Queering Language, Gender and Sexuality - Tommaso M. Milani
13. Homophobia as Moral Geography
Queering Language, Gender and Sexuality - Tommaso M. Milani
William L. Leap [+]
Dept of Anthropology, American University, Washington DC & Center for Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton FL
William L. Leap is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the American University in Washington, DC.
Description
Gay men’s stories about homophobic violence will, at times, disguise reference to the persons who initiate harassment and injury. Instead, these stories emphasize the details of location or allow the victim of narrated violence to confirm the status of narrative hero. Each approach to story-telling has noticeable effects on the connections between sexual sameness and violence as displayed within the narrative. This paper examines these approaches to story-telling and their effects on homophobic formation (Leap, introduction, this volume), and traces the broader implications of these narrative styles within contemporary politics of gay visibility, assimilation and whiteness.