From drag queens to leathermen: Language, gender, and gay male subcultures

This book analyzes gendered forms of language use in several different gay male subcultures. The subcultures considered include drag queens, radical faeries, bears, circuit boys, barebackers, and leathermen. The chapters include ethnographic-based studies of language use in each of these subcultures, giving special attention to the ways in which linguistic patterns index forms of masculinity and femininity. In each case, speakers combine linguistic forms in ways that challenge normative assumptions about gender and sexuality. In an extension of prior work, Barrett discusses the intersections of race, gender, and social class in performances by African American drag queens in the 1990s. An analysis of sacred music among radical faeries considers the ways in which expressions of gender are embedded in a broader neo-pagan religious identity. The formation of bear as an identity category (for heavyset and hairy men) in the late 1980s involve the appropriation of linguistic stereotypes of rural Southern masculinity. Among regular attendees of circuit parties (similar to raves), language serves to differentiate gay and straight forms of masculinity. In the early 2000s, barebackers (gay men who eschew condoms) used language to position themselves as rational risk takers with a natural innate desire for semen. For participants in the International Mr. Leather contest, a disciplined, militaristic masculinity links expressions of patriotism with BDSM sexual practice. In all of these groups, the construction of gendered identity involves combining linguistic forms that would usually not co-occur. These unexpected combinations serve as the foundation for the emergence of unique subcultural expressions of gay male identity.