"Spitting Glitter": An exploration of gay men's socially contextualized performances of gay
Date
2014-09-24
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Abstract
This thesis explores how gay men navigate and interpret varying social contexts, and adapt their performances of “gay” in response. The findings are drawn from 27 qualitative interviews with gay men, sampled primarily from Calgary, Canada. The data suggest that stereotypical, gender-inverted performances of gay are one of many variable performances and, taken together, these performances reflect a gay hierarchy within the broader masculine hegemony. This thesis further suggests that the stereotypical gay performance has implications for gay male performativity, characterizing the set of behaviours that gay men manipulate so as to signify, or fail to signify “gay” to others. Gay men’s highly attuned capacities for performance and gender self-reflexivity are also discussed, and the concept of “social categorization strategies” is introduced to describe the assessment processes that inform gay men’s performance decisions. Ultimately, a case is made to consider “gay” in performative terms, distinct from a homosexual orientation.
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Sociology
Citation
Hansen, B. (2014). "Spitting Glitter": An exploration of gay men's socially contextualized performances of gay (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27856