University of California Santa Cruz the Experience of Gay
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ THE EXPERIENCE OF GAY MEN BEING SOCIALIZED INTO GAY COMMUNITIES A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in EDUCATION by Erik Robert Green December 2018 The Dissertation of Erik Robert Green is approved: ________________________________________________ Professor Cindy Cruz, chair ________________________________________________ Professor Lucinda Pease-Alvarez ________________________________________________ Professor Don Brenneis ________________________________________________ Lori Kletzer Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Copyright by Erik Robert Green 2018 Table of Contents Page LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii ABSTRACT viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Introduction 1 Vocabulary 3 Research Question 5 Research Significance 6 Theoretical Orientation 7 II REVIEW OF LITERATURE Introduction 15 Part 1: Language and Power Language and Power: An Introduction 18 Language and Power: Queering Signifiers 22 Constructing Self, Constructing Community 25 Poststructural Queer Linguistics 28 Resistance Within Language 33 Part 2: Legitimate Queer Participation Conceptualizing Gay Discourse 34 iii Legitimate Peripheral Participation 37 Gay Discourses and Linguistics 40 Gay Discourses and Culture 43 Gay Discourses, Language, and Identity 46 Gay Discourses and Social Relationships 50 Legitimate Queer Participation 55 III METHODOLOGY AND METHODS Introduction 62 Research Question 62 Research Rational 63 Limitations 67 Phenomenology 68 Husserl – the Development of Descriptive Phenomenology 69 Husserl – Transcendental Phenomenology 71 Heidegger 74 Levinas 76 Merleau-Ponty 80 Douglass and Moustakas – Heuristic Inquiry 83 Phenomenology in Educational Research 87 A Phenomenological Methodology 93 Methods General Rationale: Qualitative Methods 101 iv Role of the Researcher 103 Rationale: Interviews 105 Rationale: Observations 109 Rationale: Phenomenological Methods 110 Research Sites 111 Data Analysis 113 IV FINDINGS Introduction 116 Participants 119 The “Gay Community” 123 Community: Sports 127 Community: Family 131 Community: Shared Joy, Shared Sorrow 133 Exclusion and Discrimination 137 Exclusion: Racism 137 Exclusion: Age and SES 143 Exclusion: Size 144 Language Development: Shared Experiences 148 Shared Experiences: Sports 148 Shared Experiences: Friendship 150 Shared Experiences: Media 154 Language Development: Humor 157 v Language Development: Gender Play 162 Gender Play: Sounding Gay 163 Gender Play: Drag and Being Feminine 164 Gender Play: “Ooo Girl” and Pronoun Flipping 167 Gender Play: Resistance 171 Language and Outness – A Connection? 174 Where Does It All Come From? Indirect and Direct Mentoring 180 Origins: Mentorship and Legitimate Queer Participation 183 V DISCUSSION Introduction 189 Finding and Inhabiting Community 190 Humor, Masculinity, and Gender Play 193 Legitimate Queer Participation 199 Legitimate Queer Non-Participation 204 VI CONCLUSION Summary of Findings 208 Recommendations for Application and Future Research 214 APPENDIX A – INTERVIEW GUIDE 218 APPENDIX B – PARTICIPANT OVERVIEW 220 APPENDIX C – IRB APPROVAL 224 REFERENCES 239 vi List of Tables anD Figures Page Table 1. Participants 119 Figure 1. Participant Age 121 Figure 2. Participant Ethnicity 121 Figure 3. Participant SES Status Growing Up 122 Figure 3. Participant Current SES Status 123 vii Abstract The Experience of Gay Men Being SocializeD Into Gay Communities Erik Green, PhD Candidate UC Santa Cruz, Department of Education This research uses a phenomenological methodology to ask: how do gay men in the United States experience becoming socialized into gay communities, and what is the role of language in that experience? Rooted in educational, language socialization, and linguistic theory, I ultimately center my work around educational researchers Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1991), who have constructed a theory around situated learning and legitimate peripheral participation. Conceptualizing a “gay community” as a site for informal education and situated learning, I position socialization into the community as the development of identity; and as Lave and Wenger (1991) assert, “learning involves the construction of identities” (p. 53). For my research, I therefore examine the role language plays in the experience of socialization. In employing a phenomenological perspective, I drew on the concept of Heuristic Inquiry (Douglass and Moustakas, 1985; Moustakas, 1990; Patton, 2002), where the researcher asks “what is my experience of this phenomenon and the essential experience of others who also experience this phenomenon intensely?” (Patton, 2002, p. 