max-morris

[max-morris]

21 Questions with PhD Student Max Morris

By Raven Bowen

Q: So, what do you do?

A: I’m a sociologist of sexualities and most of my research is about gay, bisexual and queer youth, but at the moment I’m writing up my PhD at Durham University based on 50 interviews with young men who have accepted money for sex online, which is something I call ‘incidental sex work.’ Basically, these guys did not advertise themselves as selling sex and most of them didn’t identify as sex workers. So selling sex is a form of sexual exploration or economic opportunism, and most often it was a one-time thing. So it challenges some of the assumptions about who sells sex and their motivations and the diversity of experiences people have about selling sex. What I want to do is to challenge some of our conventions around identity politics and sex work. I also managed to get a survey of 1,500 Grindr users and through that I found that 14.6% admitted to engaging in some form of commercial sex, with 8.2% of those doing incidental sex work or webcamming. So, it’s a lot more common among gay and bisexual men than we might realize.

Q: And your favourite colour?

A: Floral pink, because I’m a gay stereotype!!!

Q: What are you most proud of?

A: So, last year I was diagnosed with HIV and it came as a total shock to me, but I was quite proud that I was able to turn this unexpected event into an opportunity to learn from other people and educate other people. Within a couple of months of my diagnosis I had begun giving public lectures at universities and to HIV charities and I did some radio and television interviews. And they were all about the revolutionary changes in medication over the years, like PrEP as a form of prevention. I’ve been very vocal about that. I became HIV positive in a very good context with the new drugs and the normal life expectancy, and now it’s impossible to transmit the virus when you’re on effective mediation. So I want to see us move away from that stigmatized view we have of the virus from the 1980’s. Q: The death sentence idea. A: Yes, and that needs to be gone now. And this impacts my sex industry research because HIV is an intersectional issue that affects not just gay men, but trans women, migrants, sex workers. It also angers me…recently seeing prohibitionist feminists going after Amnesty International, UNAIDS and other charities because they endorse decrim as an effective way to reduce HIV infection. So that affects my life and my research in lots of different ways. Q: Amazing how your life experience now expands your scholarship and activism! A: Yes and it’s given me a feeling of solidarity for a lot of different groups with the intersections of HIV, sexual identity and feminism it definitely expanded my horizons intellectually and as an activist.

Q: What drew you to sex industry related work? What was the call for you?

A: Looking back, on the street that I was raised on, just after I left home for university, there was a ‘gay brothel’ that was raided from the Vice Squad in my home city of Bristol and my mom sent me a news clipping of the story. So, these were basically my neighbours who’d been arrested in a crackdown on drugs and prostitution in my city. Often times the laws cracking down on brothels are often policing people who are working together for safety. So it’s an excuse, so that the police can be seen as being tough on immorality. Also, when I was 16 I was on the BBC program, the Big Questions. So that was 9 years ago now and they were talking about if brothels should be legalized and I spoke up and I said that I supported decriminalization in solidarity with the two women speakers, and one of them was from the International Union of Sex Workers. The responses were moralist, right-wing. I ended up bumping into one of the speakers at the end of my street and I stopped her and said ‘hey you were on the Big Questions’ and I really remember the look of terror on her face. She thought I was going to stigmatize her or attack her for being an open sex worker. And I said, no I was one of the people how supported you. So basically, the poor diverse neighborhood where I grew up in the Southwest of England, sex workers were my friends and neighbors, they weren’t this ‘other’ identity. So, for me I took that forward when I went into university and I began my academic career looking at why we have this binary between them and us. People who sell sex are exactly the same as us. We are all sex workers in a sense. We are all selling services. My peers are engaging in incidental sex work, and that blurs the boundaries between ‘them’ and ‘us.’

Q: The last thing you laughed about?

A: I have a game that’s called Top2Bottom, which is the gay version of ‘Cards Against Humanity.’ It’s really fun. There is this one card I always laugh at. The answer card is ‘AIDS Face’ and I’m in stitches about it. When I was diagnosed, my doctor made that face at me and he said ‘don’t worry, people don’t get this face [makes face] any more because the medications have improved things so much.’ So, that card always makes me laugh.

Q: What’s your favourite food?

A: Olives, especially in a dirty martini. Q: That’s a bloody condiment!

Q: Your current project or pursuit?

