Sex is not simply a biologically-driven activity; nor is sexuality merely a particular orientation of erotic desire. Rather, together they constitute a site on which gender, power and social identity are discursively and differentially constructed for the individual.
For males, this site is understood as “masculinity,” produced as the dominant sexual and social subjectivity within a patriarchal structure by a series of exclusions and disavowals which in turn generate a range of “others” subordinate to the masculine. These include the feminine and the homosexual, which then haunt the masculine as points of resistance and even of possible “infection” or substitution within the discourse by which the masculine is constituted. Using a cultural studies approach, this paper explores this context in order to understand, first, how it conditions male sexual attitudes and behaviours and, second, the dynamics underlying the marginalisation and oppression of sexual minorities.
Conflict of Interest: None disclosed
Financial Support/Funding: None disclosed
Recorded at the the 19th WAS World Congress for Sexual Health - Sexual Health & Rights: A Global Challenge Göteborg (Sweden) - June 21 – 25, 2009
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