With our Clipped Wings: a research-based performance on gay men’s identities devised through narrative portraiture

ABSTRACT

With our Clipped Wings is a performance that showcases the research findings of the doctoral research project “Understanding gay men’s identities through narratives of their erotic and romantic relationships.” The performance delivers compelling narratives through which participants in this research described in their own words what being gay means to them. It offers an intimate opportunity to observe the ways in which gay men have been trapped in oppressive social dynamics, environments, and discourses that have facilitated sexual encounters but have clipped their wings to love.

KEYWORDS:

• Performance
• narrative portraits
• gay identity
• interviews
• love

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Picture by photographer Brandon Stanton available via Humans of New York. https://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/123131554556/im-homosexual-and-im-afraid-about-what-my.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities [Research Showcase Grant 2017].