A: At the moment I’m working on an article looking at the legal implications of new HIV meds for a special edition on consent in the journal of criminal law. So, looking into whether someone can consent to having bareback sex with someone who is positive, in light of the research that says that if you’re on medication you can’t transmit it, so why do we keep the legislation around transmission. My partner and I are participants in the PARTNER study, and they found zero cases of HIV transmission across 58,000 acts of condomless sex between serodiscordant couples. There is a debate within NHS about funding PrEP as well. It has big implications for sex workers as well. So much advocacy has been around gay and bisexual men but these issues are really important for sex workers.

Q: What’s your biggest regret?

A: I wish that I had been more of an ally to sex workers, trans people, migrants, people of color, people living with HIV, when I was younger. I wish I had been more active in challenging stigma before it hit me personally. The message I’d like to send is that if you have privilege and you’re not in these groups that are stigmatized, it can so easily be you or someone you know and actually these are people who you should care about. They are your friends and neighbours.

Q: Facebook or Twitter?

A: Well I went to a lecture last month by sociologist Bev Skeggs and she was talking about how Facebook collects user information, and basically sells high-end consumer goods to ‘high value’ users but sells debt to ‘low value’ users. It reinforces class inequality. And they are even tracking you when you’re not on the App. So I uninstalled the Facebook App and now I only use Twitter. Q: You don’t use Whatsapp? Facebook bought Whatsapp. A: Really!? Q: Yeah, it’s now part of their ‘family of companies’…data harvesters! A: And every website that has the Facebook logo is tracking you. Q: So, Twitter then [laughter]?

Q: What challenges you the most about your sex work or related work?

A: Being raised by a single mom on benefits, I’ve always been a feminist and class conscious, but at the same time as a man I’ve benefited from male privilege and patriarchy, so the difficulty comes in balancing my critique of sex worker and trans exclusionary feminisms with my belief in giving women a greater platform. So, that’s often an intellectual challenge I come up against. For me the best solution for that has been to use queer theory and understanding as a vocal queer person I experience some of the same patriarchy and heterosexism, so goals are intersecting and unified. Homophobia and misogyny are two sides of the same coin, especially when it comes to toxic masculinity and issues of suppressing marginalized people. That’s how I square the circle as a feminist man. Q: Yes, and no need to square the circle, we need circles, but your level of introspection outstrips most humans!

Q: Favourite Movie?

A: Alien, I absolutely love Sigourney Weaver. She was amazing in it.

Q: And the last time you cried?

A: The last time I had an argument with my boyfriend. Relationships can be hard at times.

Q: Cat or dog person?

A: I love all animals but I’m allergic to cats. I’m definitely a dog person. Me and my boyfriend dog sat for Alex Feis-Bryce who you interviewed a few weeks ago!

Q: Who understands you?

A: My boyfriend.

Q: What’s the last book or article you read?

A: I actually borrowed this from Alex: ‘Sex workers unite: a history of the movement from Stonewall to Slutwalk.’ Q: Does he know you have it, or is he going to find out here on the blog? A: Yeah he knows. Q: Oh, too bad [Laughter].

Q: Childhood Fear?

A: I used to be a surfer kid and would go down to Cornwall every summer and even though there’s nothing that can kill you in the oceans around Britain, I used to be afraid of sharks while I was on my surfboard. Which is funny because I love sharks now and I use it as a symbol for irrational fears, like those around HIV transmission. You’re more likely to get hit by a car on the way to the beach than get bitten by a shark! Q: Interesting. Let me guess, you watched Jaws as a kid, right? A: Yeah! Another great movie.

Q: What did your last text message say?

A: It was to my mom ‘Thank you for the lovely text a few days ago [mom’s name]. Happy Birthday! We are dog-sitting. Can’t wait to see more of your art exhibit.’

Q: One thing that your work or existence is aimed to do for the sex industry?

A: I think the main thing I’m interest in doing is breaking down binaries and challenging the dichotomies between us and them. The idea that sex workers are some stereotypical other…a marginalized and victimized group. There are issues of victimization and problems that the community experiences, but we need to stop thinking in such binary terms. So, feminist and queer theories are great at breaking those things down. They are more like us than we realize. Q: Yeah, ‘they’ are us!

Q: The meaning of life in one word?

A: So, part of me wants to reject the premise of your question. Q: Of course you do. Damn academics [laughter]! A: There is no objective meaning of life, but for me it’s Pleasure!

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?

