The Struggle to Be Gay—in Mexico, for Example

Author: Roger N. Lancaster

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Description

Being gay is not a given. Through a rigorous ethnographic inquiry into the material foundations of sexual identity, The Struggle to Be Gay makes a compelling argument for the centrality of social class in gay life—in Mexico, for example, and by extension in other places as well.

Known for his writings on the construction of sexual identities, anthropologist and cultural studies scholar Roger N. Lancaster ponders four decades of visits to Mexican cities. In a brisk series of reflections combining storytelling, ethnography, critique, and razor-edged polemic, he shows, first, how economic inequality affects sexual subjects and subjectivities in ways both obvious and subtle, and, second, how what it means to be de ambiente—“on the scene” or “in the life”—has metamorphosed under changing political-economic conditions. The result is a groundbreaking intervention into ongoing debates over identity politics—and a renewal of our understanding of how identities are constructed, struggled for, and lived.

Critic Reviews

"For the nonspecialist, the book’s more fundamental strength lies in Lancaster’s compassion, which any ordinary reader can perceive. This compassion underpins his insistence on viewing his subjects as fully-fledged people with rich inner lives and his concomitant refusal to reduce them to political props or set pieces of gender performance. The Struggle to Be Gay reveals that the particular dilemmas of the queer scene in a particular country revolve, after all, around matters of the heart." Compact
"Roger Lancaster has written an important challenge to queer studies. . . .He encourages scholars to attend less to differences and focus more on the commonalities that connect people, whether gay or straight, rural or urban, or indigenous or mestizo, and to find ways to build broader solidarities." Current Anthropology

About the Author

Roger N. Lancaster is Professor of Anthropology and Cultural Studies at George Mason University. He is author of Life is Hard and Sex Panic and the Punitive State, among other books.