Showing papers on "Heteronormativity published in 2012"

‘I'm used to it now’: experiences of homophobia among queer youth in South African township schools

Abstract: This paper explores how sexually marginalised black high-school students from conservative schooling contexts in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, experience schooling. It draws on queer theories through life narratives in presenting findings from a small-scale interventionist project designed by the author. The project involved 14 participants comprising teachers, school learners and pre-service teachers. The study found that queer youth have negative experiences of schooling which range from punitive actions expressed through derogatory language to vicious reactionary hate, often expressed through violence and often perpetrated by teachers. This paper also found resist-stances from queer learners in portraying a positive self-image for themselves as a mechanism for coping with homophobia. As a way of looking forward, it locates teachers at the centre of bringing about change for the queer learners and argues for a re-education of teachers in order to tackle homophobia in schools.

Exploring the relationship between homosexuality and sport among the teammates of a small, Midwestern Catholic college soccer team

Abstract: Despite decreasing homophobia, openly gay male athletes are still rare in organized, competitive teamsports. In this action research, we explore two aspects of homosexuality and sport: (1) the effect of a gay male soccer player coming out to his teammates; and (2) the effect of having an openly gay researcher in the field. This is, therefore, the first-ever first-hand account of an athlete's coming-out process with researchers in the field. Even though this is action research and, therefore, not generalizable, we highlight that this research contributes to the body of literature on sexuality and sport because we document the interactions of straight athletes with a gay player and a gay researcher among the heterosexual players at a small, Catholic college in the American Midwest. We use interviews to show that players were accepting of homosexuality before the beginning of this research and show that discussions with these two gay men further promoted players' perspectives on homosexuality. This led to an increase in the team's social cohesion and a decrease in heteronormativity.

Privileged Allies in Lesbian and Gay Rights Activism: Gender, Generation, and Resistance to Heteronormativity

Abstract: In two studies, we examined the relationship between resistance to heteronormativity and political engagement among heterosexuals. In the first, we examined the relationship between awareness of heterosexual privilege, resistance to heteronormativity, and engagement in lesbian and gay rights activism among contemporary heterosexualcollegestudents.Asexpected,womenscoredhigherthanmenonboth heterosexual privilege awareness and resistance to heteronormativity. For women, both heterosexual privilege awareness and resistance to heteronormativity were related to engagement in lesbian and gay rights activism. In the second study, we examined heteronormative attitudes in three cohorts of women spanning 40 years (college graduates in 1951/2, 1972, and 1992), looking at both generational differences in endorsement of heteronormative attitudes and the relationship of these attitudes to engagement in lesbian and gay rights activism. As expected, the two younger cohorts of women were significantly less heteronormative than the oldest cohort. Implications of these results are discussed. Privilege, defined as socially conferred benefits or advantages that result from mere membership in a particular social group, is now well understood to confer both blindness to others’ experience, and to one’s own power (Pratto & Stewart, 2012). Although systems of privilege exist worldwide, this article focuses on a particular context—the UnitedStates.Intwostudies,weexamine someconditions ∗ Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Samantha A. Montgomery,

