Title
Queering home or domesticating deviance? Interrogating gay domesticity through lifestyle television
Document Type
Book Chapter
Abstract
Across the Anglophonic west there is increasing mainstream interest in gay men's domestic sensibilities. This is evident in the growing visibility of gay men on lifestyle television in the US, the UK and Australia, particularly those programmes concerned with homemakillg and the care of self through home. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy [US] is perhaps the most obvious case, built on the premise that g"y men are arbiters of good taste, with inhereut concern and flair for domestic styling. But this is not the only example. Attwood (2005: 92) contends that home makeover shows 'favour the depiction of gay or camp men, both as designers allli "ontestants'. Dandy (if not gay-identified) designers feature in a number of home improvement shows, including Home Front: Inside Out lUKI (Attwood, 2005), Gruundfora: lAustralia] and The HotHouse lAustralia]. Moreover, gay men have appeared as participants and contestants in several home makeover programmes, including Home Front [UK] (Rrunsdon, 2003), hoth series of The Block (Australia] and The HotHouse [Australia]. Despite the growing literature on lifestyle television, there is no sustained interrogatiofl of the increasing presence of gay men on homemaking shows. I add ... ss this gap here, contrihuting not only to this literature, but also to the wider range of work on sexuality and home.
RIS ID
32180