay man and a scholar, seeing Freaks talking to millions of homes via the talk show but doing so under the banner of freakishness. pWhile this might not be forceful leveling of trash TV we'd like, it is a thoughtfully developed and couragous conclusion. A sociologist, Gamson sat in on hundreds of talk shows, interviewing guests,personel, and audience to arrive at his conclusions. He includes himself in the discussion, admitting his weekness for TV trash, and his rollicking Saturday nights out in drag. Rather than indulgant, these anecdotes are refreshing, showing the author's willingness to be both intellecutally sophisticated and accessible, the true dream of quality writing on popular culture. Through humor, diligance, and self-awareness of his project's trip wires, Joshua Gamson shows us why popular and scholarly need not in front of a studio audience, screaming at each other.
 Engaging glimpse into the sordid world of TV talk. June 24, 1998
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
As a gay man, Gamson provides an interesting perspective on LGBT issues and exposes many of the hypocritical and often contradictory themes recurrent to the shows. There are many entertaining episodes recounted, but the book is more of a unique blend of sociological and personal importance. The writing can be a bit dry at times, but it is an intertaining and thought-provoking book for gays and non-gays alike.
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