ORCID
0009-0002-9072-8144
Keywords
Black, Television, Gayness, Queerness, Fans, Resonance
Abstract
It Goes Down in The Valley explores how Black gay male audiences navigate representation, resonance, and marginalization within Black television. This dissertation is driven by a central question: What factors influence Black gay male fans' engagement and support for Black television content, especially considering the limited representation and the tendency to overlook queerness within Blackness? Drawing on Quare Theory, this project examines how Blackness and queerness, often framed as opposed, intersect with production practices, marketing strategies, and audience meaning-making. This project, through three approaches, reveals how Starz’s P-Valley embeds Black gayness at its emotional core while exposing the tensions between inclusive storytelling, commercial marketing, and audience reclamation. Chapter 2 demonstrates how P-Valley employs Southern Gothic aesthetics, Black feminism, and sonic/visual strategies to craft culturally specific portrayals of Black gayness in the rural South. Chapter 3 reveals how the marketing of the series prioritizes “must-see Blackness” favoring Black womanhood, community, and Southern grit while downplaying Black gayness to secondary. Chapter 4 turns to Black gay male fans’ reception, showing how Black gay male audiences engage with the series through live-tweeting, negotiated and oppositional readings, and community-building on Black Twitter. These practices transform spectatorship into cultural labor, allowing fans to reclaim sidelined narratives, critique industry framing, and affirm their own identities. This project argues that P-Valley operates as both cultural intervention and site of negotiation, where production, marketing, and fan practices collectively shape resonance for Black gay audiences. While Black gayness is often secondary in narrative or promotion, fans make it emotionally central, ensuring that resonance, cultural preservation, and identity affirmation remain vital outcomes. This dissertation illustrates how Black television broadens the possibilities of what Black gayness could look like while also revealing the ongoing industrial constraints that limit it.
Completion Date
2025
Semester
Fall
Committee Chair
Stanfill, Mel
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
College
College of Arts and Humanities
Department
Texts & Technology
Format
Release Date
12-15-2027
Document Type
Thesis
Campus Location
Orlando (Main) Campus
Subjects
African American gay men--Identity; Sexual minorities on television; Queer theory; Television authorship--Marketing; African Americans on television
STARS Citation
Mansell, Demagio, "It Goes Down in the Valley: The Resonance of Black Queer Authenticity and Fan Engagement in Black Television" (2025). Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024. 518.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd2024/518
Accessibility Statement
This item was created or digitized prior to April 24, 2027, or is a reproduction of legacy media created before that date. It is preserved in its original, unmodified state specifically for research, reference, or historical recordkeeping. In accordance with the ADA Title II Final Rule, the University Libraries provides accessible versions of archival materials upon request. To request an accommodation for this item, please submit an accessibility request form.