Reseña de Choise

Henderson (communication, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst) uses a broad repertoire of methods (e.g., textual analysis and ethnographic fieldwork) and texts (e.g., Boys Don't Cry, The L Word, and Modern Family) to highlight and examine the often-neglected classed assumptions of queer representations. For instance, she shows how class-ness is always manifest in queer clothing, taste, beliefs, and worries; in being (un)comfortable in some jobs and having/wanting certain perceived-to-be-lucrative occupations; in (not) worrying about immigration or inheritance rights; in being (un)able to access therapy; and in believing that marriage will cultivate a person's morals and control over her/his sexual desires and relations. She concludes by describing a "commercial repressive hypothesis" and formulates the concept of "queer relay"--a way to understand cultural production in generative and reparative ways. Throughout, Henderson grounds queer cultural criticism in the liminal movements and moments of everyday life, treating this criticism as art and understanding criticism as inside of, and a contributor to, cultural production. She also formulates a new kind of classed-queerness, one characterized by softness and slowness, of people trying hard to live and survive as best as they can. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate, research, and professional collections. T. E. Adams Northeastern Illinois University