Search

Copyright of Journal on Masculinities & Social Change / Masculinidades y Cambio Social is the property of Journal on Masculinities & Social Change / Masculinidades y Cambio Social and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article addresses the relationship between masculinity and nationalism, especially in literature of exile. It investigates the militarism of the Cuban national identity that promotes homophobia through a disdain for the feminine in the development of national masculinity. Antes que anochezca therefore exemplifies anti-nationalist exile literature as it rejects Castroist censorship and the criminalization of homosexuality. However, while the novel is anti-nationalist, it continues to perpetuate a repudiation of femininity as he valorizes masculinity, showcased in his sexual relationships between men. This is done in the novel through a dichotomy of active and passive roles in men who have sex with men that is established through the roles of penetrator/penetrated. Therefore, femmephobic ideology based on the national development of Cuban masculinity has permeated queer literature in exile, even in an anti-nationalist novel.

Who experiences pleasure? How does this reflect or reinforce societal views on sexuality? These are the questions I explore in this article, using masturbation in queer young adult literature as my case study. I argue that societal discomfort with masturbation, female sexuality in general, and lesbian sexuality in particular combine to make queer female solitary sex an invisible and possibly taboo subject in young adult literature. Since literature can reflect society and show readers possibilities for their lives and futures, it is especially concerning that while young males - both heterosexual and queer - are depicted in English-language young adult novels as enjoying a whole range of sexual practices, including onanism, there are few explicit portrayals of young queer females exploring and appreciating their own bodies and their sexual responses. I argue that this lack does young queer women a disservice, teaching them shame and secrecy rather than healthy and confident sexuality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the explosion of the AIDS epidemic in the United States was virtually ignored because it was mostly hitting the gay community, gay authors started to employ their work for two main purposes: to protest the situation and, particularly in the beginning, to spread information about the virus. The portrayal of physical details is one of the most interesting devices employed in AIDS texts. In the early AIDS years, when the cause of the epidemic was unknown, literary tools such as the list of symptoms were widely used: authors were addressing their own community, and gave people a way to recognize the early signs of illness, such as the night sweats and the Kaposi's sarcoma lesions. Even after the discovery of HIV, when there was not a cure yet, AIDS texts represented a crucial source of information: the first official leaflet was provided by Surgeon General Koop in 1986. The act of incorporating medical information in literary texts was considered an act of service within the community: authors such as Paul Monette and Larry Kramer regarded the gay underground as a more credible source of information, since in the beginning people who had gotten through it often knew more than the doctors. Later on, as information became more available, the display of those same physical manifestations of the disease and of AIDS-ridden bodies became an effective way to denounce the persisting silence from the government, with works such as Kushner's Angels in America and Wojnarowicz's portraits of Peter Hujar's body. This article focuses on how the display of symptoms and other physical manifestations of the epidemic turned the cultural production into a key element in shaping the discourse around AIDS, highlighting the evolution in the use of physical medical evidence – from information to outcry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LGBTQ+ youths in the Republic of Ireland report statistically higher levels of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts than their heteronormative peers, which can be attributed to bullying and homophobic rhetoric. Research indicates that community services, such as public libraries, can play a role in mitigating the mental health risks of this group. However, there is no formal policy within the Irish public library system directing the collection and provision of LGBTQ+ materials and services to anyone, let alone youths. Previous international studies have shown that, in the absence of a guiding intersectional collection development policy, LGBTQ+ library materials are overwhelmingly representative of the gay, white, adult male experience, to the detriment of other groups within the LGBTQ+ community. Conducting a quantitative content analysis of the Dublin City Council Public Library catalogue through the lens of intersectionality theory confirms that the Irish public library system is not an exception to this trend. Results indicate that catalogue materials containing LGBTQ+ metadata favor the adult, gay, male experience – as well as the youth, gay, male experience – over adult and young women. This trend is particularly noticeable among the eBook catalogue, an area that the Irish public library system has directly identified as a strategic target for collection development. Conclusions align with previous qualitative studies on LGBTQ+ provision in Irish libraries in that a comprehensive organizational policy document is needed to provide direction and enable funding for the development of the LGBTQ+ section of the library system's catalogue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"El ángel descuidado" by Eduardo Mendicutti as a Tool to Address the Issue of Homosexuality and Religion in the Literature Class at a Polish University According to the new edition of ILGA-Europe’s annual review, Poland ranks second in the list of most homophobic countries in the European Union. Among the causes of this situation are reasons like ignorance, fear of the Other, multiple stereotypes based on the Polish collective imagination and religious motives. The last factor is of great significance in a country as religiously homogeneous as Poland, in which Catholic morals penetrate all spheres of life of its citizens. During my teaching career I have noticed a strong need among my students for an honest and thorough debate about homoerotic attraction, which in many of them provokes rejection or even repulsion. As a starting point for the discussion, I propose the reading of the novel El ángel descuidado by the Spanish writer Eduardo Mendicutti. The book tells the story of two young seminarians who live their first love in the bosom of a religious institution. The main objective of my text is to present the current situation of gays and lesbians in Poland along with the attitude of Polish society and politicians towards the LGBTQ community, to deliberate on a supposed conflict between Catholic morality and homosexuality, to analyze possible reactions of students of Hispanic Philology to the novel of Mendicutti and to meditate on the role of literature in the construction of a just and egalitarian society.