A: I’ve always liked the idea of becoming an elected member of parliament, if only to queer the House of Commons by attending important votes in full drag. I’ve said so many controversial things publicly now that I don’t think that I would ever be qualified for that, but there’s too many men in suits and it doesn’t really represent the population.

Q: Three portable items that you would have with you while stranded on a desert island?

A: How long am I on the island for? Q: Well you’re stranded. Between you and Rosie I’m starting to regret adding this question. A: [Laughter] Okay, well I’ll definitely take

(1) a sex toy, like a vibrator or a dildo or something like that, because a boy’s got needs.

(2) Then I would take a full medical kit with my insulin and HIV meds, and plasters if I cut myself on a rock. So that’s sex and health covered.

And I’d take (3) a truck full of wine!

This interview was first posted on the Sex Work Research Hub website, available here: https://sexworkresearchhub.org/2017/11/30/21-questions-with-phd-student-max-morris/

#SexWork #HIV #Research #Activism

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"It's a Match: Sex Work and Feminism have Liked Each Other"

#Sex Work #Feminism #Lecture

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Introducing Internet-based ‘Incidental Sex Work’ and its Implications.

Internet-based technologies have transformed many sex work practices. From webcam shows to sugar dating, the democratizing effect of social media has provided opportunities for both professionals and amateurs to work more autonomously and securely, often without clearly defined legal barriers. Location-based smartphone applications, commonly described as dating or hook-up apps, have also grown in popularity over the past decade, including Grindr, Hornet, Jack’d, Recon and Scruff for gay and bisexual men, alongside apps for people of all genders and sexualities such as Blendr and Tinder. As the number of social networking platforms has proliferated, so too have spaces for sex work to occur, making these practices more casual and covert. Thus, my most recent qualitative study has explored the experiences of sexual minority men who occasionally sell sex after being propositioned by users of social networking sites and apps. I describe this emerging practice as incidental sex work.

Last year I travelled to towns and cities across Britain to interview 50 incidental sex workers. I recruited men aged 18 to 26 who had never advertised as selling sex, with few identifying with conventional labels such as escort, prostitute, rent boy or even sex worker—a label I use to align my work with contemporary research and politics. To find this hidden sample of “sex workers,” I sent the following message to 3,000 Grindr users in metropolitan areas: “Hey. Have you ever been offered money for sex online and said yes? I’m a social researcher looking for guys to interview anonymously about their experiences.” This enquiry was occasionally met with misunderstanding (“Are you offering to pay me?”) or offense (“Do I look like a filthy prostitute to you?”). However, with an almost 50% response rate, I found that 14.6% had been paid for sex on at least one occasion. Follow up questions revealed that 2.3% had worked as professional escorts or porn actors, while 8.2% had engaged in incidental sex work or webcamming.

Although this straw poll of Grindr users cannot be viewed as fully representative, it suggests that those engaging in incidental sex work outnumber those involved in professional sex work. This is consistent with an online survey conducted by the Student Sex Work Project, which found that 4.8% of 6,773 British students had been involved in the sex industry, with most selling sex on an irregular basis. It also highlights that incidental sex work among young men is a more common practice than previously thought (if thought about at all), making its absence from research and policy debates noteworthy.

Perhaps a reflection of my recruitment strategy, the preferred platform for meeting other men was Grindr, with 43 out of 50 participants having been paid for sex using this app. Harry said, “If it gets to 10 or 11 o’clock at night and I’m feeling horny, I’ll go on Grindr to see who’s available… That was how I met the guy who ended up paying me.” Describing the first of three times he was paid for sex, Alex said, “I didn’t really fancy the guy, he was not my usual type, but I was on Grindr and horny when he offered a hundred quid.” Alongside opportunistic financial rewards, several participants described a desire to “experiment” sexually as a motivation for selling sex. Paul said:

I suppose I did need the money, but I didn’t think of it in that way. It was more that it gave me an excuse to try something out. I was curious to see if being paid for sex would turn me on, would be a bit of a thrill, and a different sexual experience.

Features of Grindr (and other apps) such as “Send Photo” and “Send Location” allowed participants to assess whether they wanted to meet the men offering them money. For example, James said, “At first I said no, but then he sent me his photos and I thought, ‘Well it’s only an hour and I need the money.’ We agreed the price then he sent me his location.” These narratives highlight how social networking apps made it possible for young men who had never considered selling sex to do so, making it easy for them to determine whether they wanted to, and then arrange incidental sex work encounters.

