The Queer Coming of Age Film Genre: : Brad Windhauser: Lexington Books

The Queer Coming of Age Film Genre

Description

In The Queer Coming of Age Film Genre, Brad Windhauser argues for the existence of this genre and, using a genre and queer theory lens, investigates how the initial, classic cluster of this genre’s films represent the unique issues experienced by queer people – including trans, non-binary, and intersex individuals - coming of age in society in the mid- to late 90s. As society evolved, the book posits, so too did the ways in which these films explored additional factors influencing the queer coming of age experience, such as race and economic status, in the genre’s second stage. Windhauser explores how this genre depicts the way queer people often engage with the coming-of-age process earlier than their cis-het peers, due to their queer identity, but also how this process can extend beyond adolescence into emerging adulthood and adulthood itself. Ultimately, the book demonstrates how these films have become a tool to both further political goals of queer advocacy and acceptance and to offer guidance to queer people looking to gain a deeper understanding of their own lives and experiences. Scholars of film studies, genre studies, pop culture, and queer studies will find this book of particular interest.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1: Queer Coming of Age: A New Film Genre Emerges
Chapter 2: The Queer Coming of Age Genre’s Second Stage
Chapter 3: Framing for Emotional Response
Chapter 4: The Trans, Non-Binary, and Intersex Experiences as Represented by the Queer Coming of Age Genre
Chapter 5: The Outliers, Part I: Adolescent-Adjacent Protagonists--Films That Widen the Understanding of the Queer Coming-of-Age Process
Chapter 6: The Outliers, Part II: Adult Protagonists Coming of Age
Conclusion
References

Product details

Published	Mar 05 2025
Format	Hardback
Edition	1st
Extent	228
ISBN	9781666949858
Imprint	Lexington Books
Illustrations	12 BW Photos
Dimensions	229 x 152 mm
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

Author

Brad Windhauser

The queer coming of age movie is a beloved, necessary staple of LGBTQ+ culture that has effected millions of people: it has been inspiring, comforting, consoling and life saving. Confoundingly there has never been a history, or even in-depth analysis of the genre. Brad Windhauser’s The Queer Coming of Age Film Genre superbly remedies that. Expansive in scope, astute in its analysis, and always insightful it provides readers with a wealth of knowledge and new, original ways to think about this important, vital body of work. This is an important addition to queer film criticism.

Michael Bronski, author of A Queer History of the United States, professor of the Practice in Activism and Media, Harvard University
Thoughtfully informative. Key genre questions provoke our asking: how do queer kids “come of age” in light of milestones relentlessly, historically exclusive of their lives? How does film puncture our glib assumptions about teens and children while fictionally depicting them? This book’s queries are urgent and enlivening.

Kathryn Bond Stockton, Author of The Queer Child