White Desirability and the Violent Radicalization of Andrew Cunanan

Abstract

Abstract Diverse media representations of gay, biracial spree killer Andrew Cunanan situate him within overlapping cultural understandings of queer violence, male sex work, and Asian-American identity. Infamous for the 1997 murder of Gianni Versace, Cunanan exerts a fraught fascination for scholars and artists of color. While his mixed-race identity embodied the mestizo physical ideal privileged in Filipino culture, his victimization of white men violently overturned the power dynamics through which white American culture and gay communities marginalize queer Asian bodies. The racist specter of white desirability thus haunts his tragic crimes in ways little explored in pop cultural depictions, news coverage, and academic studies. Through a mix of intersectional cultural analysis, close reading, and personal reflections, this chapter interrogates the social realities of sexual racism in the much-scrutinized media narrative of one of modern pop culture’s most notorious Asian-American figures.