2017/04/17 by Kristen B. Proehl · 2 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy #Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology #Gender, Feminism, and Media #Friendship #Queer #Lesbian #Queer theory #Sociology #Gender studies #Romance #Human sexuality #Sexual orientation #Context (archaeology) #Narrative #Psychology #Literature #Psychoanalysis #Art #History #Social science
paper · doi:10.1080/10894160.2017.1309627
published in Journal of Lesbian Studies 22(1), 17-30 (Taylor & Francis)
openalex publication_date 2017/04/17 · openalex created_date 2017/04/28 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
Published in the 1980s, Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café and Alice Walker's The Color Purple are lesbian coming-of-age narratives that share a great deal in common in terms of their thematic content, publication histories, and cultural afterlives. In both novels, female friendships are shaped by patriarchal violence and develop in the context of the rural, segregated, early twentieth-century U.S. South. But the two novels also diverge in significant ways, as differences in race, gender, class, and sexuality shape their protagonists' experiences of love and friendship. As filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Jon Avnet adapted these novels for the screen, they made decisions about how to portray the texts' representations of homoerotic friendship and same-sex love. Both films generated significant cultural controversy as a result, particularly as some viewers claimed that the films elided the novels' representations of lesbian sexuality. Building upon recent scholarship in critical race theory, queer theory, and friendship studies, I argue that Walker's and Flagg's representations of queer friendship, a term that I describe in more detail throughout the essay, subvert dominant classifications of romantic, familial, and platonic love. By comparatively analyzing the American public's reception of the two film adaptations in conjunction with close readings of scenes from the novels and films, I reveal how representations of queer friendship not only catalyze cultural controversy, but also serve as a vehicle of social criticism.