![A Perfect Union draws our attention to the powerful but unexamined event that - photo 1](/uploads/posts/book/439267/Images/0.jpeg)
A Perfect Union? draws our attention to the powerful but unexamined event that happened before the legalization of same-sex marriage: the spike in television representation of lesbian and gay relationships as romantic, admirable, misunderstood, and worthy of government recognition. Through a compelling study of the cultural campaign to convince straight audiences of the legitimacy of same-sex relationships, Albertsons book articulates the ambivalence that many queers feel about gay marriage and the discourses that circulate around it. We want self-determinationin our relationships and elsewherebut can queer culture survive the representational compromises that get us there?
Jane Ward, University of California, Riverside, USA
A Perfect Union? is a timely intervention on a subject that continues to be relevant to scholarly discussions today. I cant express how valuable the concept of a social surrogate could be to communication theory and media studies generally. Most importantly, the author integrates personal narratives with scholarly research prose with sophistication and lan.
Michael Johnson Jr., University of Wisconsin, USA
A Perfect Union?
On June 26, 2015, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy declared same-sex marriage is so ordered across the United States. The day will no doubt be remembered as a landmark shift in how U.S. society views and validates marriage and romantic relationships. But the shift would not have happened without an arguably more important, but already forgotten, shift four years earlier that saw unprecedented movement in public attitudes alongside record amounts of television representation of LGBQ relationships. Situated at this intersection of legislative, attitudinal and representational change, A Perfect Union? presents analyses of popular programmes such as Modern Family, Greys Anatomy, The Good Wife, Glee, Desperate Housewives and House in order to tackle crucial ethical questions regarding the impact of heterosexual knowledges on the rendering of same-sex relationships as relatable and respectable portraits of heteronormativity that reproduce the masculine/feminine binary, monogamous coupledom and the raising of children. Focusing on the connection between heteronormativity and government legitimacy, Cory Albertson deftly examines televisions privileging of certain forms of relationships over others, shedding light on the reproduction of everyday power relations within LGBQ relationships that hinge on issues of race, sexuality, class and gender. An engaging study of media constructions of same-sex relationships and the shaping of public expectations and attitudes, A Perfect Union? is a must-read for scholars of sociology, media and cultural studies and popular culture with interests in gender, sexuality and the family.
Cory Albertson is Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Smith College, USA.
The Cultural Politics of Media and Popular Culture
Series Editor:
C. Richard King
Washington State University, USA
Dedicated to a renewed engagement with culture, this series fosters critical, contextual analyses and cross-disciplinary examinations of popular culture as a site of cultural politics. It welcomes theoretically grounded and critically engaged accounts of the politics of contemporary popular culture and the popular dimensions of cultural politics. Without being aligned to a specific theoretical or methodological approach, The Cultural Politics of Media and Culture publishes monographs and edited collections that promote dialogues on central subjects, such as representation, identity, power, consumption, citizenship, desire and difference.
Offering approachable and insightful analyses that complicate race, class, gender, sexuality, (dis)ability and nation across various sites of production and consumption, including film, television, music, advertising, sport, fashion, food, youth, subcultures and new media, The Cultural Politics of Media and Popular Culture welcomes work that explores the importance of text, context and subtext as these relate to the ways in which popular cultures work alongside hegemony.
For a full list of titles, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/The-Cultural-Politics-of-Media-and-Popular-Culture/book-series/ASHSER-1395
Also available in the series:
Consumerism on TV
Popular Media from the 1950s to the Present
Edited by Alison Hulme
Disability and Popular Culture
Focusing Passion, Creating Community and Expressing Defiance
Katie Ellis
Beyond Hate
White Power and Popular Culture
C. Richard King and David J. Leonard
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2018 Cory Albertson
The right of Cory Albertson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Albertson, Cory, author.
Title: A perfect union? : television and the winning of same-sex marriage / Cory Albertson.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2017. | Series: The cultural politics of media and popular culture | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017028487 | ISBN 9781138633353 (hbk) | ISBN 9781315207704 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Same-sex marriage--United States. | Same-sex marriage--United States--Public opinion. | Television and gays--United States. | Marriage in popular culture--United States.
Classification: LCC HQ1034.U5 A43 2017 | DDC 306.84/80973--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017028487
ISBN: 978-1-138-63335-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-20770-4 (ebk)
For those who inspired me with their walks down the aisle: Katie and Nick, Daniela and Didier, Stacy and Dave, Lorie and he who shall not be named
And for those who brought my earliest friends to life: Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Gene Roddenberry, Patrick Stewart, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner and Gates McFadden
At its core, this project is about rebellion. It is about rebelling so as to find ones unique voice amid societal pressures to talk a certain way. During my journey with this project, I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by a chorus of rebels, each of whom pushed against the normal boundaries of society in their own way. They have also pushed me, guided me and supported me in finding my voice.