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Gay Shame in a Global Context CS submission FINAL Dec17.pdf (273.66 kB)

Gay shame in a geopolitical context

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 11:59 authored by Sally Munt
With the developing acceptance of gay equality in the west,, it is assumed that we live in a post-shame era, with ‘the world we have won’. However, this is a chimeric cliché of neoliberalism (rather like the idea that we are all postfeminist now). The ‘proud’ homosexual of the west is discursively constructed against the ‘shamed’ homosexual of the east, a typecasting resonant with postcolonial clichés of the primal, religious and homophobic savagery of the global south in contrast with the civilising, liberal evolution of the secular global north. Shame displacement is of course a dynamic of shame itself. The perceived failure in achieving the ‘proud iconic gay’ of media cultures in the global North results in a double bind of being ashamed of being ashamed. This article will reconsider the cultural politics and temporality of shame for primarily white gay identities after the ‘War on Terror’. As Islamophobia has exponentially increased, some western gays translocate their unacknowledged shame onto a misconceived ‘brown threat’ in a complex, aggressive, and racist shame loop (Lewis 1971, Scheff & Retzinger 1991).

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Cultural Studies

ISSN

0950-2386

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Issue

2

Volume

33

Page range

223-248

Department affiliated with

  • Media and Film Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2018-04-19

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2019-08-07

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-04-18

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