LIVING DIFFERENTLY: GAY MALE UNDERGRADUATES’ STUDENT EXPERIENCES R ic h a r d t a u l k e -jo h n s o n School of Social Sciences Cardiff University This dissertation is submitted to Cardiff University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY October 2009 UMI Number: U585270 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U585270 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 D e c l a r a t io n D e c l a r a t i o n This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed . (candidate) Date .%.j)7r.JoP\ STATEMENT 1. This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD. Signed (candidate) Date STATEMENT 2. This thesis is the result of my own independent work / investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. Signed (candidate) Date 0 .^ STATEMENT 3. I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed . Q - . \ -• (candidate) Date .7r. /'.T r /.O 0! A cknowledgments ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I firstly thank my supervisors, Debbie Epstein and Katy Greenland, for their considerable and invaluable guidance, support and encouragement over a challenging but ultimately rewarding four years at Cardiff University. I am indebted to everyone who took part in this research, and thank each participant for allowing me access to their university lives and experiences as gay students. I hope they feel I have done both them, and their data, justice in this thesis. On a personal note, much love and thanks to my family for being there throughout the ups and downs of this PhD journey, and for never complaining that the work has meant my returns home were infrequent and so short. Also, special thanks to Ian Rivers for encouraging my return to academia, and for the much appreciated move from undergraduate tutor to academic colleague and friend. Thanks to my friends and fellow PhD students at Cardiff University, particularly Dave Clarke, Oliver Cowan, Darren Freebury-Jones, Cathy Sampson and Gerbrand Tholen; to Paul Baker, Chris Taylor and Richard Watermeyer for academic inspiration / aspiration; to Andrew Collins for helping me overcome writer’s block; and to John Broomfield for constructive comments, encouragement and allowing me to moan. Very special thanks to Asa Somers and Simon Williams, who always put things into perspective, and without whose friendship I would not have completed this PhD. Finally, I am grateful to the Economic and Social Research Council for financial support. A b s t r a c t ABSTRACT In this thesis I present a snapshot of the university lives and experiences of 17 gay male undergraduate students attending an institution in the UK. I draw upon thematic analysis of data obtained from individual, in-depth, face-to-face, semi-structured interviews. My main focus of investigation is the ways in which participants’ higher education biographies compare and contrast with dominant accounts of the gay student experience, which are characterised by intolerance, harassment, victimisation, heterosexism and homophobia. My theoretical framework is derived from university space being, like all non-gay- specific space, pervaded by discourses of compulsory heterosexuality (Rich 1980) and the workings of the heterosexual matrix (Butler 1990). I am interested in how participants produced, expressed, managed and negotiated their alternative identities in these higher education settings. I therefore interrogate the role and importance participants ascribed their gayness at university, the effect and influence of their sexuality on their university choices and on their relationships with flatmates, their coming out narratives and experiences in higher education, and their behavioural management and performative expressions of identity within university spaces. This range of analysis is informed by a variety of disciplines and fields of study, including sociology, sexuality, gender, psychology, and human geography. Findings often contrast with those typically reported in academic literature, both in participants’ marked decentralisation of their non-heterosexuality in self-identification, and in portrayals of gay students as other than as victims of harassment, discrimination and persecution. Although participants are very much aware of the regulatory heteronormative mechanisms of straight discourses operating within university spaces, they are highly sensitive and skilled in expressing, monitoring, adapting, asserting and negotiating their identities in these environments. In fact, participants framed university as a generally positive, tolerant, accepting and happy place in which to be gay. I therefore argue that these ‘new’ stories and ways o f‘living differently’ should be acknowledged to enrich and further understanding of this population’s experiences within higher education. iv C o n t e n t s C h a p t e r 1 INTRODUCTION: LIVING DIFFERENTLY?.........................................1 1. Conceptual underpinnings ............................................................2 • A note on terminology .............................................6 2. ‘Autobiography of the question’ .................................................. 7 3. Research questions, and thesis structure and contents ............11 • Going forward ........................................................ 14 C h a p t e r 2 Campus C lim ates For Gay S tudents ......................................15 1. Matthew Shepard as icon............................................................ 16 2. Academic work on gay students ................................................ 19 3. Alternative stories ....................................................................... 25 Conclusion ........................................................................................30 C h a p t e r 3 Researching th e Gay Student experience.....................32 • Reflexivity and m ethods.......................................33 1. Research design ...........................................................................35 • Theoretical underpinnings....................................35 • Study design and rationale ................................... 37 o Sampling frame........................................ 38 o Research design ........................................ 40 2. Recruitment ................................................................................. 42 3. Data collection .............................................................................46 • Part 1. Procedural account ................................... 47 • Part 2. Reflexive account ..................................... 51 o Pow er ..........................................................52 o Shared sexuality........................................ 54 o Participant attraction.................................59 C o n t e n t s 4. Data analysis.............................................................................. 62 • Critical engagement with participants’ data 64 Conclusion ........................................................................................66 C h a p t e r 4 ‘RAINBOW-HUGGING QUEENS’: DRAMATIS PERSONNAE, A n d R o l e O f S e x u a l i t y ......................................................................67 1. Participant penpictures............................................................... 67 2. Role of sexuality..........................................................................72 Conclusion ........................................................................................81 CHAPTER 5 QUEER DECISIONS? G a y M a l e S t u d e n t s ’ U n i v e r s i t y C h o i c e s ...........................83 1. Contextualising university choice ...........................................83 2. C lass.............................................................................................. 86 3. Migration ......................................................................................91 • Migration from ...................................................... 91 • Migration towards ................................................ 100 Conclusion ...................................................................................... 105 C h a p t e r 6 Assertion, R egulation and Consent: Gay Students, Straight Flatm ates, and The (H etero)Sexualisation Of University accom m odation Space ............................... 107 1. Gay students and university accommodation .........................108 2. ‘Educating’ flatmates .................................................................111 3. (Hetero)sexualising student accommodation space ...............116 4. Regulating sexuality in student accommodation space 121 5. Negotiating heteronormativity ................................................