Freaks Talk Back: Tabloid Talk Shows and Sexual Nonconformity

Using extensive interviews, hundreds of transcripts, focus-group discussions with viewers, and his own experiences as an audience member, Joshua Gamson argues that talk shows give much-needed, high-impact public visibility to sexual nonconformists while also exacerbating all sorts of political tensions among those becoming visible. With wit and passion, *Freaks Talk Back* illuminates the joys, dilemmas, and practicalities of media visibility. "This entertaining, accessible, sobering discussion should make every viewer sit up and ponder the effects and possibilities of America's daily talk-fest with newly sharpened eyes."-*Publishers Weekly* "Bold, witty. . . . There's a lot of empirical work behind this deceptively easy read, then, and it allows for the most sophisticated and complex analysis of talk shows yet."-Elayne Rapping, *Women's Review of Books* "Funny, well-researched, fully theorized. . . . Engaged and humane scholarship. . . . A pretty inspiring example of what talking back to the mass media can be."-Jesse Berrett, *Village Voice* "An extraordinarily well-researched volume, one of the most comprehensive studies of popular media to appear in this decade."-James Ledbetter, *Newsday*