Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

1372

Date

2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

Sociology

Committee Chair

Jeni Loftus

Committee Member

Zandria Robinson

Committee Member

Wesley James

Abstract

This research analyzes homosexuality along the intersections of race, masculinity, and sexuality in Memphis. The 2012 American Sociological Association's Sexualities panel called for papers on the individual subjectivities of gay men along lines of LGBT community formation, racialized sexualities, and regional analyses beyond the Northern region of the United States. Through ten semistructured interviews with Black and White gay men in the Memphis area I address how race, sexuality and space are contested within a specific Southern context. Furthermore, how urban spaces like Memphis are susceptible to rurally conflated distinctions within the Mid-South, and how these narratives combine to structure a politics of space that limit the terrain for LGBT community formation. From the micro perspective, I explain how narratives of respectability specific to race, masculinity, and emphasized religiosity brought on by the Southern context contribute to the operationalization of space in Memphis, as well as the Mid-South as a whole.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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