Call Me Kuchu

This paper examines Call Me Kuchu, a 2012 documentary that profiles a group of activists in Uganda as they respond to the introduction of anti-homosexuality legislation in the Ugandan Parliament, the exposure of members of the LGBT community in the Ugandan publication Rolling Stone, and the death of activist David Kato. Utilizing queer theory, transnational feminism, and critical media studies, the authors provide a close reading of the film's formal elements in relation to the geopolitical context in which the film circulates. They argue for a more reflexive filmmaking praxis as well as significant contextualization of the issues of LGBT identity and human rights claims in relation to post-colonial politics. Ultimately, they offer suggestions for employing transnational filmmaking praxis and engaging with the film as a dynamic artifact of transnational and post-colonial contexts.     

My Job is Me

My aim in this paper is to think through a number of issues concerning the relationship between postfeminist/neoliberal brand culture, celebrity femininity and commodified authenticity. Using the case study of British glamour model and media mogul Katie Price, I suggest that the affective and commercial appeal of postfeminist celebrity culture depends on the commodification and gendering of authenticity whereby the currency of “realness” in the current media economy is harnessed to neoliberal and postfeminist expressions of (self-)branding, entrepreneurship and feminine agency. I argue that the “Katie Price” brand makes use of a series of authenticating strategies to involve consumers in the construction and assessment of postfeminist celebrity subjectivity. In particular, I focus on three tropes that occur in conjunction with this type of authenticity in consumption: personal narrativization, class groundedness, and entrepreneurial/plastic femininity.     

Man/boy love and the American gay movement

The issue of man/boy love has intersected the gay movement since the late nineteenth century, with the rise of the first gay rights movement in Germany. In the United States, as the gay movement has retreated from its vision of sexual freedom for all in favor of integration into existing social and political structures, it has sought to marginalize cross-generational love as a "non-gay" issue. The two movements continue to overlap, amid signs of mutual support as well as tension--a state of affairs that also characterizes their interrelationship in other countries. This article offers an overview and analysis of that interrelationship in the United States since the Stonewall Riots in New York City in June 1969, which marked the beginning of a reinvigorated struggle for gay liberation.     

My parents taught Me. Evidence on the family transmission of values

The paper uses questions included in the 2010 wave of the Bank of Italy’s Survey on Household Income and Wealth to investigate the role of family transmission of values. It presents three main empirical findings. First, the paper shows that a number of attitudes (generalized and personalized trusting behaviour, risk and time preferences) and outcomes (female labour force participation, fertility, entrepreneurship, productivity) are associated with the values received. Second, it documents that values received from parents are correlated with the values transmitted to descendants. Third, by using respondent moving patterns, the paper highlights that values received are slowly changing even after a discontinuity in the reference environment. Comparisons between first- and second-generation movers suggest that what matters for breaking the family chains are the formative years, when young people somehow strike a balance between the values transmitted by their parents and what they experience in the (possibly different) environment where they grow up.     

Man-boy friendships on trial: on the shift in the discourse on boy love in the early twentieth century

Ideas on man-boy friendships prevailing in early 20th century Germany are analyzed in this paper. The friendships based on the concept of pedagogical Eros, as propagated by Gustav Wyneken (1875-1964) in his Wickersdorf Free School Community, are presented as an example. Wyneken's conviction in 1921 for acts of vice with minors and the diverse reactions in the homosexual and youth movements and the popular press shed light on the viewpoints then held regarding these friendships. As a result of this confrontation, the Platonic model was superseded by the medico-sexological model which has continued to dominate thought on man-boy friendships up to the present day.     

Forgive Me Father for I Have Sinned: The Role of a Christian Upbringing on Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Identity Development

This study (n = 84) examined the extent to which a Christian upbringing may inhibit same-sex attracted individuals from accepting a lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) identity. No significant differences were found between current and former Christians' positive or negative gay identities. Participants who had left Christianity were more liberal and viewed God as hostile. Participants' “outness” as LGB to their primary network was associated with a greater positive and lesser negative gay identity. Participants' LGB network size was not related to either their positive or negative gay identifications. Finally, the participants' sexual histories were not related to their negative identities, but were related to their positive identities.