How are we to make sense of the transformation in gay representation-- from virtual invisibility before 1970 to the "gay chic" of today?
Off the Straight & Narrow is the first in-depth documentary to cast a critical eye over the growth of gay images on TV. Leading media scholars provide the historical and cultural context for exploring the social implications of these new representations.
Off the Straight & Narrow challenges viewers to consider the value and limits of available gay images: who is represented, what they get to say, and how people respond to them. The video is an invaluable tool for all educators interested in introducing students to issues of representation and diversity in the media.
Featuring interviews with: Edward Alwood, Richard Dyer, John Erni, Larry Gross, Lisa Henderson, Marguerite Moritz, Charles Nero, and Sasha Torres.
Sections: The Early Years | The AIDS Crisis | Saints, Singles, and Celibates | Representations of Bisexuality | Race and Sexuality | The Case of Ellen | Gay Images, Queer Pleasure
Duration: 63 min
ISBN: 1-893521-64-8
Date Produced: 1998
Discussion Guide
Transcript
Filmmaker Info
Executive Producer: Sut Jhally
Producer, Director, Editor: Katherine Sender
Consultant: Larry Gross
About the Filmmaker
Katherine Sender is a professor of media and sexuality at Cornell University. She has produced, directed, and edited numerous acclaimed documentaries, including the Off the Straight and Narrow series about LGBTQ+ representations on US television (Media Education Foundation, 1998, 2006, 2023), Brand New You: Makeover Television and the American Dream (Media Education Foundation, 2014), and Threads: Sustaining India’s Textile Tradition (Documentary Education Resources, 2022). She is the author of numerous books and articles, including Business not Politics: The Making of the Gay Market and The Makeover: Reality Television and Reflexive Audiences. She is returning to her focus on LGBTQ media and marketing in her current book project, Queer Media Mobilities.
Film Festivals
Inside Out: Toronto Lesbian and Gay Film & Video Festival 2000
7-Day Streaming Rental ($50):
"An unusually accessible yet sophisticated educational resource."
- Joan M. Garry | Executive Director, GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation)
"Off the Straight and Narrow explores the history of television's treatment of lesbians, bisexuals, and gays, from the infamous 1960 CBS special where gay men were interviewed hidden behind a potted plant, through the disastrous early AIDS coverage, up to Ellen's famous coming out on prime time TV."
- Donna Lee King, Teaching Sociology
