Hyper-Masculinity
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
i ©Copyright 2017 Andrew G. Childs ii Bound but determined: Reproduction and subversion in Folsom’s, IML’s, and Seattle’s gay leather communities Andrew G. Childs A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment for the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2017 Committee members: Michael Brown (chair), Larry Knopp, Kim England, and Shirley Yee (GSR) Department of Geography iii The University of Washington Abstract: Bound but determined: Reproduction and subversion in Folsom’s, IML’s, and Seattle’s gay leather communities Andrew G. Childs Chair of the supervisory committee: Michael Brown Geography Department Through a more place-based conceptualization, this dissertation critiques the concept of hyper- masculinity within the social sciences generally, and the discipline of geography particularly. Hyper-masculinity is often a taken-for-granted term and while social scientists typically understand gender as socially constructed, the ways that social scientists and geographers use hyper-masculinity is monolithic and ironically, essentializing. Through my examination of hyper-masculinity within the gay, male, leather subculture, I offer a conceptualization of hyper- masculinity that is more closely related to the places where folks (mostly men) perform it. These performances are more than just claiming a gender type—they are also about territorializing space. Through these territorial displays, the men in this community authenticate space as theirs and they also bring other concepts under the purview of hyper-masculinity; concepts like: sexuality, care, race, ands class. Finally, from my own auto-ethnographic experience with the community, I conclude with a frank discussion concerning how hyper-masculinity informs the behavior of the members of this community, and consequently, my own understanding and exhibition of this behavior and the subsequent knowledge I have produced. This emotional take on hyper-masculinity is both one that relates to my experience with the community, but also one iv that relates to my experience with academic knowledge production—as masculinism is still present within the academy. I conclude that future directions of scholarship for geographies of masculinities would find fruitful avenues if we take up the concept of abuse between men more ardently. There is a lacuna of scholarship concerning this topic and this lack speaks both to the uneasiness of the topic that men generally feel, and the uneasiness of the topic as a viable object of inquiry within the geography. v Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................................................... 3 Essentialism/constructionism ................................................................................................................ 4 Masculinities: origins and trajectory ..................................................................................................... 5 Hyper-masculinity and sexuality .......................................................................................................... 8 Hyper-masculinity, care, and uncare ................................................................................................... 13 ROAD MAP............................................................................................................................................ 17 Chapter 2: Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 19 Research questions .............................................................................................................................. 20 Conceptualization ............................................................................................................................... 21 Phases of research ................................................................................................................................... 26 Phase I: Ethnographies/biographies .................................................................................................... 26 Phase II: Participant observation in Seattle ............................................................................................. 32 Phase III: Participant–observation at IML and Folsom .......................................................................... 37 Chapter 3: Territorializing space: the spatial dynamics of the leather community ..................................... 67 How bodies produce the spatial dynamics of the leather community ..................................................... 69 Old Guard/New Guard: How conceptions of history produce the spatial dynamics of the leather community .............................................................................................................................................. 83 Performances of hyper-masculinity ........................................................................................................ 89 Where is all the sex? Public sex and the corporate appropriation of leather events ............................... 93 Failed masculinities as evidence of an embodied space ....................................................................... 108 Onward to the past ................................................................................................................................ 111 Chapter 4: Placing ‘hyper-masculinity’ in Seattle’s gay leather community............................................ 113 Conceptual anxiety ................................................................................................................................ 116 The particularities of hyper-masculinity within Seattle’s community .................................................. 119 Linking hyper-masculinity with key literature ...................................................................................... 131 Supporting or subverting hyper-masculinity? ....................................................................................... 136 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 139 Chapter 5: ‘Everyone wants to belong to something’” Seattle’s gay leather community as a space of caring and uncaring ................................................................................................................................... 141 Conceptualizations of care .................................................................................................................... 144 Care within the leather community: A place to explore kink ............................................................... 147 The familial structure of the community as a mechanism of care ........................................................ 152 vi Care as a system of support .................................................................................................................. 155 Care as comfort from abuse .................................................................................................................. 159 Recovering from substance abuse as seeking care ................................................................................ 166 The uncaring community ...................................................................................................................... 169 Misogyny within the community as an instance of uncare ................................................................... 169 Abuse as uncare within the community ................................................................................................ 173 The paradox of simulated rape as an uncaring act ................................................................................ 175 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 177 Chapter 6: Producing geographical knowledge about men and acknowledging bias ............................... 178 Researching men, but also women ........................................................................................................ 178 Producing and publishing ..................................................................................................................... 182 Chapter 7: Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 194 Practical, policy, and social contributions ................................................................................................ 198 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................... 202 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................. 204 List of figures: Figure 1 depicts an advertisement for a Seattle Men in Leather gathering. It is a picture of a picture I took with my phone camera. P. 34 Figure 2 is a picture of the dance floor at Cuff during Pride. P. 35 Figure 3 is a picture of Andy Cross who won IML in 2013. P. 40 Figure 4 is a picture of the lobby