Intimate Partner Violence and Social Pressure among Gay Men in Six Countries

Abstract: Author(s): Finneran, Catherine; Chard, Anna; Sineath, Craig; Sullivan, Patrick; Stepheneon, Rob | Abstract: Introduction: Recent research suggests that men who have sex with men (MSM) experience intimate partner violence (IPV) at significantly higher rates than heterosexual men. Few studies, however, have investigated implications of heterosexist social pressures – namely, homophobic discrimination, internalized homophobia, and heterosexism– on risk for IPV among MSM, and no previous studies have examined cross-national variations in the relationship between IPV and social pressure. This paperexamines reporting of IPV and associations with social pressure among a sample of internet-recruited MSM in the United States (U.S.), Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil.Methods: We recruited internet-using MSM from 6 countries through selective banner advertisements placed on Facebook. Eligibility criteria were men age over 18 reporting sex with a man in the past year. Of the 2,771 eligible respondents, 2,368 had complete data and were included in the analysis. Threeoutcomes were examined: reporting recent experience of physical violence, sexual violence, and recent perpetration of physical violence. The analysis focused on associations between reporting of IPV and experiences of homophobic discrimination, internalized homophobia, and heteronormativity.Results: Reporting of experiencing physical IPV ranged from 5.75% in the U.S. to 11.75% in South Africa, while experiencing sexual violence was less commonly reported and ranged from 2.54% in Australia to 4.52% in the U.S. Perpetration of physical violence ranged from 2.47% in the U.S. to 5.76% in South Africa. Experiences of homophobic discrimination, internalized homophobia, and heteronormativity were found to increase odds of reporting IPV in all countries.Conclusion: There has been little data on IPV among MSM, particularly MSM living in low- and middleincome countries. Despite the lack of consensus in demographic correlates of violence reporting, heterosexist social pressures were found to significantly increase odds of reporting IPV in all countries.These findings show the universality of violence reporting amongMSMacross countries, and highlight the unique role of heteronormativity asa risk factor for violence reporting among MSM. The results demonstrate that using internet-based surveys to reachMSMis feasible for certain areas, although modified effortsmay be required to reach diverse samples of MSM. [West J Emerg Med. 2012;13(3):260–271.]

Sex/gender identity: Moving beyond fixed and ‘natural’ categories

Abstract: Despite feminist understandings of the socially constructed nature of sex and gender and anthropological studies of alternative constructions, western societies tend to understand sex and gender in terms of mutually-exclusive hierarchical categories. We analyze the process by which a heteronormative sex-gender-sexuality system is constructed and legitimized to the exclusion of those whose physiology and/or behaviors do not conform to it. We provide some insights into ways in which the extraordinary diversity of sex-gender can be recognized and valued on various social planes, through activism, the production and critique of popular culture, and education.

A fading Tongzhi heterotopia: Hong Kong older gay men’s use of spaces

Abstract: Modern heteronormativity in Hong Kong has been produced via British colonialism, land developers, and the family, and maintained through post-colonial administration. Together, these factors have resulted in a heterosexual culture of intimacy with rigid public/private distinctions. Homonormativity has emerged with the rise of tongzhi (synonym for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered) space in Hong Kong since the 1990s, but has had the effect of marginalizing certain tongzhi along lines of class, age, and the body. Based on the narratives of 14 older (60+) gay men in Hong Kong, this article discusses how they have negotiated same-sex intimacy in everyday sites at two specific times – in their parents’ homes and public toilets in the 1940s–1950s, when homosexuality was a crime and homosexual identity had not yet developed; and in their own homes and within the present-day tongzhi world, which presents them with new opportunities and challenges. Using a post-structuralist conception of power/resistance ...

Safe Schools for LGBTQI Students: How Do Teachers View Their Role in Promoting Safe Schools?.

Abstract: This literature review presents insights from existing research on how teachers view their role in creating safe schools for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI) students. Analysis of the literature shows that there are concerns for LGBTQI students’ safety in schools, that educational settings operate from a position of heteronormativity, and that heterosexual teachers are uniquely positioned as part of the dominant group in which they help to define what is normal and what is deviant in school culture. Research findings on the ways heterosexual teachers respond to institutional heteronormativity are summarized and compared. This review of research provides considerations for and recommendations to school administrators and teacher educators to address needs of teachers. Areas for future research also are identified.

Two daddy tigers and a baby tiger: promoting understandings about same gender parented families using picture books

Abstract: There is a small body of work examining how picture books can be used with young children and their families to develop understandings of contemporary issues including diversity and practices towards inclusion. This article describes a study in one New Zealand kindergarten that explored teachers’ interpretations of children’s responses to a selection of picture books featuring same gender parented families. The research sought to go beyond traditional understandings of families and the dominant discourse of heteronormativity. Findings show that despite children reportedly being open to the possibilities of non-traditional families in their setting, and their play, teachers appeared hesitant to ask probing questions or fully engage with children’s thinking, or their own, to explore understandings in this area. Nevertheless, this research demonstrates that taking tentative steps towards making an alternative discourse available through the proactive use of curriculum resources does not have to be ‘difficult...

The public school washroom as analytic space for troubling gender: investigating the spatiality of gender through students' self-knowledge

Abstract: This paper derives from a larger study, looking at how students in one secondary school in Ontario problematised and understood gender expression. This study applies a Foucaultian analytic framework of disciplinary space to the problem of the bathroom in public schools. It focuses specifically on the surveillance and regulation of gendered bodies within such a space. How young people understand the surveillance of their bodily presence is significant in terms of how they are constituted as a gendered subject. I use Foucault's [1977. Discipline and punish (translated by Alan Sheridan). New York: Vintage Books, Random House, Inc; 1980. Power-knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings, 1972–1977 (Colin Gordon, ed.) (translated by Colin Gordon … [et al.]). Hassocks: Harvester Press] concept of subjectivation to investigate how a subject is formed through mechanisms of disciplinary power, as well as Butler's [1990. Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge] gender perf...

The Medicalization of Women's Sexual Pain

Abstract: The medicalization of women's sexual problems under the overall rubric of female sexual dysfunction (FSD) has been thoroughly critiqued by feminist scholars, health practitioners, and sex therapists However, there has been much less commentary on the medicalization of women's sexual pain—currently, a subset of an official FSD diagnosis This article critically examines interdisciplinary understandings and ways of addressing sexual pain It analyzes these frameworks in relation to feminist theories on medicalization, heteronormativity, and the reciprocal relationship between these two processes We argue that many women who experience sexual pain have been eager for medicalization as a path to minimizing pain during sexual activity and reinstating normative heterosexual practices and identities These goals have been lobbied for by patient advocacy groups and noted by professionals in the field Although there are some clear benefits to this case for medicalization, there are also theoretical, personal, a

Remaking the White Wedding? Same-Sex Wedding Photographs’ Challenge to Symbolic Heteronormativity

Abstract: Recent scholarship has identified the modern wedding as a principal site for the construction of heteronormativity. This article examines whether and how the participation of same-sex couples in the wedding ritual can challenge this construction. Photographs from the 2004 San Francisco same-sex weddings were quantitatively content-coded for subjects’ gender presentation and for the extent to which the couple embodied the heteronormative wedding standard of one bride and one groom. I find that all the men in these photographs conformed to gender norms and thus no male couple conformed to the wedding standard. In contrast, approximately one-fifth of the women presented non-normative gender, and more than two-thirds of the formally dressed lesbian couples conformed to the wedding standard of a bride and a groom. In a close reading of four photographs, I argue that these images have the potential to challenge assumptions about normative sex, gender, and sexuality at the level of the symbolic when understood i...

Heteronormativity in the University Classroom: Novelty Attachment and Content Substitution among Gay-friendly Students

Abstract: This article explores the complex relationship between an openly gay instructor, homophobia, and heteronormativity in a university classroom. The authors first tabulated the frequency with which the instructor used the lives of heterosexuals and homosexuals as examples of content or as content itself, and then they interviewed 32 students about their perceptions of these frequencies. They found that students significantly overestimated lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) frequencies and underestimated heterosexual ones. The authors develop two analytical concepts to highlight this form of heteronormativity: novelty attachment and content substitution. They explain these phenomena by suggesting that the novelty of using LGBT examples and discussing homosexuality as content results in the activation of stereotypes among otherwise gay-friendly students. They examine the cognitive underpinnings of this using social identity theory and call for further research to examine the applicability of their ...

The Erotics of Sovereignty: Queer Native Writing in the Era of Self-Determination

