This dissertation project explores the relationship between the architectures of black masculinity in America and a specific performance of discreet sexual identity. Through critical ethnographic and discursive exploration, I look closely at a group of black men who describe themselves as being on the "down low" (DL). These men, who dis-identify with normative descriptors of sexual performance (i.e. gay, bisexual, closeted, etc.), are constantly defining and refining their gendered and sexual identities to maintain a certain amount of credibility and respectability within their communities. DL men often perform both heterosexual and homosexual acts, while privileging heteronormative social spaces. In the process of this "doing," they challenge the hetero-homo normative divide, constantly blurring the lines of "readable" identity. Through bodily practice, linguistic constructions, and subversive silence these men have created a world that seems only accessible within media discourses--their "everyday lives" seem like a discursive formation, where they are marked as problematic ("dishonest," "deceptive," and "demonic") and dangerous (primary "carriers of HIV/AIDS into black communities). With an interdisciplinary lens, I attempt to understand more fully the construction and everyday maintenance of DL identity, while also being attentive to the discourses surrounding this "newly articulated" identity. Most importantly, this project continues the legacy of demonstrating the ways that dominant paradigms of gender and sexuality continue to evade how people of color construct their identities. This dissertation project explores the relationship between the architectures of black masculinity in America and a specific performance of discreet sexual identity. Through critical ethnographic and discursive exploration, I look closely at a group of black men who describe themselves as being on the "down low" (DL). These men, who dis-identify with normative descriptors of sexual performance (i.e. gay, bisexual, closeted, etc.), are constantly defining and refining their gendered and sexual identities to maintain a certain amount of credibility and respectability within their communities. DL men often perform both heterosexual and homosexual acts, while privileging heteronormative social spaces. In the process of this "doing," they challenge the hetero-homo normative divide, constantly blurring the lines of "readable" identity. Through bodily practice, linguistic constructions, and subversive silence these men have created a world that seems only accessible within media discourses--their "everyday lives" seem like a discursive formation, where they are marked as problematic ("dishonest," "deceptive," and "demonic") and dangerous (primary "carriers of HIV/AIDS into black communities). With an interdisciplinary lens, I attempt to understand more fully the construction and everyday maintenance of DL identity, while also being attentive to the discourses surrounding this "newly articulated" identity. Most importantly, this project continues the legacy of demonstrating the ways that dominant paradigms of gender and sexuality continue to evade how people of color construct their identities"

Last modified

• 07/26/2018

Creator

• Jeffrey Quinn Mccune

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/N2QF0H

Subject

• Performance Studies

Keyword

• sexuality

Date created

• 2007-05-16

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright