Playing Straight to Get Consent: Heterosexuality, Hegemony, and Sexual Violence Prevention.

• In Event: 062 - Regular Session. Masculinities and Sexualities

Abstract

As men take a more active role in preventing sexual violence, it becomes both necessary and possible to critically examine how hegemonic masculinity shapes this work. These processes were highlighted during a year-long participant/observation and interview study with a campus-based men's group that conducts bystander intervention and consent workshops to all-male audiences, primarily fraternities and sports teams. Although a majority of the group members identified as gay, bisexual, or queer, the presentations were framed as being entirely about heterosexual sex, to the point where the gay members would downplay their own sexual orientation or put on false personalities in order to build rapport with their (presumed) audience. As presenters worked to build credibility, avoid resistance and keep their audiences comfortable, engaged, and receptive, they relied on ideas about hegemonic masculinity that functioned to narrow the available discourse and limit their own presentations of self. This process functions to elide the likelihood of there also being gay and queer men in the audience and the possibility that queer lives and knowledge may usefully inform discourses of sexual violence prevention, as well as requiring a level of duplicity and self-abnegation from the gay and queer group members. Moreover, there is no evidence that erasing the queer presence improves the effectiveness of the workshops. These assumptions form an important part of how hegemonic masculine ideals function to control and constrain men’s lives, undermine sexual violence prevention projects, and reproduce men’s power in society.

Author

• Tal Peretz, Auburn University