Abstract: Mark Rifkin’s most recent study of queer Native writing situates itself within a discourse on gender and sexuality that has grown to prominence over recent years. His purpose in The Erotics of Sovereignty: Queer Native Writing in the Era of Self-Determination (2012) is not to further the understanding of a culturally embedded practice but rather to redefine the very idea of self-determination in light of an understanding that the personal is both transpersonal and political. Central to Rifkin’s project is a question raised by Louis Owens two decades ago in Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel (1992): who counts as a real Indian? Rifkin seeks to answer this question by posing another: what counts as a real tribe? He is clearly not satisfied with the pat answer that makes federal recognition and blood quantum the index of American indigeneity. Instead, Rifkin seeks a broader definition linked to sovereignty unconstrained by settler colonial values, notably marriage, homemaking, and the nuclear family. Queer sexuality, outside of the constraints of heteronormativity, offers a model for a new vision of sovereignty, which could encompass an idea of peoplehood even in the absence of a communal land base. In his heavily theoretical text, Rifkin links representations of sexuality in the work of four queer Native writers—Qwo-Li Driskill, Deborah Miranda, Greg Sarris, and Chrystos—to possibilities for extending sovereignty and recognizing Native identity in situations where sovereignty has been foreclosed or denied by the US government. Beginning with the Cherokee, tribal enrollment has enforced a heteronormative vision of tribal identity through bourgeois domesticity on individual allotments and blood quantum traced through nuclear families. Rifkin uses Jacques Derrida’s concept of hauntology to explain how Driskill’s poetry registers Cherokee identity through its connection to a history of diaspora, dislocation, and silence, even though Driskill’s Cherokee ancestors were never registered on the Dawes Rolls, and he cannot become a registered member of the tribe. While the body serves as the site of continuing struggle, making present that which previously had no material form, words themselves become ancestors marked by the traumas of settlement. Ancestry must be understood as an active relationship rather than “the heteroreproductive transmission of racial substance” (66). Ultimately, according to Rifkin, Driskill’s work suggests the possibility that the

Heterosexuality in Theory and Practice

Abstract: This book explores heterosexualities in their complex and everyday expressions. It engages with theories about the intersection of sexuality with other markers of difference, and gender in particular. The outcome will productively upset equations of heterosexuality with heteronormativity and accounts that cast heterosexuality in "sex critical, sex as danger" terms. Queer/feminist ‘pro-sex’ perspectives have become prevalent in analyses of sexuality, but in these approaches queer becomes the site of subversive, transgressive, exciting and pleasurable sex, while heterosex, if mentioned at all, continues to be seen as objectionable or dowdy. It challenges heterosexuality’s comparative absence in gender/sexuality debates and the common constitution of heterosexuality as nasty, boring and normative. The authors develop an innovative analysis showing the limits of the sharply bifurcated perspectives of the "sex wars". This is not a revisionist account of heterosexuality as merely one option in a fluid smorgasbord, nor does it dismiss the weight of feminist/pro-feminist critiques of heterosexuality. This book establishes that if relations of domination do not constitute the analytical sum of heterosexuality, then identifying its range of potentialities is clearly important for understanding and helping to undo its "nastier" elements.

Is This What Equality Looks Like

Abstract: Using the Netherlands as a case study, this article explores how increased social acceptance of and legal protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people impact their lives. The author draws on in-depth interviews with nine LGBT people to argue that the danger of acceptance is invisibility for those who assimilate and marginalization for those who do not conform to assimilationist discourses, such as transgender individuals and other gender nonconformers. Utilizing Butler’s theories of normalization and Goffman’s theories of stigmatization, the findings also show that assimilating into homonormativity can generate feelings of shame and fear. The author concludes that new approaches in dismantling heteronormativity and seeking equality are needed in order to achieve genuine acceptance for LGBT people.

Heterosexism and Health Care: A Concept Analysis

Abstract: BACKGROUND. The concept of heterosexism is used in a variety of ways in healthcare literature. The lack of consensus of the term makes identifying when and how it impacts the health care of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people difficult. A lack of clarity of the concept could also hinder effectiveness of education, awareness, and research tool development efforts. PURPOSE. The purpose of this concept analysis is to offer a synthesized definition of the term heterosexism, including its relation to and distinction from related concepts like homophobia and heteronormativity. METHODS. The authors use Walker and Avant's eight-step concept analysis method: select a concept, determine the aim of analysis, identify all uses of the concept, determine defining attributes, construct a model case, construct additional cases, identify antecedents and consequences, and define empirical referents. CONCLUSION. The results of the analysis reveal focus areas for future research, tool development, and suggestions for improvements in nursing clinical practice.

