The “Okay” Gay Guys: Developing Hegemonic Sexuality as a Tool to Understand Men’s Workplace Identities

ABSTRACT

This research investigates gender and sexuality identity management among gay men. Thirty self-identified gay men participated in semi-structured, in-depth interviews and provided their accounts of how they manage performances of gender and sexuality in the workplace. This research contributes to the scholarship of gender and sexuality by highlighting how sexuality, as an organizing principle, contributes to the further marginalization of an already marginalized population of gay men, via a concept I call hegemonic sexuality. The men’s narratives help us understand how certain performances of sexuality permit some men to be recognized as “acceptable,” while others are labeled “too gay” in different work environments. I investigate the motivations and consequences of men’s concerted workplace identity management strategies. I conclude by suggesting that hegemonic sexuality be used as a tool to understand how some gay men are deemed more acceptable than others in additional social spaces.

KEYWORDS:

• Gay identities
• hegemonic masculinity
• performance management
• sexuality
• qualitative methods
• masculinities
• gay masculinity
• professionalism
• workplace

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.