A Very ''Gay'' Straight?: Hybrid Masculinities, Sexual Aesthetics, and the Changing Relationship between Masculinity and Homophobia (original) (raw)
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I Don’t Like Macho, Put It Away: Considering Queercore Men in Context
Men" are critical to the study of masculinity from an academic standpoint, but also from a cultural standpoint. The trouble with masculinity is that it does not stand alone as a solitary identity. There is no singular way to be a man 1 , and being a man is not an experience that is separable from other identities carried in social experience. Is a man rough or rugged? Yes, certainly. Is a man clean or cultural? Of course he is! Masculinity is contextual. I wish to explore the degree to which masculinity is informed by its context and consider how masculinity in a subculture thrives without being destroyed by mainstream ideas about masculinity. Mainstream masculine manifestations marginalize minority men mainly through the use of violence and intimidation. These tools of the dominant culture reinforce a type of masculinity that is already prevalent in the culture. Such strongly presented cultural norms are often hidden in discussions of masculinity with the title "hegemon". To identify mainstream masculine norms as "hegemonic masculinity" abstracts the meaning of that particular variant of masculinity and perhaps reinforces its dominant position by presenting it as an identity with more solidarity than actually is present. Subcultural masculinities are no different in that respect, 1 Man is a title assigned to an individual who is accepted as a member of the masculine gender or the institution of masculinity of their culture.
In this study, I use in-depth interview data with black and white heterosexual men to explore shifts in the role of homophobia in the social construction of heterosexual masculinities. A continuum is introduced to map a range of interactional practices through which these men enact heterosexual masculinities. Heterosexual men who, on one end of the continuum, construct their heterosexual masculinities through homophobic practices establish strong boundaries of social distance from gays. The other end documents heterosexual men's anti-homophobias, moving from men who establish weak boundaries to those who blur them. These heterosexual men's anti-homophobic stances trade on the prestige of being tolerant of gays, with black men's antihomophobias drawing on their experiences with racism.
"Limp Wristed"? Opposing the Performance of Hegemonic Gay Masculinities
Within the gay male community there exists a specific performance of masculinity that holds dominance, or cultural currency, over other portrayals. This paper will seek to explore what hegemonic gay masculinity is, possibilities about why it has risen to prominence and what the dominant presence of this masculinity means in Canada and the United States at the pivotal contemporary moment one month after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide. I will position this hegemonic gay masculinity alongside the growing use of the term homonormativity and work to prove that the LGBTQ community at large should be more critical of the gay men who perform their masculinity 'right', than those who perform hegemonic gay masculinity 'wrong'.
Straight Queerness and Alternative Models for Manhood
Ciel variable: Art, photo, médias, culture, 2007
Vulnerability and discomfort are central to Paul Litherland's artistic practice. He combines a fresh approach to gendered binary stereotypes with an intriguing sense of self. Through transgressive gestures of feminized male heterosexuality, his self-portraits demonstrate an interest in cultural, queer, and feminist constructions of identity. Litherland invites viewers to recognize their own subjectivity and the generally negative cultural codification of stereotypes about sexual orientation.
Juxtapose: An Exploration of Gay Masculine Identity and its Relationship to the Closet
The notion of visibility for gay men has changed dramatically since the advent of the Internet. Online platforms have spawned terms such as ‘straight acting’ that privilege heteronormative masculinity above other forms of masculinity through a hierarchy of masculine performance and identification. My proposition has been that the more a gay male performs, simulates, or copies a ‘straight’ mode of masculine performance, the more his otherness is rendered invisible. Consequently he builds a closet around himself. The research undertaken for this project employed various methodologies that focus on printmedia’s inherent qualities of sameness and difference through collected found images and text. Incorporating questions of authenticity and the real, the print-based artworks interrogated heteronormative masculinity through mass media. My project combined the discourses and practice of printmedia with cultural and queer theory, to interrogate connections between heteronormative masculine performances by gay men and how this could closet otherness. The aim of this research strategy was to locate a psychological or actual space that was free of the homosexual closet. The outcome of my project has been a series of print-based explorations and exhibitions that informed and culminated into a final exhibition. The examination exhibition presents my project’s findings through a repetition of image making and installation of artworks within the architecturally altered gallery space of the School of Art Gallery at RMIT University.