`Not Gay, but Not Homophobic': Male Sexuality and Homophobia in the `Lifestyle'

Abstract

This article explores the relative lack of male same-sex activity in heterosexual `swinging', or `the lifestyle', especially compared to the ubiquity of female same-sex activity and eroticism. `Lifestyle sexuality' is conceptualized as a system of erotic relations and a cultural experience as a way of theorizing beyond identity and the binary oppositions of homo/hetero or straight/queer that often underlie discussions of sexual desire, practice, and homophobia (Ward, 2007). Desires, aesthetics, sexual styles, ethical premises, and beliefs about gender and sexuality are variously configured in different heterosexual communities. Exploring their specificities strengthens our ability to analyze distributions of power, privilege and stigma, and allows us to explore more precisely how changing meanings of love, sex, and commitment, along with developments in the organization and experience of late capitalism, are affecting sexual practices and identities. The analysis here thus examines how lifestyle sexuality is integrated into other political, economic, social, cultural, and erotic spheres and what this means for theorizations of homophobia and heteronormativity.