Not Gay

Wards book is confident and theoretically well-informed, and offers a rich, often counterintuitive and thought-provoking tour through straight white mens homosexual activities and their shifting meanings in history, in the military, in fan fiction, in French kissing among Hells Angel members, as well as in the accounts of pop psychological experts who assure straight men having sex with other men that they arenot gay. In short, this is cultural studies at its best. (Times Higher Education) [Not Gay] provides a compelling and intriguing argument, that, rather than erasing queer identities, complicates the concept of identity itself. (The Society Pages) What I love about this book is that it expands our notions about what it means to be human. (Women’s Studies Quarterly) The title of Jane Wards book is not meant to be ironic. Her argument is that while sexual activity between straight white men does take place, it doesnt mean that the participants are gay. The book is about exploring the circumstances under which this situation can be said to arise. (The Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review) A key contribution of the book is its documentation of the freedom and power enjoyed by straight white men to define what ‘not gay’and ‘real’homosexuality looks like and in what circumstances these terms are applied … well-written and direct in both its presentation and synthesis of a range of materials. (Qualitative Sociology) []Not Gay, an insightful treatise on the nature of heterosexual male interaction with other men, addresses many of the stereotypes and assumptions associated with straight and gay men. The book also skillfully analyzes the often fluid nature of sexuality, race, privilege, and the taboo crossover behavior between sexually active men of opposing preferences. (The Bay Area Reporter

Jane Ward is Professor of Feminist Studies at University of California Santa Barbara. She is the author of The Tragedy of Heterosexuality, Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men, and Respectably Queer: Diversity Culture in LGBT Activist Organizations.