Sexual fluidity among non-heterosexual men: discourses and practices on sexual variability negotiated with hegemonic masculinity

Abstract

ABSTRACT Hegemonic masculinity constitutes a relevant tool for understanding the genderization processes prevailing in men’s sexualities. Hence, we deployed this concept as a resource to analyse how sexual fluidity might apply to the sexuality of non-heterosexual men and how they experienced this. We carried out semi-structured interviews with 15 participants, ranging from 20 to 53 years old, who all reported having experienced sexual fluidity. This article presents experiences of sexual fluidity as a shifting identity amidst flexible sexual activities and concerns over normativity through personal and social reactions taking place in a heterostable social world. These results exhibit the negotiations of sexual fluidity with hegemonic masculinities, both reproduced and questioned.