swag response2

Abstract:

In this article the author doesn’t make nay claims about the ‘actual’ sexual and racial identities of men who place advertisements for sex online. Rather he is explaining the sexualized and radicalized cultures these advertisements draw upon and reproduce. This article offers support for the argument that the lines between queer- ness and normativity are marked less by sexual practices and identities than by cultural practices and interpretive frames. The author demonstrates how whiteness and masculinity interact to offer heterosexual culture to white men who have sex with men. As well, the author is ephasizing the importance of culture and how big of an impact it has.

Question:

As we can see race plays a big factor in in how white straight man make sense of their straight sexuality. On page 419 the author says “the production of heterosexual culture on Craigslist is accomplished not only through what is arguably a ‘homophobic’ and hyper-masculine rejection of queer culture; it is also dependent upon racial archetypes and images that invoke ‘real’ heterosexual white masculinity.” Is the idea of “whitening your sexuality” going to make you more masculine ? Is that even possible?

The author starts off by saying how this particular study demonstrates how a heterosexual culture is constructed online without making any claims about the ‘true’ heterosexuality of the men who post ads on Craigslist. In other words their true/inner self is never revealed nor showed. He goes on explain how dude-sex dude-sex is a means of getting the kind of sex that all straight men want from women, but can only get from men – un- complicated, emotionless, and guaranteed.

Music as well plays a big part in this process. For example for Latinos ‘being gay’ is not an option. Hip Hop is. Music, more specifically Hip hop for white straight men reinforces their masculinity through the appropriation of terms and gestures used by Black and Latino men, especially within rap lyrics. It’s interesting how white men have chosen hip hop as away to practice and prove their masculinity.

On page 423 the author mentions “Thug masculinity”. Does that even exist? Who identifies himself as that? What I find really interesting is the notion how white straight dudes expressed desire for ‘no strings’ sex with ‘hung’ Black men. Usually Black man is the dominant figure. Black men are always dominant; they receive sexual service, but they don’t provide it. As the author said “Friendship, equity, and ‘normal and natural male bonding’ are represented as either undesirable or impossible across racial lines.”

On the contrary the figure of the ‘straight white man’ symbolizes both financial and cultural power as well as the average man, the ‘everyman’, the ‘regular dude’. Given the ways in which systems of white racial dominance construct whiteness as natural, invisible, and non-racialized sex between white men is likely to be experienced as deracialized and ‘natural’, possessing none of the ‘difference’ or racial fetishism expressed in cross-racial sexual encounters.

DMU Timestamp: March 15, 2012 22:35