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Copyright is owned by the Author of the thesis. Permission is given for a copy to be downloaded by an individual for the purpose of research and private study only. The thesis may not be reproduced elsewhere without the permission of the Author. Moving beyond ‘a hierarchy of pecs and penises’: how gay and queer men contest, resist, negotiate, and perform masculinity 219855 Research report presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements to the degree of Master of Communication at Massey University, New Zealand Researcher: Martin Kaulback Supervisor: Dr Elena Maydell Course Coordinator: Dr Niki Murray 28 June 2020 ABSTRACT This narrative inquiry examines the identities and lives of nine gay and queer men living in Wellington, New Zealand as narrated and performed in hour-long semi-structured interviews. Viewing identities as social constructions that are generated through people’s interactions within specific physical and temporal contexts, this research project examines the performative construction of gay and queer masculinity, and the effects of gender and sexuality in the participants’ lives. Through the perspective of a queer male researcher, this project locates gay and queer men within their wider struggles with heteronormativity, and gives voice and privilege to their minority identities and experiences. Narrative analysis of the participants’ stories focuses on how gay and queer individuals navigate their lives as non-normative men who are Othered by traditional, hegemonic and hierarchical masculinity. Viewing identities as unstable and requiring of endless (re)negotiation and (re)performance, this research also examines the complex hierarchical construction of hegemonic homomasculinity by some straight-acting gay men who bolster their own gender performances by Othering femme-presenting individuals. It explores how heteronormative gender constructs and hypermasculine, hypersexual stereotypes affect the lives of the participants, identifying poor self-image, feelings of shameful and inadequate masculinity, and the need for secrecy about their sexuality as key drivers in homomasculine identity development. Additionally, media, pornography and violence are examined as significant in the generation and delayed performance of homomasculine identities. Finally, this research also analyses how some takatāpui and queer-identifying participants negotiate Self with high agency, and perform their identities free of the homohierarchy of traditional, hegemonic gender constructs. By integrating aspects of their gendered, sexual Selves within their identities, queer and takatāpui participants make clear the means by which people with non-normative homomasculine identities may be empowered, liberated and validated as people like all others. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction 1 2 Literature Review 4 2.1 Gays, Queers and the Rest of the Rainbow 4 2.2 The Queer Perspective 5 2.3 Masculinity 6 2.4 Homophobia, Gender Roles, and Gay Self 7 2.5 Social Identities 8 2.6 Gendered Identities as Performative Re-enactments 9 2.7 Internalised Homophobia 10 2.8 Hypermasculinity, Straight-acting, and Femmephobia 11 2.9 Hypermasculine Norms and Femmephobic Digital Communication 12 2.10 Homomasculine Communities of Caring 15 2.11 Literature Gap and Research Questions 17 3 Methodology 18 3.1 Theoretical and Analytical Frameworks 18 3.2 Research Orientation 20 3.3 Participants 21 3.4 Data Collection 22 3.5 Data Analysis 24 3.6 Ethical Considerations 27 4 Analysis and Discussion 30 4.1 Homomasculine Self: The Stain and Mr Cellophane 31 4.1.1 The Stain of Homosexual Self 32 4.1.2 Inadequate Homomasculinity: Mr Cellophane 34 4.2 Homomasculine Identity Construction 39 4.2.1 Negotiating Non-normative Self 42 4.2.2 Qualities of Homomasculine Identities 45 4.2.3 Hypermasculine and Sexual Gay Identities 47 4.2.4 A Hierarchy of Pecs and Penises 49 4.2.5 Contexts of Gay Identities 57 4.2.6 Media and Violence 61 iii 4.3 Post-Gay Identities: Beyond the Hierarchies 68 4.3.1 High Agency Queer Identities 69 4.3.2 Queer Integration of Self 70 4.3.3 Post-Gay Queerness 70 5 Conclusions 74 5.1 Summary of Analysis and Discussion 74 5.2 Implications of this Research 78 5.3 Limitations of this Research 79 5.4 Future Research 80 6 Reflexive Post-Script 82 7 Acknowledgments 86 8 Appendices 87 8.1 Appendix A: Participants Recruitment Poster 87 8.2 Appendix B: Information Sheet for Participants 88 8.3 Appendix C: Participant Consent Form 91 8.4 Appendix D: Interview Guide 92 8.5 Appendix E: Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Studies Checklist 94 8.6 Appendix F: The Handkerchief Code 97 9 References 98 iv 1 INTRODUCTION The diversity of genders, sexualities and identities continues to become more visible and accepted within