Blacks, Gays And The Church: A Complex Relatnship : NPR

Contents:

• FELLAS, IS REALLY GAY TO EXPRS AFFECTN FOR YOUR HOMI?
• THE GAY HOMIE
• HOW TO TELL IF YOUR GUY FRIEND IS GAY
• BLACKS, GAYS AND THE CHURCH: A COMPLEX RELATNSHIP
• YOUNG THUG AND FRIENDS CGHT WATCHG GAY FREAKY MOVI IN STUD
• GAY SAN ANTON

FELLAS, IS REALLY GAY TO EXPRS AFFECTN FOR YOUR HOMI?

Homophobia is fed as attus and behavrs that monstrate tolerance of sexual acts, inti, moraly, and the rights of homosexuals. To tt our hypothis that cisgenr heterosexual (cishet) men will e language monly xed and rrelated wh the language of women and homosexual men when teractg homosocial nversatns wh close iends, we analyzed 40 TikTok vios which featured cishet men homosocial environments, and rerd five 30–40-mute nversatns that took place eher person or onle via Zoom and Disrd. We found that cishet men, when a fortable settg wh other cishet men, seem to e lguistic patterns that are typilly xed wh cishet women and gay men.

In recent years, ntemporary pop culture seems to have an obssn wh homosexualy — jt whout the part that requir anyone volved to actually intify as non-heterosexual. Like the TikToks mentned above, var other social platforms, such as YouTube and Instagram, seem to be beg home to male fluencers engagg “gay” behavrs wh other men, spe neher party volved actually intifyg as part of the LGBTQ+ muny. From the inic “Two bros stg a hot tub” Ve (Figure 1, re-upload to YouTube here), to recent onle disurse about men keepg their socks on durg sex acts wh other men to keep “no homo” (Figure 2), performative homosexualy seems to always be played for edic effect.

However, wh the emergence of the phenomenon of men “playg gay” onle njunctn wh the troductn of words like “homiexual, ” we were cur as to the ways which language played a role homosocial relatnships, or the relatnships between cisgenr heterosexual mal. A famo Ve where the er zooms on two men, distanced a hot tub, while sgg “Two bros stg a hot tub five feet apart ‘cuz they’re not gay.

THE GAY HOMIE

Current lerature intifi three phenomena — homophobia, homohysteria, and queerbag — as re to the emergence of the inty of the homiexual, which, acrdg to the NYT volv “straight men who go beyond bromance and display nonsexual signs of physil affectn. Homophobia is an umbrella term for all attus and behavrs that monstrate tolerance of sexual acts, inti, moraly, and the rights of homosexuals (McCormack & Anrson, 2014). Queerbag and gayba are the liberate sertn of homoerotic subtext orr to urt a queer followg whout actualizg the subtext (Brennan, 2018).

Primarily, rearch on the subject centers on how creas the acceptance of homosexualy and creas homophobia and homohysteria have led to new terpretatns of what means to be a cishet male (McCormack & Anrson, 2010; McCormack, 2011). Our rearch aims to fill the gap between the intifitn of the cultural phenomena and the analysis of specific lguistic forms and explore how chang support of homosexualy have also changed homosocial relatnships. There has also been some study of the ncept of “soundg gay” and the ia that non-heterosexual men, specifilly homosexual men, often x the speech of heterosexual men orr to seem “straight passg” (Gd, 1994).

We hypothize that cisgenr, heterosexual (cishet) men will e language monly xed and rrelated wh the language of women and homosexual men when teractg homosocial nversatns wh close iends. We analyzed 40 TikTok vios om pilatn vios on YouTube wh tl such as “straight guys beg gay guys” or om the TikTok tags “#nohomo” or #homiexual”.

HOW TO TELL IF YOUR GUY FRIEND IS GAY

Fdgs om the TikToks n be grouped to three tegori: homohysteria and heteronormativy, genr rol and misnceptns about homosexualy, and the spectm, or lack thereof, of male timacy. TikTok creators relied on the ncept of heteronormativy, the assumptn that everyone is straight, as well as the normalizatn of homohysteria to create a edic effect. Cishet men also played up homohysteria for humor by actg gay or htg at one another’s gayns, while simultaneoly exprsg disfort.

