Social Thought and Research, Volume 26, Number 1&2 (2005)

Permanent URI for this collection

Browse

Recent Submissions

  • Publication
    The Intersection of Gay Street and Straight Street: Shopping, Social Class, and the New Gay Visibility
    (Department of Sociology, University of Kansas, 2005-04-01) Gamson, Joshua
  • Publication
    Social Thought and Research, Volume 26, Number 1&2 (2005): Front Matter
    (Department of Sociology, University of Kansas, 2005-04-01)
  • Publication
    The Contradictions of Gay Tele-Visibility: A Reaction to Gamson
    (Department of Sociology, University of Kansas, 2005-04-01) Barnes-Brus, Tori
  • Publication
    STAR Interview with Josh Gamson 10/10/2003
    (Department of Sociology, University of Kansas, 2005-04-01) Burgess, Heather
  • Publication
    Why Don t You Take Your Dress Off and Fight Like a Man? Homosexuality and the 1960s Crisis of Masculinity in The Gay Deceivers
    (Department of Sociology, University of Kansas, 2005-04-01) Woodman, Brian
    This essay examines The Gay Deceivers as a product of this new 1960s shift in sexuality and gender. After describing the cultural climate of both the United States and Hollywood regarding sex and gender in the 1960s in greater detail, I will give an overview of how The Gay Deceivers was both typical and atypical in its representations of homosexuality. This film, however, rarely has been given a thorough treatment beyond a critique of its stereotypes. Although simply pointing out the stereotypical does have its value, there is something much more significant operating within this film. Therefore, after covering this more traditional ground of homosexual stereotypes, I will explore how the film s use of homosexuality is less about simple gay representation and more about a larger crisis in gender identity. The Gay Deceivers is actually a battleground for competing versions of American masculinity in which the old, traditional values of family, marriage, and monogamy are challenged by the new freedom of the 1960s. As such, the film also serves as an example how such tactics as feminization can be used to undermine competing masculinities in popular culture texts in order to bolster the hegemony of traditional heterosexual masculinity. Thus, the film s homophobia is less about homosexuality itself than it is about exploring what it means to be (or not to be) masculine both in the 1960s as well as in the present day.
  • Publication
    Social Thought and Research, Volume 26, Number 1&2 (2005): Book Review
    (Department of Sociology, University of Kansas, 2005-04-01) Staples, Clifford L.
  • Publication
    Overcoming Domination through Self-Representation: Gay Men s Experience in 1960s San Francisco
    (Department of Sociology, University of Kansas, 2005-04-01) Ormsbee, J. Todd
  • Publication
    Theoretical and Practical Challenges to Francis Fukayama s End of History Thesis
    (Department of Sociology, University of Kansas, 2005-04-01) Kucukozer, Melmet
    Francis Fukayama in his discussion of the Islamist movement and its threat to modernity utilizes a certain logic of history. Societies through their governments evolve in a gradual, linear process until they reach a final form characterized by liberal, democratic capitalism the famous end of history thesis as exemplified by Western countries. Fukayama universalizes this conception of history because, according to him, it is based on the scientific method of interpretation, and, thus, proceeds to explain the events in the Muslim/Arab world through this prism of historiography. However, it is the purpose of this paper to challenge Fukayama s language of history as being more ideological rather than scientific, and posit an alternate and more scientific model of historiography as developed by Manuel De Landa. Various interpretations of the Islamist movement provide support for De Landa s method of looking at history. On a more practical level, the failure of several development projects shows the danger of taking on the neo-liberal, market-oriented vision as the ultimate paradigm for societies, as advocated by Fukayama.
  • Publication
    The Culture of Surveillance Revisited: Total Information Awareness and the New Privacy Landscape
    (Department of Sociology, University of Kansas, 2005-04-01) Staples, William G.
    Three things: 1) I expect, as we have already seen in fact, a shift in the scope and quality of social monitoring we can likely expect in the post 9/11 period. I would suggest that the attacks of September 11 have provided an extraordinary opportunity for the state to extend its "governability (Foucault 1991) of the popula tion through a new set of surveillance and control mechanisms; 2) I would argue that the only way that the state is going to implement this kind of large scale, integrated, digitized system of surveillance of the populace is through the cooperation of both corporate capital and, by extension, the populace itself; and 3) I would like to call attention to how a new digital surveillance system will work to constitute our virtual identities as both consumers and citizens.