Logging Into Horror's Closet
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Logging into Horror’s Closet: Gay Fans, the Horror Film and Online Culture Adam Christopher Scales Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of East Anglia School of Art, Media and American Studies September 2015 © This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived there from must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. Abstract Harry Benshoff has boldly proclaimed that ‘horror stories and monster movies, perhaps more than any other genre, actively invoke queer readings’ (1997, p. 6). For Benshoff, gay audiences have forged cultural identifications with the counter-hegemonic figure of the ‘monster queer’ who disrupts the heterosexual status quo. However, beyond identification with the monstrous outsider, there is at present little understanding of the interpretations that gay fans mobilise around different forms and features of horror and the cultural connections they establish with other horror fans online. In addressing this gap, this thesis employs a multi-sited netnographic method to study gay horror fandom. This holistic approach seeks to investigate spaces created by and for gay horror fans, in addition to their presence on a mainstream horror site and a gay online forum. In doing so, this study argues that gay fans forge deep emotional connections with horror that links particular textual features to the construction and articulation of their sexual and fannish identities. In developing the concept of ‘emotional capital’ that establishes intersubjective recognition between gay fans, this thesis argues that this capital is destabilised in much larger spaces of fandom where gay fans perform the successful ‘doing of being’ a horror fan (Hills, 2005). This, I argue, illustrates that gay horror fandom is constructed and performed differently across fan spaces as a means to articulate gay identity in culturally meaningful ways. In presenting the voices of gay fans, the significance of this thesis lies in challenging existing models of horror fandom by suggesting its multiplicity for the fans researched. Indeed, whilst the ‘knowledgeability’ (Hills, 2005) of horror fans is important, this study explores the meaningful connections that gay fans establish with one another and the cultural significance of horror to the identity work of fans across distinctive online spaces. Table of Contents List of Illustrations ............................................................................................................... I Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................... II Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 Background ..................................................................................................................... 1 Interventions .................................................................................................................... 3 Justifications: Gay Fans Online ..................................................................................... 11 Literature Review ........................................................................................................... 14 Gender, Sexuality and the Horror Film ......................................................................... 14 Audiences and Fans of Horror ...................................................................................... 20 Gay Audiences and Fans ............................................................................................... 25 Communities and Interactions Online ........................................................................... 29 Sexuality and Identity Online ........................................................................................ 33 Methodology .................................................................................................................... 37 Multi-Sited Netnography ............................................................................................... 37 Selection of Micro-Communities .................................................................................. 42 Coming out as a Gay Horror Fan: Investments & Scholar-Fandom ............................. 46 Research Ethics ............................................................................................................. 53 Data Collection and Analysis ........................................................................................ 59 Thesis Outline .................................................................................................................. 63 SECTION ONE Chapter One: Out of Horror’s Closet: Fan Spaces, Reviews and Receptions of Horror on Queerhorror.com and Campblood.org ...................................................... 67 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 67 Monsters Among Us: The Space of Queerhorror.com .................................................. 70 ‘Not for Straight Boys’: Reviewing Queer Horror ........................................................ 76 ‘We’re here. We’re queer’: Counselors and the Space of Campblood.org ................... 86 Fan Theory/Knowledge ................................................................................................. 90 Campblood and the Homo Horror Guide ...................................................................... 92 Fan Trivia/ Knowledge .............................................................................................. 94 Emotional Realism .................................................................................................... 96 Postmodern Play: Gender and Sexuality ................................................................. 100 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 103 Chapter Two: ‘Something is Trying to Get Inside My Body’: Fan Blogs, Gay Sexuality and A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge ................................ 105 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 105 Monsters, Victims and Online Blogs .......................................................................... 109 ‘Jesse! Fight Him!’ The Final Boy .............................................................................. 119 Elm Street: A Real Nightmare for Gay Fans ............................................................... 123 Web of Nightmares: From Perversion to Paratexts ..................................................... 131 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 139 Chapter Three: ‘I think they saved my life, actually’: Micro-Community, Fan Memories and Growing up Gay with Horror ............................................................ 141 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 141 The Space of Tribe.net ................................................................................................ 147 Memories of Growing up Gay with Horror ................................................................ 150 Sexual Identity and Early Consumptions of Horror .................................................... 157 Interpretive Micro-Community and a Generation of Fans .......................................... 163 Generation ............................................................................................................... 167 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 170 SECTION TWO Chapter Four: ‘We have our own group on this site now’: Gay Horror Fans, Bloody- Disgusting and the Struggle for Legitimacy ............................................................... 174 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 174 A Bloody-Disgusting Battle: Coming Out on a Horror Fan Site ................................ 179 Horror, Taste and Legitimising Fandom ..................................................................... 184 Performing Identities, Reaffirming Practices .............................................................. 190 Reclaiming a Space: Fan Values and Capital .............................................................. 198 Healing the Wounds? Afterthoughts from the Camp Next Door ................................ 201 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 204 Chapter Five: Scaring the Jock out of You: Gay Masculinities, Taste and Horror Fan Identity on RealJock.com ............................................................................................. 206 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 206 Some Scream Louder than Others: Identity and the Profiles of (Non-) Horror Fans . 214 The Fem Amongst the Men: Consumptions