Violence and the quotidian scenes of becoming a man

Abstract

This essay turns to quotidian negotiations of homophobia within an immigrant group of self-identified gay and bisexual men to stress how the construction and sustenance of male privilege and of the very contours of the male subject require vigilance and careful policing of all presumably male bodies regardless of their sexual orientations. Based on an analysis of retrospective life history interviews with Dominican gay and bisexual immigrant men conducted between 2001 and 2002, I will propose what is at stake in quotidian exchanges among the participants is the fastidious work of calibrating the male body to signify “maleness” properly. By drawing attention to the micro-politics of masculine becoming, the essay suggests that attention to recent instances of homophobic violence should be considered as part of larger and chronic patterns of the aggressive policing of the male body in the social. By looking at the continuing power that homophobia has to structure gay male networks, the essay also challenges us to consider how patterns of marginalization continue to be reproduced even among the groupings most directly disadvantaged by them.