Title
Resisting "Homo-Hegemony": Bears, Homonormativity, and the Cultural Politics of Sameness and Difference
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
Department
Sociology and Corrections
Abstract
This article examines the cultural politics of “Bear” subculture and its relationship to homonormativity. It argues that Bears perform homonormativity first, because their politics are learned about and enacted through individual acts of consumption and second, because they allow Bears to pass as heterosexual and thereby, to participate in the reproduction of heteronormativity. However, because their goals are to pluralize the bodily norms of gay male culture and to build acceptance for non-normatively embodied gay men, these are also a politics of difference. This complicates our conception of homonormativity, which is often reduced to a politics that aims to achieve assimilation by emphasizing the fundamental similarities between gays and lesbians and heterosexuals
Publication Title
International Journal of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies
Recommended Citation
Hoy, Aaron. 2015. “Resisting ‘Homo-Hegemony’: Bears, Homonormativity, and the Cultural Politics of Sameness and Difference.” International Journal of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies 10(4): 27-39.
DOI
10.18848/2327-008X/CGP/v10i04/53169
Link to Publisher Version (DOI)
Publisher's Copyright and Source
Copyright © 2015 Common Ground Publishing. Article published by Common Ground Publishing in The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies, volume 10, issue number 4, 2015, pages 27-39. Available online: https://doi.org/10.18848/2327-008X/CGP/v10i04/53169.
