Queens for a Day: \u3cem\u3eQueer Eye for the Straight Guy\u3c/em\u3e and the Neoliberal Project

摘要

This paper moves beyond a conventional critique of Bravo\u27s popular makeover show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy that focuses on gay stereotyping to consider how the show puts gay cultural expertise to work to reform a heterosexual masculinity that is compatible with the neoliberal moment. By analyzing 40 episodes of the show, in addition to a number of related texts, the author considers the newly public acknowledgement of gay taste and consumer expertise; the \u22crisis of masculinity\u22 that requires that heterosexual men must now attend to their relationships, image, and domestic habitus; and the remaking of the straight guy into not only an improved romantic partner - the metrosexual - but a more flexible, employable worker. The author concludes by considering how camp deconstructs some of Queer Eye\u27s most heteronormative aims, even while leaving its class and consumption rationales intact.