The Culture of Queers

This study of gay male culture from the early gay liberation movement to today’s ‘post-queer’ environment explores key topics such as fashion, vampires, film noir and even stars like Rock Hudson and Charles Hawtrey. For around a hundred years up to the Stonewall riots, the word for gay men was queers. From screaming queens to sensitive vampires and sad young men, and from pulp novels and pornography to the films of Fassbinder, The Culture of Queers explores the history of queer arts and media.
Richard Dyer traces the contours of queer culture, examining the differences and continuities with the gay culture which succeeded it. Opening with a discussion of the very concept of queers, he asks what it means to speak of a sexual grouping having a culture and addresses issues such as gay attitudes to women and the notion of camp.
Dyer explores a range of queer-made culture, from key topics such as fashion and vampires to genres like film noir and the heritage film, and stars such as Charles Hawtrey (outrageous star of the Carry On films) and Rock Hudson. Offering a grounded historical approach to the cultural implications of queerness, The Culture of Queers both insists on the cultural consequences of the oppress