mainstream society than has historically been the case in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This is significant to the individuals whose non-normative gendered sexual identities do not conform to the dominant heteronormative social constructs within which they must live and, hopefully, flourish. It is also of consequence for other people who value individual difference as social possibility and equality as a key aspect of societies in which all people are free. Social change and progress are slow and erratic, and the construction and communication of masculinity within male homophile communities has received little scholarly attention for many years (Manley et al., 2007; Yep, 2003). However, there are strong indicators that things are changing, and that previously overlooked minorities are beginning to be examined and understood. Communication scholars are now exploring the marginalised identities of those who do not conform to the heteronormative prescriptions which privilege, promote and maintain the dominant social status of heterosexual men at the expense of women and sexual minorities in Western societies (Yep, 2003). By focusing on the construction and performance of masculinity for gay and queer men, this study seeks to extend knowledge in this domain. What has been established by past research is that masculinity is a hegemonic construct that positions identities within a hierarchy that is generated according to normative gender roles and scripts (Connell, 1992; Kimmell, 1994). As gender role nonconforming deviants, gay and queer men are considered Others in opposition to whom traditional masculinity coalesces as normative and ‘natural’ (Gutting, 2005). Therefore, as social constructions, gendered identities of sexual minorities continue to be sites of oppression, resistance and contestation where much harm is done to the non-normative Self of gay and queer folk. Often beginning in childhood, non-normative queer individuals experience complex effects as Other beings in a straight man’s world (McDonald, 2016). These personal, physical and relational effects of hegemonic masculinity have enduring impacts on the identities of gay and queer men (Fulcher, 2017; Sanchez et al., 2016). Gay and queer men, however, choose to contest and resist heteronormative gender expectations, and to liberate Self by negotiating and performing homomasculinities (McCormack, 2012; Milani, 2014). They come out of the closet to inhabit Othered non-normative identities (Yep, 2003). Yet, identities are social constructs performed in relation to specific and immediate contexts that are unstable and highly susceptible to normative pressures and constructs (Butler, 2006; Eguchi, 2011; Goffman, 1959), 1 and gay and queer men respond differently. On one hand, gay men rigidly enforce gender (Clarkson, 2006; Miller, 2015), and their negotiations and performances of Self have been shown to replicate many of the hegemonic and hierarchical characteristics of traditional Western masculinity (Milani, 2016; Taywaditep, 2002). Contrastingly, queer men are those whose identities are politicised by the rejection of all identity categories and roles, including those of normative gay constructs (McDonald, 2016, Yep, 2003). Queer identities disregard the binary masculine/feminine, heterosexual/homosexual constructs of hegemonic masculinity, and move to a post-gay negotiation of Self within which sexuality and gender are indivisibly integrated (Slagle, 2006). Such individuals resist hierarchies and identity categories as sites of oppression, and present Self liberated from hetero- and homonormative expectations (Gutting, 2005). Additionally, gay and queer identities are as multifaceted and complex as are the contexts within which they are generated and located. Consequently, this qualitative study employs a subjective orientation to investigate the nuanced ways that gay and queer men contest, resist, negotiate, and perform masculinity, and the effects of doing so in their lives. Viewing identities as the stories that we tell about ourselves to other social players (De Fina, 2015), it seeks to generate an insider’s perspective of what it means to live as a gay or queer man in a heteronormative world by analysing the narratives of nine participants. Throughout, meanings, like people’s identities, are viewed as social constructions within which there is no objective truth (De Fina, 2015). Subsequently, knowledge in this report is the product of interactions between gay and queer participants, and a queer male researcher, and understandings are seen as located in a specific time and place. For individuals whose minority identities are oppressed, telling their stories is an act of resistance (Plummer, 1995). Therefore, this research has direct significance to those involved. It also has significance