The Positive Experiences of Openly Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Students in a Christian Sixth Form College:

Abstract: Previous research has demonstrated that LGBT students tend to have negative experiences of school, suffering social marginalisation and discrimination One key reason for this has been the homophobia of heterosexual male students However, my research into sixth forms in the south of England has documented a marked change in the attitudes of straight youth, who now espouse pro-gay attitudes In this article, I explore how this changing social zeitgeist impacts on the school experiences of LGBT youth Building on a four-month ethnography at a religious sixth form college, I present the experiences of four students: one gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered student Highlighting the similarities and differences in their experiences, I demonstrate the positive influence decreasing homophobia has on all students, and I argue that it is necessary to focus on combating heteronormativity in school settings Framing these findings using inclusive masculinity theory, I also explore the extent to which this theory has relevance for women

Clients in Sexually Open Relationships: Considerations for Therapists

Abstract: Clients who are in or who wish to pursue a sexually open relationship may challenge therapists' heteronormative biases. Through this article the author provides an overview of open relationships and some research related to monogamous sexual behavior. Issues of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and SES pertaining to open relationships are considered. The author offers some guidelines for therapists, including topics to discuss with clients, comorbidity issues, and assessment and treatment approaches. The Intersystems approach to sex therapy is then presented which can frame therapists' understanding of open relationships, and the author concludes with some ideas for future research and attention.

“Revolution with a Woman's Face”? Family Norms, Constitutional Reform, and the Politics of Redistribution in Post-Neoliberal Ecuador

Abstract: During his campaign, socialist-leaning Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa claimed that his administration's Citizen Revolution has a “woman's face.” As part of his buen vivir (“living well”) development model, which is his alternative to neoliberalism, Correa has sought to redirect national development and create more political inclusivity, which he institutionalized in part through his 2008 constitutional reforms. In this article I analyze discourses concerning gender, sexuality, and the neoliberal family in the 1998 and 2008 constitutional assemblies as a way to understand the centrality of heteronormativity, as well as possible counters to heterosexual social reproduction imaginaries, in Ecuador's post-neoliberal form of governance and development. I argue that despite some successes in the realm of women's and sexual rights, including the broadening of the definition of “the family” in the 2008 constitution, reprocentric discourse privileging heterosexual reproduction continues to be central to Correa...

“An Air of Expectancy” Class, Crisis, and the Making of Manhood at a Historically Black College for Men

Abstract: This qualitative study explores formations of masculinity among students at a historically black all-male college, offering insights into how the institution crafts the manhood of its students in accordance with gender and class ideologies about black male respectability, heteronormativity, and male hegemony. While a plethora of studies on poverty, deviance, and marginalization have highlighted black men “in crisis,” this article examines middle-class black men and explores sites of conflict and difference for this latter group. Three critical insights into middle-class black masculinity are revealed by this approach: first, that men are institutionally “branded” through class and gender ideologies; second, that the exceptionality of high-achieving black men is politicized to endorse class conflict with other black men; and finally, that sexuality and class performances are inseparably linked through men’s sexual consumption of black women.

Emasculated by Trauma: A Social History of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Stigma, and Masculinity