Although most participants did not identify with sex worker labels or identity politics, their perspectives do challenge a common characterization of sex work as universally exploitative, harmful or immoral. For example, Andrew said, “I never had a negative experience with the guys who paid me… If I was ever short on money, I would do it again.” Justin said, “I felt safe with him, I knew he wasn’t going to hurt me or anything like that, mainly because we talked about it online for a good while.” Even the minority of participants who framed their encounters using negative terms such as “danger” or “risk” tended to do so in relation to the age or physique of their clients rather than the exchange of money. As Bradley said, “The danger was only in the back of my mind, probably because he was older. But I suppose it was no more risky than a regular hook-up.” Others reversed the exploitation narrative by saying that they saw themselves as the ones exploiting the older men who offered to pay them. Jeremy said, “It’s not about being used, it’s about using them. You’re the one in control. That’s why it doesn’t make sense to associate selling sex with exploitation.” Similarly, Michael said:

People have asked me, “Do you think they’re taking advantage of you?” Because that’s the stereotype—that people who are selling sex are being used by those who are paying—but I think it’s the other way around… If anything, I feel slightly guilty that I’m taking advantage of these men who want to, or have to, pay to be with me.

These participants invoked notions of their clients being “used,” “taken advantage of” or “ripped off,” inverting the framing often used by anti-sex work campaigners to describe clients.

Incidental sex work poses further problems for those seeking to abolish selling or buying sex. It has been argued in The Economist that the growth of online sex work “will make the sex industry harder for all governments to control or regulate, whether they seek to do so for pragmatic or moralistic reasons.” This is because internet-based sex workers (particularly incidental sex workers) are less visible and more mobile than those working from a fixed location. Furthermore, as a recent article about webcamming in The Conversation highlighted, “unlike pornography or prostitution, there are virtually no laws regulating this form of sex work.” Additionally, internet technologies can create challenges regarding under-age sexual activities including online dating, sexting, and pornography consumption, with definitions of legal age varying by countries and jurisdictions. Often misguided by moral panics, the challenges such social concerns raise for users, website owners and researchers will be a topic increasingly discussed and debated.

Although the private exchange of money for sex between adults is legal in Britain, incidental sex workers do not even engage in soliciting, which remains a crime. Despite this, 39 out of 50 participants incorrectly believed that they had broken the law by selling sex. Some compared this form of rule-breaking to other deviant acts which are difficult (if not impossible) for the state to police. For example, Josh said, “I know it’s illegal, but in the same way that torrenting a movie online is, everyone does it and no one really cares,” while Mark said, “It’s like smoking weed, how are the police going to know what you do in private anyway?” Thus, the perceived illegality of selling sex did not work as a deterrent for these men.

My research with incidental sex workers poses problems for both the moral and practical policing of sex work. How can we, and why should we, stop people from engaging in these private exchanges? It also highlights that academic understandings of sex work are incomplete. How can we make sweeping statements about commercial sex given that such diverse practices have gone almost entirely unnoticed by researchers, until now? What other gaps in our knowledge might there be? Finally, incidental sex workers challenge the perception of selling sex as being somehow out of the ordinary, by showing that young men use everyday internet technologies to make money in experimental and opportunistic ways.

About the author

Max Morris is a Sociology and Social Policy doctoral candidate in the School of Applied Social Sciences at Durham University, England. His research about sexual minority youth and social media has been published in journals including British Journal of Sociology, Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, and Sociology.

This blog was first published on AboutMaleEscorting.com, available here: http://www.aboutmaleescorting.com/introducing-internet-based-incidental-sex-work-and-its-implications/

#Sex Work #Grindr #Social Media

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Advertising my PhD research.

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Inclusive Masculinity and Authentic YouTube Celebrities.

When thinking about masculinity and popularity, the ‘coolest’ boys have traditionally been those who physically intimidated their peers through aggression, misogyny and homophobia. In this guest blog, Max Morris asks whether this model of popularity still exists for members of the YouTube Generation by looking at some of the UK’s most popular vloggers (or video bloggers). He argues that these vloggers reflect how many boys today find homophobia to be unacceptable and value public displays of affection – often by sharing photos, videos and emotional care work on social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

In his book, The Declining Significance of Homophobia, Mark McCormack argued that boys in British schools can now achieve popularity without intimidating their peers. Instead, he found four key personality traits determined one’s popularity: 1) social fluidity; 2) emotional support; 3) charisma; and 4) authenticity (read his blog about this topic here).A growing body of research has provided evidence for this trend, and there is even a theory – inclusive masculinity theory – that argues decreasing homophobia is central to how young men’s behaviors are changing for the better.

