Edge of seventeen: melodramatic coming-out in new queer adolescence films
Queer adolescence films in the US and Britain in the 1990s show positive representations of same-sex attraction, romance, and confrontations with homophobia. Films like Beautiful Thing, Edge of Seventeen, and Get Real are primarily targeted at young gay and lesbian viewers who need supportive and optimistic visualizations of eroticized queer politics, struggle and success, agony and happiness. These films are characterized, however, by complicated representations of the queer body, eroticization of physical inequality in same-sex relationships, and the melodramatic coming-out of agonized protagonists, which highly support the notion of a fixed and stable sexual orientation.
Keywords: Adolescence; Body; Cinema; Coming Out; Melodrama; Queer Theory
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: 01 December 2004
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