Abstract: Winner of the William M. JonesBest Graduate Student Paper Award at the 2012 American Culture Association ConferenceThe suppression of fear and other strong emotions is not demanded only of men in the trenches. It is constantly expected in ordinary society.-Elliott Smith and T. H. Pear, 191 71The history of medicine is a social one. Although medical knowledge and its history are often understood as objective fact, divorced from cultural and social context, historians of medicine have recendy begun to undermine these assumptions. Social histories of medicine have put forth a thesis about the social nature of knowledge, specifically related to health, disease and medicine. Namely, the way a disease is understood, treated and talked about is shaped not only by medical knowledge, but also by broader cultural, social and political climates and ideologies. This social construction of disease is evident across the history of medicine but is perhaps most prominent in the history of mind-body medicine. The history of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other war-related traumatic disorders is a study in evolving American sensibilities, social mores, and gendered cultural expectations. Since its first appearance on the battlefield, PTSD and its predecessors were used by Americans to symbolize the manifestation of societal concerns surrounding unfulfilled gender roles, tightly bound to concepts of heteronormativity. Trauma-related nervous disorders became the mark of someone who had failed to live up to culturally constructed notions of the ideal male citizen soldier. Thus, victims were blamed for their unmanly behaviour by way of stigmatizing medical diagnoses.Cultural mores surrounding gendered social roles have long shaped both the medical understanding of PTSD (and related predecessors) and the way its victims are treated and regarded within the societal framework. According to Harvard historian Ann Harrington, a cultural inability to understand the non-physical properties that lead to disease and ill health has caused society to explain these health problems through a variety of narratives. Harrington grounds western culture's inability to comprehend mind-body medicine in modern medicine's foundational assumption of the physicality of illness. Namely, modern western medicine believes that physical illness must have a physical cause. This assumption is what makes mind-body medicine so complicated. Due to the ambiguity and lack of understanding surrounding the connections between mind-body, physicalist cultures must turn to narratives as a way of explaining what does not fit into the physicalist medical paradigm. These narratives are useful in understanding the experiences of bodies and minds and how they have been understood within specific cultural contexts throughout history.Harrington explores six narratives in her book: power of suggestion, body that speaks, the power of positive thinking, broken by modern life, healing ties and eastward journeys.2 While quite expansive in scope, these narratives do not represent an exhaustive list and fail to adequately address the stories surrounding battlefield trauma. In light of this, another narrative of mind-body medicine is needed. Within this narrative, entitled "emasculated by trauma," the male body speaks of the trauma it has experienced on the modern battlefield, marrying the two narratives of "the body that speaks" and "broken by modern life." However, this story is also one of soldiers as failed citizen subjects. Soldiers suffering the effects of trauma show an inability to exhibit the virtues of the ideal male, by failing to meet expected gender norms and fulfil male gender roles. Soldiers are still and have historically been expected to be strong and fearless, but trauma-related nervous disorders such as PTSD serve to expose the vulnerabilities and frailty of these men. Therefore, this narrative explains both a soldier's failure to fulfil the cultural expectations of men, as well as cultural and institutional notions of the good soldier. …

Rereading Heterosexuality: Feminism, Queer Theory and Contemporary Fiction

Abstract: Introduction: Feminism, Queer Theory and Heterosexuality Part One: Revisiting the spinster 1. 'Becoming my own ghost': spinsterhood and the 'invisibility' of heterosexuality in Sarah Waters's Affinity 2. Telling tales out of school: spinsters, scandals and intergenerational heterosexuality in Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal Part Two: Transgressive female heterosexuality 3. Queering Alice, killing Lolita: feminism, queer theory and the politics of child sexuality in A.M Homes's The End of Alice 4. Unauthorised reproduction: class, pregnancy and transgressive female heterosexuality in Alan Warner's Morvern Callar Part Three: Reproducing heterosexuality 5. 'First one thing and then the other': rewriting the intersexed body in Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex 6. Imitations of life: cloning, heterosexuality and the human in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go

Alternative Families, Alternative Lives: Married Women Doing Bisexuality

Abstract: Married bisexual women shake up existing socially recognizable family, gender, and sexuality orders prescribed by Western society simply by being out, bisexual, and married. Empirical research on and theoretical arguments about bisexuality in the family have been rare. A recent study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family (2010) notes that “… a number of core questions [about bisexuality in the family] remain unanswered” (Biblarz & Savci, 2010, p. 490). It is my intention to argue in favor of a new paradigm that sees relationships through a bisexual lens (rather than a hetero-/homosexual lens), allowing for simultaneous partners of different genders (polyamory) as a legitimate and lawful practice and the creation of families through such practices to be viewed as no less necessary than the families of their monosexual peers. (In)visibility of this high-stakes way of doing bisexuality informs the ways my respondents do family.

Passionate aesthetics and symbolic subversion: heteronormativity in India and Indonesia

Abstract: By exploring the life stories of women in same-sex relations, sex workers and widows/divorced women in Jakarta and Delhi, this article analyses the way heteronormativity marginalises these women, both those who identify as heterosexual and those who do not. To counter the physical, material and subversive forms of violence they experience, they engage in various forms of agency, including symbolic forms of subversion. The focus is on the major concepts developed in this study – passionate aesthetics and symbolic subversion. The narrators in this study deploy overlapping yet distinct strategies to carve out their lives. The subversion of heteronormativity ranges from political, activist intentions to more invisible, symbolic acts, which are sometimes self-defeating. These forms of subversion are rooted in both embodied and social, public practices. In this article I discuss some of the major symbolic forms of subversion of heteronormativity that lie between the ultimate defiance of (self) destruct...