This study explored what university students in Ecuador learned in a first ever LGBTQ Literature course, as well as if the course helped to build LGBTQ allies. The research explores not only the pedagogical strategies used in the development of and during the course, but also proposes a LBGTQ+ ally development teaching framework that can guide teachers in developing curricula around LGBTQ literature that will not only work against homophobia, heteronormativity, and heterosexism, but also provide teachers with an ultimate goal of developing LGBTQ allies in their schools. The results of the qualitative phenomenological research suggest that students not only learned by reading LGBTQ Literature, they also learned to become active, to use their voices, to embrace themselves and others, and to become stronger LGBTQ allies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the new edition of ILGA-Europe's annual review, Poland ranks second in the list of most homophobic countries in the European Union. Among the causes of this situation are reasons like ignorance, fear of the Other, multiple stereotypes based on the Polish collective imagination and religious motives. The last factor is of great significance in a country as religiously homogeneous as Poland, in which Catholic morals penetrate all spheres of life of its citizens. During my teaching career I have noticed a strong need among my students for an honest and thorough debate about homoerotic attraction, which in many of them provokes rejection or even repulsion. As a starting point for the discussion, I propose the reading of the novel El ángel descuidado by the Spanish writer Eduardo Mendicutti. The book tells the story of two young seminarians who live their first love in the bosom of a religious institution. The main objective of my text is to present the current situation of gays and lesbians in Poland along with the attitude of Polish society and politicians towards the LGBTQ community, to deliberate on a supposed conflict between Catholic morality and homosexuality, to analyze possible reactions of students of Hispanic Philology to the novel of Mendicutti and to meditate on the role of literature in the construction of a just and egalitarian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite increased attention toward children’s nonfiction and informational texts in recent decades, there is still little research that investigates the ways in which various cultural identities are depicted in nonfiction children’s books. Focusing specifically on the 143 winners and honor recipients of the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Literature for Children (1990-2017), this article reports the findings of a critical content analysis of depictions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) identified people in award-winning nonfiction youth literature. The authors look across this set of texts as a literary construction of the world, making explicit where and how LGBTQ people are visible in these award-winning books for young readers. By analyzing specific depictions of queer-identified people, the authors argue the creators of these books rely upon heteronormative constructions, queer erasure, and compulsory heterosexuality to minimize (and even eliminate) queerness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer (LGBTQ) young adult (YA) literature is increasing in popularity, with novels like Bil Wright'sPutting Makeup on the Fat Boywinning the two LGBTQ YA honors—the Lambda Literary and Stonewall Book Awards—as well awards commending their cultural diversity. Despite the upsurge of celebrated LGBTQ YA literature, a study of the protagonists in Lambda- and Stonewall-winning YA novels from 2000–2013 reveals three findings: the dominance of White, gay, male characters contradicts the trend toward strong female protagonists in mainstream YA; stories about lesbians are primarily tragic; and there are no bisexual protagonists. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper uses a case study approach to examine how the heteronormative nature of one middle school setting and classroom environment shapes the climate of safety, support and learning for LGBTQ students when they are engaged in studying a novel with a gay character. Heteronormative environments inform and shape positioning of and by students and teacher, impacting how knowledge is created, processed and applied. LGBTQ literature integrated into the classroom curriculum invites opportunities for possibilities through windows and mirrors for exploration of the world and self. Heteronormativity, positioning and LGBTQ literature thereby become interactive catalysts that create and foreclose possibilities and impossibilities for student learning. Three themes emerged from the study that reveal positioning and possibilities when studying a text with a gay character: (1) the school environment and classroom context positioned students as heterosexual; (2) students and teacher positioned gender performance and sexual identity as other; and (3) while the text acted as both a window and a mirror, the teacher and students consistently framed different, and sometimes contradictory, views for each other. Together, these themes reflect a nested understanding of gender performance and sexual identity that subscribed to heterosexual norms and limited possibilities for LGBTQ students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]