Heteronormativy also manifted self more subtly other ways: men filmed gay TikToks ont of their girliends, rercg the norm of heterosexual hegemony by g the ia of gay upl as a joke (Figure 3).

Other TikToks revealed the genr norms prevalent between male relatnships, as well as a clear misterpretatn of homosexualy by cishet men.

BLACKS, GAYS AND THE CHURCH: A COMPLEX RELATNSHIP

Cishet men, actg gay, often joked that their girliends wouldn’t “fd out” ignorg moraly (of cheatg on a signfint other) favor of producg a humoro effect (Figure 3). They also hypersexualized gayns; many teractns volved words such as “horny, ” “sexy, ” and words relatg to the sexual ans, and behavrs such as moang or eatg a ssage. This hypersexualizatn often blurred the le of fort for those on the receivg end of a straight man’s gay advanc—many men were nfed and/or unfortable, as evinced by their facial exprsns or verbal reactns, even though they did not rist (Figure 5).

YOUNG THUG AND FRIENDS CGHT WATCHG GAY FREAKY MOVI IN STUD

The behavrs signal misnceptns, often harmful, about male homosexualy—that homosexualy is herently more sexual or ls ethil than heterosexualy. On the other end of the spectm, they often played “gay chicken” ( which they ntued to act more and more gay until one person fally cracked) or tried to one-up each other acts of gayns. Cisgenr and heterosexual men, teractns wh other cisgenr and heterosexual men, tend to e lguistic patterns xed wh gay men or straight women; the patterns clu higher tonatn and hedgg.

GAY SAN ANTON

In addn, cishet men e flirtat speech the homosocial environments, such as pliments, pet nam, and sexually-charged ments, many of which were observed wh higher tonatn. An important note to make, however, is that spe siari speech patterns, many of the behavrs cishet men exhib homosocial settgs are not xed wh gay men or straight women. The ma ncln we n draw om our fdgs is that spe creasg levels of homophobia and shiftg views on non-tradnal forms of masculy, sexualy, and genr, heteronormativy and genr norms rema prevalent.

Th, although cishet men know how to x gay or non-cishet male inti, as dited by their shifted speech patterns, they are still heavily fluenced by larger outsi forc that suggt our views have yet to fully break away om the heterosexual and patriarchal norms.

(2010) The re-productn of homosexually-themed disurse tnally-based anised sport, Culture, Health & Sexualy, 12:8, 913-927, DOI: 10.

Specifilly, we’re terted lookg at the reasons gay men and straight men bee iends (or rema iends after the gay iend out). We currently have a survey vtigatn unrway that explor some of the posive out of “bromosexual” iendships, cludg our theory that gay men and straight men n be optimal wg men for one another. Gay men – particularly those nservative and ral environments – rema wary about tryg to beiend straight men, fearg prejudice-fueled rejectn.

At the same time, many straight men still doubt that they’ll be able to relate to gay men any meangful way and, for this reason, may not try to iate a iendship.

If they’re open-md about beiendg gay men and make the effort to try to fe iendships based upon mon terts, gay men should feel more fortable reciprotg. Gay men who disclose their sexual orientatn to their straight male iends earlier life may be able to build more open and hont iendships wh them to adulthood.

Send, recent rearch has argued that genr and sexual orientatn might not be as black and whe as prevly thought, which opens up new avenu for explorg how gay and straight men n relate to one another.

If a straight guy and his gay male iend are ls rigid about their masculy and sexualy, they’ll probably be more likely to discs tails about their sexual and romantic liv openly wh one another. In short, women are able to tst the datg advice om gay male iends bee they know their gay iends don’t have any ulterr motiv: They’re not tryg to hook up wh them or pete wh them for guys. Jt as a gay man might be able to pass on advice about women to his straight iend, a straight man uld nnect his gay male iend wh another sirable gay man, sce neher the gay man nor his straight iend are petg for the same person.