107). Participants were solicited from three local gay sports groups on a self-selecting, voluntary basis, using nonproportional quota sampling to get 17 participants, representing a variety of ages, race/ethnicities, education levels, and childhood social-economic statuses. Within a phenomenological viii methodology, qualitative methods were used for data collection, specifically semi-structured in-depth interviews, supplemented by participatory and non- participatory observations. Open coding was then utilized to analyze the data. Results showed that participants did engage in legitimate peripheral participation practices in their community socialization processes, and highlighted shared experiences, humor, and what I describe as “gender play” as their primary language practices within those communities. There also appeared to be a connection to the acceptance (if not the personal practice) of these linguistic practices, the person’s perceived “outness”, and their own self- reported connection (or lack thereof) to the “gay community”. ix Chapter 1: Introduction IntroDuction How do gay men in the United States experience becoming socialized into gay communities, and what is the role of language in that experience? In order to explore this question, I root my research in both language and educational theory. Making connections between a variety of disciplines, I ultimately center my work around educational researchers Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1991), who have constructed a theory around situated learning and legitimate peripheral participation. Exploring how “human minds develop in social situations” (Lave and Wenger, 1991, p. 11), they speak about the role of identity and situated learning in both informal and formal educational processes, where a participant “acquires the skills to perform by actually engaging in the process, under the attenuated conditions of legitimate peripheral participation” (Lave and Wenger, 1991, p. 14). This idea, however, must be linked to theories of language and linguistics, since “language is a crucial component of identity and self- formations” (Manalansan, 2003, p. 48). Many disciplines, including work on socialization, either explicitly or implicitly operate from a heteronormative basis, or at the very least ignore a queer perspective. Those disciplines which do not already integrate a queer positionality become particularly interesting when explored from a queer perspective and integrated to ideas of Queer Discourses and gay languages. The concept of gay languages has been established in the field of Linguistics through 1 a number of research projects and publications (for example: Barrett, 1997; Barrett, 2002; Leap, 1996; Liang, 1997; Livia, 2002; Lucas, 1997; McElhinny, 2002; Moonwomon-Baird, 1997; Motshcenbacher, 2010; Plummer, 1995; Podseva, et al, 2002; Rodrigeuz, 2003; Watney, 1995; Wong, et all, 2002). However, how can we re-conceptualize ideas of gay language into a theory of Discourse that can be integrated into a model of legitimate peripheral participation? Conceptualizing a “gay community” as a site for informal education and situated learning, I position socialization into the community as the development of identity; and as Lave and Wenger (1991) assert, “learning involves the construction of identities” (p. 53). For my research, I therefore examine what the role of language is with the experience of socialization – specifically whether learning Gay Discourses was an aspect of inclusion into the participants’ current communities, and how that aspect operated within their socialization process. My focus on gay men is not to be interpreted as lessening the need for research on other identities, such as lesbians, transgender communities, bisexuals, or international queer communities. However, as a nascent researcher and graduate student, it is important to focus and limit the breadth of my study; while the research on queer topics aren’t extensive for any subjects, more focus has been given to gay men than other identities. It is important to acknowledge that research on the queer community often “whitewashes” everyone where either whiteness is the unspoken norm, or the identities and 2 experiences of non-white queer people are silenced or ignored. While many studies “unwittingly posit a white gay male gaze,” I attempt to align myself with what Manalansan (2003) calls the “new queer studies,” scholars who “critically locate themselves and their works in local and global processes” (p. 6). In so doing, my goal is to acknowledge the diversity inherent in gay communities, while also acknowledging that much of the research already published may be operating from this white-normative, or hegemonic, viewpoint. Vocabulary Like many parts of language,