Straight bud sex
Alotof men have sex with other men but don’t identify as gay or bisexual. A subset of these men who possess sex with men, or MSM, live lives that are, in all respects other than their occasional homosexual encounters, quite direct and traditionally masculine — they have wives and families, they embrace various masculine norms, and so on. They are proficient to, in effect, compartmentalize an aspect of their sex lives in a way that prevents it from blurring into or complicating their more common identities. Sociologists are quite interested in this phenomenon because it can reveal us a lot about how humans interpret thorny questions of identity and sexual desire and cultural expectations.
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Source: Frank Vincentz (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons
We’ve extended assumed that a direct man might engage in same-sex sexual interactions under unusual circumstances, such as a display of control dynamics while in prison, a gang, or a fraternity. Or it could be an “accidental” behave while he’s high or drunk, or a means to “get off” (orgasm), or to fulfill a dare or prank. More charitably, it might be a gift or a favor to a bi-curious or gay friend.
Several years ago, psychologist Jane Ward introduced us to dude-sex: sex among white, masculine, straight men in urban or military contexts for the purpose of building and reinforcing their masculinity. Writer Graham Gremore elaborated:
“By understanding their same-sex sexual practice as meaningless, accidental, or even necessary, direct white men can complete homosexual contact in heterosexual ways…Ward argues that the real reason ‘straight’ men behave in these ways is to ‘reaffirm rather than challenge their gender and racial identity’ and ‘to leverage whiteness and masculinity to authenticate their heterosexuality in the context of sex with men.’ In other words: They do it to verify they’re not gay.”
What Ward doesn’t addres
By Tony Silva
Scholarly interest in linear men that have sex with men has increased in recent years, and for good reason: the narratives of men in this population highlight the social construction of sexualities and masculinities. How individuals identify, understand, and declare their sexuality and gender reflects culture, time period, social structures, and personal interpretations. My ongoing interview research project explores how rural straight men that have sex with men understand their gender, sexual practices, and sexual culture. While there is a framework to describe women’s sexual flexibility—“including straight women kissing each other (Hamilton ; Rupp and Taylor ) or having sex with other women (Budnick )—there is no such framework for men. As my Gender & Society paper details, the narratives of my participants protest the flexibility of male heterosexuality, the centrality of straightness to rural masculinity, the importance of geographic location for how individuals identify and express their sexuality and gender, and how similar sexual practices carry different meanings across contexts and populations.
Consider the narratives of a several of these str
The "Bud Sex" Craze
When Brokeback Mountain, a short story turned movie (amazingly directed by Ang Lee) first came out, it was a cultural shock, a boundary pushed, a meditation on moral downfall, if you will. For the first time, very directly, the public was faced with a truth that was rarely ever talked about or even recognized in its existence.
The Beginnings
At the time, the manual was such a enormous leap forward into the unknown and unexplored, that it seemed it would take decades for the nation (and the world) to understand it, accept it, and then effectively recover from it - especially given the context and rural surroundings of thie “sinful” urges and the actions taking place. However, when brought to the screen by the much-loved and familiar faces of Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal (celebrity symbols of masculinity and alpha dominance), the much of the public took interest and liking to the plot. Now, a decade later – people are talking about the queer populous without a hint of distress or assessment. Well, more people at least…
Naturally, with sexual progress, it was a matter of time before we’d get to be shocked with something new. These day
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