ABSTRACT
What do cult films show and say about gender? Do they use conventional representations in order to perform the textual transgressions they are defined by and celebrated for? Or do cult films, and the practices that sustain their circulation, thumb a collective nose at gender as another oppressive way of organizing social life? To look at cult film and gender means looking not just at texts, but also at audiences. Who are these people, and what are they doing with these films? Are cult audiences a vanguard of revolution, or are their peculiar film attachments symptoms of reaction to the emergence of feminist and queer gender critiques? What follows is an overview of debates about gender representation and viewing possibilities generated by the growth of scholarship on cult film and cult consumption, and a brief tour of the complicated cult landscapes of production and reception.