Queer Asian Subjects: Transgressive Sexualities and Heteronormative Meanings

Abstract: This special issue of Asian Studies Review explores comparatively the production and transformation of gender and sexual subjectivities across and beyond South and Southeast Asia. More specifically, papers in this special issue disclose the complex intersections of ethnicity, race, class, gender, religion and nationality through which sexual subjectivities are formed and subject positions inhabited within and across these regions. By tracing the transnational movement of people and the circulation of images and ideas, their appropriations and effects, the papers in this volume reveal mutable and multiple sexual subjectivities that are no longer fixed in place, even as state discourses, hegemonic meanings and individual actors work to attach specific meanings to particular bodies. In this special issue we ask, what are the effects of migration, forced and chosen, on forms and formulations of gender and sexuality for people's embodied and discursive entanglements? How do spatial and temporal, as we...

To be or not to be LGBT in primary health care: health care for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people

Abstract: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) health care will, increasingly, be a feature of the primary care repertoire.1 Pride in Practice, which is supported by the Royal College of General Practitioners, provides a rating system that judges primary care surgeries on a welcoming environment, access, the GP, patient consultation, staff awareness and training, and health promotion for LGBT people. For those surgeries signed up to the initiative, plans to address shortfalls will be developed in consultation with the Lesbian and Gay Foundation. Another initiative, Transgender Awareness, is attempting to address matters that are important to a diverse group of transgender patients. While acknowledging these very positive developments, it is important to understand what we mean by ‘LGBT primary health care’. We will draw on the concept of LGBT health care to explore the benefits and potential harms that this term can engender, and on the different ways that the relatively sparse LGBT health literature has addressed and accounted for the different foci of LGBT health care over the years. In doing so, we will argue for a more nuanced approach to primary health care for these groups. Student teaching has tended to position heterosexuality and gender normativity — people conforming to social standards of what is ‘appropriate’ feminine and masculine behaviour — as the primary context in which health and illness is viewed. Models of health care that promote these views of sexuality and gender identity over others can create an environment in which gender stereotypes and heteronormativity — the cultural bias in favour of opposite-sex …

Constructing hegemonic masculinities in South Africa: The discourse and rhetoric of heteronormativity

Abstract: This paper considers how local and regional representations of hegemonic masculinity are (re)produced, and how men’s gender identities are constituted through situated interaction in South Africa. It points toward the important role played by the discourse and rhetoric of heteronormativity among these men in hegemonic sense-making, and in particular, the underlying discursive practices of performative/intimate (hetero)sexuality and homosexual rejection/acceptance. An attempt is made to account for complexity and diversity in this sense-making across intersecting social categories such as ethnicity and social class. Focus group discussion among Afrikaans, English and Xhosa men was transcribed and backtranslated where necessary. A technique of discourse analysis that considers the rhetorical aspects of text is developed through the introduction of norm-referencing rhetorical devices. Findings highlight the extent to which practices of both compliance and resistance contribute toward the (re)production of masculinities.

Religion, Sexual Orientation and the Equality Act 2010: Gay Bishops in the Church of England Negotiating Rights Against Discrimination

Abstract: A sophisticated understanding of human rights must look at ways in which conflicts between competing rights are negotiated. This article undertakes a case study of the interrelationship of rights related to religion and sexuality in societies, in the context of inequality between heterosexual and homosexual persons. It analyses recent Church of England guidance on appointing bishops in relation to the Equality Act 2010 and its religious exemptions to non-discrimination provisions. I investigate whether formal Church teaching and the guidance owe more to heteronormativity than the purely scriptural mandate that is claimed. I argue that the Equality Act’s preference for religion rights over sexuality rights in the discrimination exemptions for organised religions, and the Act’s understanding of what counts as a religious conviction, are better understood as a de-prioritisation of sexuality rights that reflects the prevailing structural inequalities of heteronormative secular and religious social worlds.

The fractal queerness of non-heteronormative migrants working in the UK sex industry:

Abstract: Contemporary debates on migration and the sex industry have been characterized by a marked emphasis on the extent of trafficking and exploitation of migrant women in heterosexist contexts and relat...