A candid re-examination of what it means to be a gay man Gendered Outcasts and Sexual Outlaws: Sexual Oppression and Gender Hierarchies in Queer Men’s Lives explores the impact and effects of sexual oppression and power relationships within the gay male community. This controversial book features thoughtful and provocative essays from authors, educators, and activists who challenge the stigmatization and issues of power they face as gay men who don’t fit the masculine mold formed by the gay porn industry and the media. Their poignant words reveal the sting of finding discrimination and alienation where least expected as the rise of sexualized hyper-masculinity, racism, and femiphobia among gay men has created a need to re-examine appropriate gay male identity and sexuality. Editors Christopher Kendall and Wayne Martino, who have written about and researched the negative side of gay male pornography, the links between sexism and homophobia, gay male suicide, and the impact of masculinity and sexuality on gay men, divide the book’s powerful essays into two sections: “The Dynamics of Sex/Gender Oppression” and “When Gender Harms and Oppression Becomes the Norm.” The first section challenges the assumptions that form the basis of gay male identity. Relying on the work of radical feminists and cultural theorists, the authors explore the meaning of “gender” in a society that expects men to act according to a masculine ideal—and punishes them when they don’t. The book’s second section analyzes the reality of gender oppression caused by inequality and sexualized gender hierarchies. Contributors discuss what can happen when gay men take seriously the sexual role models that are offered and what happens if they dare to reject them. Gendered Outcasts and Sexual Outlaws examines: effeminacy in gay men’s lives the idealization of the gay male body straight-acting masculinities and the rejection of the feminine narcissism, masculinity, and body absorption racialized masculinity the feminization of the Asian gay male in gay pornography gay male rape domestic violence and much more! Gendered Outcasts and Sexual Outlaws is an eye-opening re-evaluation of what being “gay” means, why being gay is still considered socially unacceptable, and how the gay male community can respond to systemic stigmatization and hate.

A candid re-examination of what it means to be a gay man Gendered Outcasts and Sexual Outlaws: Sexual Oppression and Gender Hierarchies in Queer Men's Lives explores the impact and effects of sexual oppression and power relationships within the gay male community. This controversial book features thoughtful and provocative essays from authors, educators, and activists who challenge the stigmatization and issues of power they face as gay men who don't fit the masculine mold formed by the gay porn industry and the media. Their poignant words reveal the sting of finding discrimination and alienation where least expected as the rise of sexualized hyper-masculinity, racism, and femiphobia among gay men has created a need to re-examine appropriate gay male identity and sexuality. Editors Christopher Kendall and Wayne Martino, who have written about and researched the negative side of gay male pornography, the links between sexism and homophobia, gay male suicide, and the impact of masculinity and sexuality on gay men, divide the book's powerful essays into two sections: The Dynamics of Sex/Gender Oppression and When Gender Harms and Oppression Becomes the Norm. The first section challenges the assumptions that form the basis of gay male identity. Relying on the work of radical feminists and cultural theorists, the authors explore the meaning of gender in a society that expects men to act according to a masculine idealand punishes them when they don't. The book's second section analyzes the reality of gender oppression caused by inequality and sexualized gender hierarchies. Contributors discuss what can happen when gay men take seriously the sexual role models that are offered and what happens if they dare to reject them. Gendered Outcasts and Sexual Outlaws examines: effeminacy in gay men's lives the idealization of the gay male body straight-acting masculinities and the rejection of the feminine narcissism, masculinity, and body absorption racialized masculinity the feminization of the Asian gay male in gay pornography gay male rape domestic violence and much more! Gendered Outcasts and Sexual Outlaws is an eye-opening re-evaluation of what being gay means, why being gay is still considered socially unacceptable, and how the gay male community can respond to systemic stigmatization and hate.

Finding Out, Fourth Edition introduces readers to lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-queer (LGBTQ) studies. By combining accessible introductory and explanatory material with primary texts and artifacts, this text/reader explores the development and growth of LGBTQ identities and the interdisciplinary nature of sexuality studies. Now available in a digital ebook format, the fourth edition has been thoroughly updated to include a new chapter on "Trans Lives and Theories", and new readings. Authors Deborah T. Meem, Jonathan Alexander, Key Beck, and Michelle A. Gibson provide more discussions of important and current issues in LGBTQ studies such as the emergence of non-binary identities, and issues of race and class, making Finding Out, Fourth Edition an even more comprehensive introduction to the field.

