The Discursive Work of “Bottom-Shaming”: Sexual Positioning Discourse in the Construction of Black Masculinity

Abstract

This article uses ethnographic data and interviews with young Black gay cisgender men to illustrate how masculinity is interactionally created and policed within gay communities. Here, I specifically highlight the ways Black masculinity is constructed against Latino and white men’s masculinity, discursively situating this masculinity within a racial hierarchy celebrating hypermasculinity among Black men. Black masculinity is further policed within Black gay communities through what I term sexual positioning discourse. Through the use of sexual positions within gay relationships (e.g., “top,” “bottom,” “versatile”), peers shame the act of bottoming to interactionally shore up their own masculinity through a ritualistic emasculation of other men, which simultaneously denigrates the social position of women and femininity. Building on prior empirical and theoretical work examining the use of homophobic discourse among straight men as playing a critical role in their constructions of masculinity, I show similarities and differences through an examination of gender and sexual discourse mobilized within gay communities and by Black gay cis men. Sexual positioning discourse is integral to masculinity boundary work among gay men, yet when employed by heterosexual men, this discourse calls their sexuality into question. Specifically, when Black gay men mobilize sexual positioning discourse, it serves to assert their claims to Black masculinity relative to one another; whereas when straight men use the same discourse it serves to cast doubt on their claims to “straight” sexual identities.