Shame/pride dichotomies in 'Queer as Folk'

This article discusses the reception of a British television serial drama Q ueer As Folk which was broadcast during February 1999 and 2000. It locates the programme as 'risk-taking' according to both institutional regulators ( the BSC and ITC) and media reviews. It then seeks to analyse the representa tions of gay identity produced by the text, specifically in relation to a p owerful discursive paradigm shame/pride. By showing how 'gay shame' is relo cated in the textual structure on to other minoritized cultures (black and working), I demonstrate how shame operates contiguously. Because shame is a n affect that is often unconscious and therefore unacknowledged, it can pro duce unanticipated negative consequences. In a theoretical discussion on sh ame using psychoanalysis and the work of Judith Butler however, I argue tha t shame's effect is to create semiotic uncertainty and instability with the process of subject formation. Thus the article concludes that shame needs to be critically examined more assiduously for its latent potential and com plex risks.