The Boys in the Band Criticism

This Study Guide consists of approximately 65 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Boys in the Band.

The Boys in the Band Criticism

This Study Guide consists of approximately 65 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Boys in the Band.
This section contains 893 words
(approx. 3 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy The Boys in the Band Study Guide

The Boys in the Band was certainly not the first popular drama to have gay characters. For the most part, however, homosexuality was disguised in plays and film. One of the most powerful examples of this, which critics often point to as an immediate predecessor of Crowley's play, is Robert Anderson's 1953 drama Tea and Sympathy, about an effeminate boy who is mocked and threatened at a preparatory school. (He is given the nickname "Sister-Boy," and the headmaster's wife makes it her mission to "cure" him sexually.) What makes The Boys in the Band such a groundbreaking work is that it was the first mainstream piece to show gay men in their own environment, interacting with each other, acknowledging camp posturing, in-jokes, and psychological torment without mocking or overemphasizing. Critics took note of the fact that the characters are gay, and they pointed out the ways in...

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This section contains 893 words
(approx. 3 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy The Boys in the Band Study Guide
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The Boys in the Band from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.