Radicalizing Romance: Subculture, Sex, and Media at the Margins
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
RADICALIZING ROMANCE: SUBCULTURE, SEX, AND MEDIA AT THE MARGINS By ANDREA WOOD A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2008 1 © 2008 Andrea Wood 2 To my father—Paul Wood—for teaching me the value of independent thought, providing me with opportunities to see the world, and always encouraging me to pursue my dreams 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Kim Emery, my dissertation supervisor, for her constant encouragement, constructive criticism, and availability throughout all stages of researching and writing this project. In addition, many thanks go to Kenneth Kidd and Trysh Travis for their willingness to ask me challenging questions about my work that helped me better conceptualize my purpose and aims. Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family who provided me with emotional and financial support at difficult stages in this process. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................7 ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................................9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................11 Modleski and Radway: Feminist Beginnings and Queer Foreclosures ..................................15 The Question of Audience: Publics and Queer Methodology ................................................19 Exploding Genre and Medium: The Protean Nature of Romance ..........................................22 The Future of Romance Scholarship: Queering the Margins .................................................25 Overview of Chapters .............................................................................................................31 2 WHO SAYS MEN DON’T READ ROMANCE?: THE GAY “HARLEQUINS” of ROMENTICS ..........................................................................................................................38 The Feminine Reification of Romance: Feminist Precedents and Queer Interventions .........42 From Queer Pulps to Online Counterpublics: The Politics and Publication of Gay Romance ..............................................................................................................................54 Gay Romance and Definitional Arguments: Queering the Harlequin Model in Romentics ............................................................................................................................61 Element One: Society Defined .......................................................................................63 Element Two: The Meeting .............................................................................................68 Element Three: The Barrier ............................................................................................71 Element Four: The Attraction ..........................................................................................75 Element Five: The Declaration ........................................................................................79 Element Six: Point of Ritual Death .................................................................................88 Element Seven: The Recognition ....................................................................................91 Element Eight: The Betrothal ..........................................................................................92 3 MAKING THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE: LESBIAN ROMANCE AND UNDERGROUND COMICS FOR WOMEN ........................................................................95 Romance and Early “Love Comics” for Women ...................................................................98 Lesbian Looks and Spatial Relations: Deciding What to Make Visible ..............................101 Possibilities for Pretty Pussies: Fantasy, Play, and Sex in “Girly” Porn for Women ...........108 Autobiography, Coming-of-Age, and “Real” Lesbian Love ................................................114 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................120 4 GET YOUR (FANTASY) FREAK ON: CONFESSIONAL DISCOURSE, TRAUMA, AND AMBIVALENT DESIRES IN THE EROTICA OF ZANE .......................................143 5 Romance, Pornography, and Black Sexual Politics ..............................................................146 The Confession, Trauma, and Mediating Queerness ............................................................154 Sexual Politics and Confessional Discourse in Cyberspace .................................................181 5 “STRAIGHT” WOMEN, QUEER TEXTS: BOY-LOVE MANGA AND THE RISE OF A GLOBAL COUNTERPUBLIC ........................................................................................191 6 CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................................215 WORKS CITED ..........................................................................................................................220 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................................228 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 3-1 Amy and Temper in the train car. ....................................................................................122 3-2 Amy watching a man hitting on Temper. ........................................................................123 3-3 Temper’s flashback conversations with her mother. .......................................................124 3-4 Temper lying drugged and unconscious in her wedding dress. .......................................125 3-5 Ominous imagery of the church steeple. ..........................................................................126 3-6 Temper and Amy become sexually intimate. ..................................................................127 3-7 Temper experiencing sexual pleasure. .............................................................................128 3-8 Temper and Amy share a kiss under the night sky. .........................................................129 3-9 Annie being chastised for masturbating too often. ..........................................................130 3-10 Nibbil enjoying a “nipple fuck.” ......................................................................................131 3-11 Nibbil gives new meaning to the idea of penetrative sex. ...............................................132 3-12 Nibbil hams up the role of the romance heroine in distress. ............................................133 3-13 “Alpha Annie” to the rescue. ...........................................................................................134 3-14 Annie and Nibbil demonstrate their love. ........................................................................135 3-15 Ariel is confronted by naked fantasy girls. ......................................................................136 3-16 Ariel starts to wonder if she is only attracted to girls. .....................................................137 3-17 Ariel makes her newly proclaimed identity as a dyke visible. ........................................138 3-18 Ariel and Sally express confusion about lesbian sex to Ms. Salt.....................................139 3-19 Ariel experiences mixed pleasure and anxiety as she masturbates. .................................140 3-20 Ariel mentally confronts the primacy of the penis in heteronormative culture. ..............141 3-21 Ariel becomes obsessed with a perceived imbalance in her clothing. .............................142 5-1 Shuichi sees Yuki for the first time. .................................................................................210 7 5-2 Dee and Ryo kissing. .......................................................................................................211 5-3 Shuichi and Yuki kissing. ................................................................................................212 5-4 Kei finds himself on the “bottom.” ..................................................................................213 5-5 Uke partner in ecstasy. .....................................................................................................214 8 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy RADICALIZING ROMANCE: SUBCULTURE, SEX, AND MEDIA AT THE MARGINS By Andrea Wood December 2008 Chair: Kim Emery Major: English In Radicalizing Romance, I contend that contemporary media at the margins of the romance industry are driving a counterpublic discourse that works to subvert the genre’s traditionally heteronormative paradigms. In an increasingly digital era, romance is a genre expanding to meet the diverse desires and fantasies of readers of different genders, sexualities, ethnicities, and ages that challenge the heterosexual assumptions of earlier feminist studies. While previous research generally focused on mass-marketed paperbacks, such as Harlequins, I instead examine subcultural and online texts including romantic