In an academic article I recently co-authored with Eric Anderson, we applied this theory to examine masculinity on YouTube among Britain’s most popular male vloggers: Charlie McDonnell (Charlieissocoollike), Dan Howell (Danisnotonfire) and identical twins Jack and Finn Harries (JacksGap). Our study was based on thematic analysis of their vlogs along with an in-depth interview with Charlie McDonnell, the UK’s most-watched YouTube celebrity. We argue that the gay-friendly attitudes displayed by these heterosexual men are emblematic of the changing nature of youth masculinity.

Whether it’s hanging out with openly gay vloggers wearing women’s clothes, make-up and accessories, or declaring their love for members of the boy band One Direction, these guys’ behaviours are far removed from traditional masculinity. Indeed, all of Charlie’s vlogs end with a ringing endorsement from Britain’s most-famous gay performer Stephen Fry, who says, ‘You’ve just had the almost imponderable joy of watching Charlie is so cool like, which makes you, like, cool’.

One defining feature of inclusive masculinity is men’s ability to socialise with a diversity of peers, including sexual minorities (what McCormack calls social fluidity). This can be seen clearly in collaborative vlogs with gay YouTubers. For example, in Twin Twinks Learn Gay Slang, the gay vlogger Tyler Oakleydescribes Jack and Finn to his largely gay male audience as ‘twinks’ – a term used to describe slender, hairless, effeminate young men – clarifying for them, ‘if you were gay, you would be twinks’. Comfortable with this label, Jack and Finn engage playfully with Tyler.

Being willing to display vulnerability and emotional openness is another characteristic of these vloggers. For example, in one of Charlie’s most popular videos, Duet With Myself, he uses a split screen video technique to sing a duet (with himself) about embracing oneself in spite of one’s faults. Similarly, in ENVY, Dan describes himself by saying, ‘I’m a pretty nice guy. I’m about as violent and intimidating as a pink butterfly… that’s got stuck on a marshmallow’.

This emotional openness can also act as a form of emotional support for online communities. Highlighting this, in a recent comment piece for the Guardian, one young woman wrote that YouTube celebrities have a ‘new kind of talent, the talent of being a friend, of being a light in a day that might have otherwise been dark’, which helped her to deal with depression. Or as another teenage fan said, ‘We love the YouTubers. When you’re having a bad time you can just enter their life, they’re with you every day’.

Another characteristic which makes these vloggers so watchable is their charisma. They engage in fun-loving activities to entertain their audiences. Examples can be readily drawn from their vlogs, such as Charlie dying his hair red or Jack dancing around his bedroom in a pink shirt. Although occasionally their risk-taking stunts may hark back to traditional forms of masculinity, these displays of charisma are done without being aggressive or marginalising those who do not participate.

In our article, we suggested that these vloggers represent a new form of online celebrity which is defined by its authenticity. While television struggles to be associated with authenticity because of its institutional location, from a newsroom or studio, with presenters who speak in standardised English, YouTube allows for ‘ordinary’ people to speak directly to their audience, from their own bedrooms and in their own voice. Even with audience sizes rivalling prime-time television, and increasing engagement with traditional media (for example, Dan now hosts a weekly show on BBC Radio 1 with his friend and fellow vlogger Phil Lester), these vloggers have maintained their inclusivity and individuality.

Furthermore, from our interview with Charlie, it seems that these behaviours were encouraged by his peer culture. He told us that when he was in school he showed support for gay rights by kissing another boy and was comfortable being identified with a ‘softer’ masculinity. Asked whether he is proud of his femininity he said, ‘It’s just who I am’, and he received support from his school friends in promoting his vlogs, who simply encouraged him to be himself. Given the similarities between these vloggers and male youth in other recent research, it is likely that the inclusive behaviours displayed by Charlie, Dan, Jack and Finn are judged by their audiences to be authentic. As Charlie put it, ‘It’s just the norm. It’s how all my friends are’.

