Synopses & Reviews
This book seeks to contest the emerging thesis that non-heterosexual young people are increasingly living their lives beyond 'traditional' sexual categories. The main contention of post-gay theorists is that sexuality is becoming unfettered from the constraints of categorization, allowing young people to establish new ways of being sexual. In contrast, this book aims to show that lesbian and gay categories are alive and well, and that young people continue to engage with them and the distinct sense of difference they bring in a world in which heterosexuality is still largely presumed and privileged. Exploring the making of identity through the construction of desire, the role of science in explaining homosexuality, and engagement in narratives and practices of ordinariness, the book sets a new agenda for thinking about lesbian and gay identities, in which old 'modernist' stories of sexual being entwine with new narratives of sameness and ordinariness.
Synopsis
This book contests the idea that lesbian and gay categories are disappearing, and that sexuality is becoming fluid, by showing how young people use them in a world in which heterosexuality is privileged. Exploring identity making, the book shows how old modernist stories of sexual being entwine with narratives of normality.
About the Author
Edmund Coleman-Fountain is Research Fellow at the University of York, UK. His research interests include youth identities and difference, notably how processes of marginalization pattern the conditions in which young people make their identities. His current research focuses on disability, identity and the life-course.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Making Sense of Identity
2.Body Narratives
3.Explaining Homosexuality
4.Getting Over It
5.'How to Be Gay'
Conclusion