‘Strangled the Chicken’: The Spectacle of Gay Male Sex and the Incitement of its Discourse in Rope

Victoria Romanik,Mark Guerrero

doi:10.29173/invoke48962

Abstract

In this paper, I explore discourses of gay male sex and homosexuality in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope (1948) as it situates within the highly-restrictive moral landscape of the Motion Picture Production code era. Although the restrictive economy surrounding these regulations had supposedly expurgated all discourses of sex and sexuality from the public sphere, I will draw on Foucault’s History of Sexuality (1984) to argue that this was not the case. Instead, I shed light on the paradox of censorship, by which the shrewd restriction of sexuality has transformed gay male sex into a topic of discussion. I then offer a critique of Hitchcock’s spectacularization of gay male sex, urging us to question how discourses of gay male sex are being constructed and who is constructing these discourses.

Highlights

Among the list of content the Production Code Administration (PCA) had considered ‘distasteful’, depictions of sexuality on screen was one of them
Some critics of film censorship would argue that the Hays Code has brought more destruction than good
Traditional allegations against the Hays Code and other forms of film censorship have argued that this prohibitive practice results in fewer and duller representations of human sexuality presented on film (Gilbert, 2013, 1)

Summary

Introduction

Among the list of content the PCA had considered ‘distasteful’, depictions of sexuality (and especially homosexuality) on screen was one of them. I seek to establish two main arguments in this paper: first, that censorship has paradoxically allowed the discourse of sexuality to flourish in numerous and diverse ways; and second, that the spectacularization of gay male sex has allowed for the deconstruction and resistance of certain ‘negative’ depictions of homosexuality on film.

Results

Conclusion