These vloggers represent a new form of masculinity on YouTube. But they are not the only ones displaying inclusive masculinity. Other YouTube celebrities (who we did not focus on), including Alfie Deyes, Marcus Butler and Joe Sugg, exhibit similar behaviours and attitudes. While these middle class men are offering new behaviours for YouTube, they are modelling and mirroring the masculinities of young British men. This is part of a broader trend of declining homophobia which has allowed boys to embrace behaviours that would once have been stigmatised as ‘girly’ or ‘gay’. What McCormack has called the ‘One Direction effect’ is now carried through to online celebrities. These men have not only benefitted from the youth culture that they grew up with, but are also contributing to it by promoting their inclusive masculinity to millions of young viewers.

About the author:

Max Morris is a sociology and social policy PhD student, and postgraduate assistant to the Centre for Sex, Gender and Sexualities, Durham University. His research documents the increasingly positive experiences of sexual minority youth, changing attitudes toward sex and relationships, and the influence of social media on masculinities and sexualities.

This blog was first published on CelebYouth.org, available here: http://www.celebyouth.org/masculinity-and-youtube-celebrities/

#YouTube #Masculinity #One Direction #Vlogging #Gay-Friendly

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Before and After

#Drag #Gay #Birthday

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From Homohysteria to Inclusivity: Declining Homophobia and the Softening of Masculinity.

In North America and Western Europe, opposition to homosexuality peaked in the late 1980s. Homophobic attitudes at this time were so intense and pervasive that Anderson (2009) has theorized such cultures as ‘homohysteric.’ While homophobia is the culturally produced fear of, or prejudice towards, homosexuals that can be manifested in legal restrictions, school-ground bullying and sometimes violence, homohysteria refers to the fear faced by heterosexuals (or closeted homosexuals) of being thought gay through the ‘wrongdoing’ of cultural gender norms. Homohysteria occurs when three factors are present: 1) widespread awareness that homosexuality exists within a significant portion of the population; 2) strong cultural homophobia; and 3) conflation of male femininity with homosexuality.

In the 1980s, these three factors met with force in Anglo-American cultures. Not only was this period marked by a resurgence in conservative Christian ideology, but when the HIV/AIDS epidemic hit, the sexual orientation of many ostensibly heterosexual people was revealed. As colleagues, neighbors, friends, family members, and even well-known celebrities began to die from the ‘gay disease’ awareness grew that almost anyone could be secretly gay. At this time, homophobic attitudes were further bolstered by the actions (or inactions) of conservative political leaders such as Reagan and Thatcher, and the moral crusade of fundamentalist Christian preachers against homosexuality. In short, this was an awful time to be gay, or to be thought gay.

In a society which disproportionately privileges heterosexuality, men and boys will go to great lengths to distance themselves from the stigma of homosexuality. But because sexuality lacks morphological markers (unlike race, gender or age), no one can definitively prove that they are straight. Thus, men turned to homophobia, misogyny and aggression to affirm their heterosexuality. Furthermore, given the association between male femininity and homosexuality, homohysteria led men to adopt and endorse exaggerated hyper-masculine behaviors in an attempt to avoid homosexual suspicion. It is within such a cultural context that Kimmel (1994) suggested homophobia ismasculinity.

One way to establish one’s masculinity was through the testosterone-fuelled institutions of competitive sport available to young men in high schools and universities. It was here that scholars began to document the torment young men (especially young sporting men) inflicted upon their less athletic or less masculine, but especially their gay male peers. At this time, researchers found exceptionally high levels of homophobic bullying and social exclusion directed at gay and bisexual male students, or those perceived to be so. These narratives of oppression were shown to be particularly deleterious in educational settings, where LGBT students maintained elevated levels of absenteeism, depression and suicide (Rivers 2011).

Since the early 1990s, however, cultural homophobia has been in rapid decline in North America and Western Europe, something captured by both qualitative and quantitative studies. In the United Kingdom, for example, nearly 64% of the population thought that homosexuality was ‘always wrong’ in 1987. Since then, a remarkable shift in attitudes has occurred with only 24% answering the same way in 2006 (Kozlowski 2010). Matters were worse in the United States, where up to 78% of the public thought that homosexuality was ‘always wrong’ in 1987. This number has fallen significantly to 46% by 2010 (Keleher & Smith 2012).

