Author:
Jeffery P. Dennis
Jeffery P. Dennis
State University of New York at Oneonta dennisjp@oneonta.edu
Search for other papers by Jeffery P. Dennis in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Jeffery P. Dennis in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
All currencies in US Dollar
Three recent mass media texts are analyzed in which the object of rescue for a male hero is a teenage boy rather than the traditional damsel in distress. These rescues and their aftermaths display considerable slippage between custodial and romantic conventions, blurring the image of the hero as father and the hero as lover. It is argued that their function is to evoke the possibility of same-sex desire while safely pretending that same-sex desire does not exist.