University of Northern Colorado Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC Master's Theses Student Research 12-11-2020 Desire and the Power of Practice: Queer Sexual Perspectives Philip W. Kemp [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digscholarship.unco.edu/theses Recommended Citation Kemp, Philip W., "Desire and the Power of Practice: Queer Sexual Perspectives" (2020). Master's Theses. 191. https://digscholarship.unco.edu/theses/191 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO Greeley, Colorado The Graduate School DESIRE AND THE POWER OF PRACTICE: QUEER SEXUAL PERSPECTIVES A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Philip William Kemp College of Humanities and Social Science Department of Sociology December 2020 This Thesis by: Philip William Kemp Entitled: Desire and the Power of Practice: Queer Sexual Perspectives has been approved as meeting the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts in College of Humanities and Social Science, Department of Sociology Accepted by the Thesis Committee: _______________________________________________________ Mel Moore, Ph.D., Chair _______________________________________________________ Harmony Newman, Ph.D., Committee Member Accepted by the Graduate School _____________________________________________________________ Jeri-Anne Lyons, Ph.D. Dean of the Graduate School Associate Vice President for Research ABSTRACT Kemp, Philip William. Desire and the Power of Practice: Queer Sexual Perspectives. Unpublished Master of Arts thesis, University of Northern Colorado, 2020. This research provides a theoretical analysis of the lived experiences of 17 queer individuals, ages 19 to 66, regarding their sexual desires and practices. Queer Theory is incorporated to inform on sex, gender performance and sexuality as social constructs, to inform grounded theoretical concepts, and to identify expressed social behavior by each participant. Social Exchange Theory is used to analyze participant responses. Modified grounded theory is incorporated to posit a particular social exchange that I refer to as the queer exchange; in which particular costs/benefits are considered before queer individuals engage in social exchanges due to their potentially (un)perceived queerness. This research includes semi-structured interviews and addresses what factors affect the manifestation of queer sexual desire into queer sexual practice. Five main themes discerned in this research are desires; practices; empowerments; barriers; and queer defined. Within those 5 main themes, 18 sub-themes emerged. I propose that queer exchanges tend to act as high-cost/high-reward or high-cost/low-reward social exchanges for queer individuals regarding their sexual desires and/or sexual practices. These high costs tend to be associated with primary social units, and often include repressed ideology in the participants early stages of socialization. The differences in high-reward and low-reward for these participants are a result of empowerments like, or barriers like discrimination, violence, objectification and/or repression. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the following individuals and organizations for their help, guidance, instruction and above all time in participating in my research: Dr. Mel Moore, professor of Sociology at the University of Northern Colorado and my thesis chair; Dr. Harmony Newman, Graduate Student Coordinator for Sociology at the University of Northern Colorado and my second reader for this thesis; Dr. Chris Talbot, Gender Studies Program Director; Dr. Cliff Leek, professor of Sociology at the University of Northern Colorado and President of American Men’s Studies Association, and Dr. Rowen Thomas, Educational Consultant, Facilitator, & Public Speaker at Rowen's Consulting for their guidance in conducting qualitative research on queer populations. Thanks also to my UNC Sociology Graduate cohorts of 2018- 2020, the Department of Sociology at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC), The Gender and Sexuality Resource Center at UNC, The Center for Women's and Gender Equity at UNC, and all who participated in my research. Thank you all so much for your contributions to this work. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 Theoretical Framework ....................................................................................................... 2 II. LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................... 5 Background ......................................................................................................................... 5 Contemporary Queer Research ........................................................................................... 8 III. METHODS ....................................................................................................................... 13 Research Design................................................................................................................ 13 Measurements ................................................................................................................... 14 Recruitment and Interviewing........................................................................................... 16 IV. RESULTS ......................................................................................................................... 24 Desires............................................................................................................................... 25 Desired Experiences.......................................................................................................... 25 Desired Type ..................................................................................................................... 25 Sex Drive .......................................................................................................................... 26 Celibacy ............................................................................................................................ 28 Questions of Consent ........................................................................................................ 30 Sex with Other .................................................................................................................. 31 Sex with Self ..................................................................................................................... 32 Empowerments ................................................................................................................. 32 Acceptance of Self ............................................................................................................ 32 Coming Out to Others ....................................................................................................... 33 Coming Out to Self ........................................................................................................... 34 Encouragement from Others ............................................................................................. 35 iii Barriers .............................................................................................................................. 37 Discrimination or Violence ............................................................................................... 37 Objectification................................................................................................................... 38 Repression ......................................................................................................................... 38 Queer Defined ................................................................................................................... 39 (Anti) Identity Label ......................................................................................................... 39 Gender ............................................................................................................................... 40 Sexual Orientation ............................................................................................................ 41 V. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 43 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 46 APPENDIX A ................................................................................................................... 50 INTERVIEW GUIDE ....................................................................................................... 50 Demographic Questionnaire ............................................................................................. 51 Exploratory Questions ...................................................................................................... 51 APPENDIX B ................................................................................................................... 54 CODE BOOK ..................................................................................................................