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Manning Up and Queening Out: Gay Men’s Negotiations of Gender and Sexuality

Speice, Travis D
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2081-6210
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1468337419

Abstract Details

2016, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Sociology.
This research investigates the ways that gay men use different self-presentation strategies to manage their gender and sexual identities in various social spaces. Thirty self-identified gay men participated in semi-structured, in-depth interviews and described how they perform sexuality (i.e., gayness) and gender both separately and simultaneously. Hegemonic masculinity, a pivotal concept to gender studies, explains that gender organizes social life, favoring certain performances of masculinity over others. The result is a hierarchical structure where men are dominant, while women and gay men are subordinate. In analyzing men’s responses about how they perform gender and gayness, I develop the concept of hegemonic sexuality – one that explains how certain performances of sexuality are rewarded more than others. Specifically, I investigate performances of gayness, and discuss the choices gay men make in considering performances of their sexuality. These performances are always contextual – the place, time, and audience are commonly mentioned as being important to men as they perform gender and sexuality strategically. In examining the ways men interpret their own experiences performing identities, this research contributes to the scholarship of gender and sexuality by highlighting how sexuality, as an organizing principle, contributes to the marginalization of an already marginalized population of gay men, via hegemonic sexuality. In this study, men frequently describe the workplace as an environment where they make conscious efforts to perform their gender and sexual identities strategically. The men’s stories help us understand how certain performances of sexuality permit some men to be recognized as “acceptable gays,” while others are labeled “too gay” in different social situations.
Annulla Linders, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Steven Carlton-Ford, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Erynn Casanova, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
228 p.
Sociology
sexuality; masculinity; gender; identity

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Speice, T. D. (2016). Manning Up and Queening Out: Gay Men’s Negotiations of Gender and Sexuality [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1468337419

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Speice, Travis. Manning Up and Queening Out: Gay Men’s Negotiations of Gender and Sexuality. 2016. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1468337419.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Speice, Travis. "Manning Up and Queening Out: Gay Men’s Negotiations of Gender and Sexuality." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1468337419

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1468337419
1,398
© 2016, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Manning Up and Queening Out: Gay Men’s Negotiations of Gender and Sexuality by Travis D Speice is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.