This liberalization of attitudes towards sexual minorities has occurred alongside an expanded social and political landscape for LGBT people. Most recently, in June 2013, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the ‘Defense of Marriage Act’ (DOMA) was unconstitutional. In this same year, the United Kingdom’s Conservative-led government introduced and passed the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act, granting same sex couples full legal equality, joining a growing chorus of nations to pass such legislation.

Scholars have now begun to document a remarkable decline in homophobic attitudes among male youth. In his book, The Declining Significance of Homophobia, McCormack (2012) found that as cultural homophobia retreats, young heterosexual men’s behaviors towards one another have become softer and more inclusive. In the absence of homohysteria, these men no longer feared being thought gay and rejected homophobia on their school campuses outright. Importantly, this development has allowed for an expansion of gendered behaviors, with young men now able to occupy once exclusively feminized terrains; straight male youth today are willing to show public displays of intimacy with one another, whether it’s through cuddling, kissing (on the cheeks and increasingly on the lips), or dancing together in clubs (Anderson 2009). Incredibly, this trend is especially true of young sporting men, as Eric writes about in his forthcoming (2014) book, 21st Century Jocks.

The dramatic transformation in attitudes seen over recent decades is exemplified by the contrasting experiences of the two authors of this blog. Eric Anderson attended a conservative high school in Southern California during the late 1980s. Eric’s school environment and wider culture was so intensely homophobic that he did not dare come out of the closet until he was 25. As America’s first openly gay high school coach, in 1993, his coming out became a very public affair. In his autobiography, Eric recounts how one of his (heterosexual) athletes was beaten to near death by another student, merely for his association with a gay coach (Anderson 2003). Max Morris, on the other hand, attended high school in a liberal city in the South-West of England during the late 2000s. His school environment and wider culture was so gay-friendly that he was comfortable coming out of the closet aged just 15. With widespread support from his peers, Max’s coming out actually made him more popular. As an effeminate, flamboyant, openly gay student, he was elected student president at a religious high school. At no point was he marginalized by his peers because of his sexuality (McCormack 2012).

These anecdotal accounts are not unique. Rather, they are representative of what the sociological research has found, and is finding, across Western cultures. Those who grew up in ‘Generation X’, like Eric, had to deal with an aggressive, misogynistic, homophobic form of masculinity, one which excluded gay youth and made school life a misery for many. Those growing up in the 21st Century, or as Eric terms them in his book, ‘Generation i,’ like Max, are faced with a highly inclusive form of masculinity, instead. Thus, not only are young straight men’s friendships and school experiences enhanced by the erosion of homohysteria, so too are those of sexual minorities (McCormack 2012). LGBT youth growing up today face very little direct discrimination or homophobia from their peers. In short, by comparison, this is an amazing time to be gay, or to be thought gay.

References:

Anderson, E. (2014). 21st Century Jocks: Sporting Men and Contemporary Heterosexuality. Basingtsoke, UK: Palgrave-McMillian.

Anderson, E. (2009). Inclusive masculinity: The changing nature of masculinities. London: Routledge.

Anderson, E. (2003). Trailblazing: The True Story of America’s First Openly Gay Track Coach. Hollywood, CA: Alyson Press.

Keleher, A. & Smith, E. R. (2012). Growing support for gay and lesbian equality since 1990. Journal of homosexuality, 59(9), 1307-1326.

Kimmel, M. (1994). Masculinity as Homophobia: Fear, Shame and Silence in the Construction of Gender Identity. In, H. Broad and M. Kaufman, Theorizing Masculinities. London: Sage.

Kozlowski (2010). Homosexual moral acceptance and social tolerance: Are the effects of education changing? Journal of Homosexuality, 57(10), 1370-1383.

McCormack, M. (2012). The declining significance of homophobia: How teenage boys are redefining masculinity and heterosexuality. Oxford University Press.

Rivers, I. (2011). Homophobic Bullying: Research and Theoretical Perspectives: Research and Theoretical Perspectives. Oxford University Press.

The Authors:

Professor Eric Anderson is an American sociologist at the University of Winchester, England and an academician of the British Academy of Social Sciences. He is known for his research on sexualities and masculinities studies, particularly concerning sport and relationships.

Max Morris is an ESRC-funded postgraduate student at Durham University. His research examines, sexualities, masculinities, male sex work and the improving experiences of LGBT youth.

This blog was first published on the British Sociological Association’s Postgraduate Forum, available here: http://bsapgforum.com/guest-blog/

#LGBT Youth #Homophobia #Masculinity #Social Research

[max-morris]

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