By combining accessible introductory and explanatory material with primary texts and artifacts, this text/reader explores the development and growth of LGBT identities and the interdisciplinary nature of sexuality studies. Authors Meem, Gibson, and Alexander clearly situate debates and readings within clear contexts (History, Literature and the Arts, Media and Politics), providing students with a coherent framework and comprehensive introduction to LGBT studies. While this emerging field is complex, multifaceted, and interdisciplinary (and therefore often inaccessible to students), Finding Out - through its instructional apparatus, primary texts, and organization - provides the ideal introduction for today's students. Contents: I. HISTORY 1. Before Identity: The Ancient World through the Nineteenth Century 2. Sexology: Constructing the Modern Homosexual 3. Toward Liberation 4. Stonewall and Beyond II. POLITICS 5. Nature, Nurture, and Identity 6. Inclusion and Equality 7. Queer Diversities 8. Intersectionalities III. LITERATURE AND THE ARTS 9. Homo-sexed Art and Literature 10. Lesbian Pulp Novels and Gay Physique Pictorials 11. Queer Transgressions 12. Censorship and Moral Panic IV. MEDIA 13. Film and Television 14. Queers and the Internet 15. The Politics of Location: Alternative Media and the Search for Queer Space

This book investigates the relationship between sex and gender under international human rights law, and how this influences the formation of individual subjects. Combining feminist, queer, and psychoanalytical perspectives, the author scrutinises the sexed/gendered human rights discourse, starting from the assumptions underpinning interpretations of sex, gender, and the related notions of gender identity, sex characteristics, and sexual orientation. Human rights law has so far offered only a limited account of the diversity of sexed/ gendered subjectivities, being based on a series of simplistic assumptions. Namely, that there are only two sexes and two genders; sex is a natural fact and gender is a social construct; gender is the metonymic signifier for women; and gender power relations take the asymmetrical shape of male domination versus female oppression. Against these assumptions, dominative and subordinate postures interchangeably attach to femininities and masculinities, depending on the subjects’ roles, their positionalities, and the situational meanings of their acts. The limits of an approach to gender which is based on rigid binaries are evident in two case studies, on the UN human rights treaty bodies’ vocabulary on medically unnecessary interventions upon intersex children and on the European Court of Human Rights’ narrative on sadomasochism. This examination of the impact of human rights on gendered subjectivities will be of interest to scholars, students, and researchers in international law, gender studies, queer studies, cultural studies, critical race theory, and psychoanalysis.

How does sexual consent work? How do we know that another person really wants to have sex with us? Why do people sometimes give in to sex that they are not in the mood for? And how come it is sometimes difficult to draw a sharp line between sex and assault? Dynamics of Sexual Consent addresses these questions based on deeply personal interviews with 20 Swedish women and men of various ages and sexual orientations. In doing so, it contributes to understandings of sexual consent and sexual grey areas through its combination of conceptual rigour, analytical detail and empirical richness. While starting in the legal definition of consent as voluntary participation, the book broadens the discussion to a wider sociological and philosophical sphere where gendered power dynamics and relational dependencies challenge simplistic understandings of voluntariness. Contesting tendencies to see miscommunication as the key problem related to consent, it shows that emotional aspects are often the main factor standing in the way of genuinely consensual interactions. While the analysis is informed by a gender perspective emphasizing the gendered power asymmetries of heterosexuality, it also foregrounds men’s vulnerability and the power dynamics of samesex interactions. A key argument of the book is that, given the contextual and ambiguous nature of sexual interactions, it is impossible to delineate unequivocal and concretely applicable guidelines for what counts as consent. To compensate for the lack of universal, fail-safe rules, what is needed is an intensified collective reflection on consent and sexual grey areas, which can make individuals better equipped to identify and respect their own and others’ boundaries. An empirically rich and conceptually sophisticated contribution to understanding of sexual consent and sexual grey areas, Dynamics of Sexual Consent will be of interest to scholars and students of gender studies, sociology and criminology.

This volume presents a ground-breaking collection of interdisciplinary chapters from international scholars which complicate, and offers new ways to make sense of, children's sexual cultures across complex political, social and cultural terrains.