Dude, We’re All Fags: Hegemonic Masculinity in the Gay Adult Film Industry

• In Event: 512 - Section on Sex and Gender Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 16. Masculinities, Boundary Work, and Sexual Identities

Abstract

Existing research shows how the specter of homosexuality operates as a mechanism to police the borders of masculinity. This research extends previous theories by interrogating how homophobic discourses operate within homosocial, homosexual spaces. Based on ten months of participant-observation in the casting and filming division of a gay male adult film studio, I find that gendered boundary work polices masculinity through hiring decisions and directions given during filming. These data show that boundary work operates through hiring practices and interaction, and that the logic of the “fag discourse” rests on a femiphobic discourse deployed in gay-male spaces. The femiphobic discourse as an organizing mechanism of masculinity contributes to analyses of gendered boundary work by highlighting the multiciplicity of logics of domination and processes through which they occur. Through analysis of this process, I introduce the concept of “nesting hegemonies” – logics and processes of within-group domination through imitation of hegemonic forms.

Author

• Nathaniel Burke, University of Southern California