Poetic World-Making

Queer as Folk, Counterpublic Speech and the ‘Reader’

Bibliographic Data

ID18977705
AuthorsFraser (0000-0003-1018-5865, University of NSW, Australia,, corresponding author), Suzanne Fraser
Year2006
Volume9
Issue2
Pages152-170
Publication date2006-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSexualities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1363-4607 • E-ISSN: 1461-7382
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1363460706063117
OpenAlexW1963688534
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited12

The television programme Queer as Folk depicts both scandalous, indecorous behaviour, and respectable, even conventional, forms of love. It constitutes what Michael Warner, in his influential essay ‘Publics and Counterpublics’, has described as public speech and, at the same time, it sits both inside and outside his category of counterpublic speech. As such, it operates as a boundary case through which the distinction between public and counterpublic can be analysed. In this article, this analysis is conducted both as a means of building upon Warner’s theory, and to offer insights into the ways in which young gay male viewers in Sydney, Australia watch the programme and, linked to this, how they understand sexuality in relation to transformational politics. In the process, the article troubles Warner’s distinguishing of counterpublic from public by investigating the rather neglected question of the ‘reader’ in his designations of the counterpublic

Aesthetics · Art · Human sexuality · Lesbian · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Public sphere · Publics · Queer · Queer theory · Sociology · Computer Science · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Social Media and Politics

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access