Staunton author, professor examines same-sex imagery in mass media

Story by Chris Graham

It’s assumed that previous generations took a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to same-sex relationships.
A Staunton author and college professor challenges that notion in a new book.”Myriad clues – some subliminal, others overt – clearly ingrained the notion of homosexuality in American advertisements appearing on the pages of general interest, mass market periodicals,” said Bruce Joffe, the author of A Hint of Homosexuality? ‘Gay’ and Homoerotic Imagery in American Print Advertising.

Joffe, a professor of communication at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton whose academic focus is gay and lesbian studies, began his research into the topic that became A Hint of Homosexuality? with a basic question: “Can non-normative sexuality … sexual identity … and even, to a degree, sexual behavior … be presented in advertising, not in today’s more libertine environment but during the years when the mere mention of homosexuality – the love that dare not speak its name – was verboten, taboo, even illegal?”

Joffe identifies more than 225 advertisements published by major manufacturers and retailers – including some of the more well-known brands on the American landscape – over the course of the past century that he says contain implicit or explicit same-sex imagery.

Some of the same-sex ads are “strangely erotic, while others may be silly caricatures, more burlesque than bizarre,” Joffe said. By and large, however, “most tend to be snapshots of the male, and to a lesser extent, female, convivial spirit encountered and observed in intimate conditions and circumstances.”

“Gay intimacy and interaction, references to the male genitalia, and threats of sexual conquest by and between men can be seen in advertisements created by some of the greatest illustrators, designers and copywriters of the 20th century,” Joffe said.

The book is available online – and an excerpt is available at www.xlibris.com/bookstore/bookdisplay.asp?bookid=40500.

Chris Graham is the executive editor of The Augusta Free Press.

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