Wesley Grey, Jordan D. X. Hinton, Emma Austen, Elise K. Kalokerinos, Emily A. Harris, Scott Griffiths
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Whether men who have sex with men see themselves as sexy is influenced by their gender expression – that is, by their performance of masculinity and femininity. Generally, while masculine men attract others’ sexual interest, feminine men are relegated to the sexual margins. Hegemonic masculinity underpins the disproportionate value gay communities place in masculinity over femininity. Yet norms of gender expression and sexual desirability also vary between gay subcultures. Here, we tested the relationships between sexually desirability, masculinity, and femininity, and whether these relationships were moderated by participants’ membership in a gay subculture. Using dynamic structural equation modelling, we analyzed experience sampling data from 234 Grindr users (T = 12,162) collected in May 2022. We found that masculinity, but not femininity, was associated with how sexually desirable Grindr users felt, but only limited evidence that these relationships differed between subcultures. When participants felt more masculine (β = .09) they felt more sexually desirable, and vice versa (β = .16). Our data suggest anti-effeminacy may act via masculinity and not femininity to affect whether men who have sex with men feel sexually desirable. The pressure to be sexy may lead men who have sex with men to invest in masculinity. In doing so, they may risk perpetuating anti-effeminacy, among other forms of discrimination.
期刊介绍:
Sex Roles: A Journal of Research is a global, multidisciplinary, scholarly, social and behavioral science journal with a feminist perspective. It publishes original research reports as well as original theoretical papers and conceptual review articles that explore how gender organizes people’s lives and their surrounding worlds, including gender identities, belief systems, representations, interactions, relations, organizations, institutions, and statuses. The range of topics covered is broad and dynamic, including but not limited to the study of gendered attitudes, stereotyping, and sexism; gendered contexts, culture, and power; the intersections of gender with race, class, sexual orientation, age, and other statuses and identities; body image; violence; gender (including masculinities) and feminist identities; human sexuality; communication studies; work and organizations; gendered development across the life span or life course; mental, physical, and reproductive health and health care; sports; interpersonal relationships and attraction; activism and social change; economic, political, and legal inequities; and methodological challenges and innovations in doing gender research.