Oppression, Tolerance or Indifference? Middle-aged Gay Men’s Accounts of Urban ‘Heterospaces.’

AbstractSymbolic Violence or Tolerance? Middle-aged Gay Men’s Accounts of Urban HeterospacesBased on interviews with 27 middle-aged gay men living in Manchester, I examine their accounts of relations in ‘heterospaces’ and what these generationally inflected narratives tell us about the workings of homophobia. Whilst middle aged gay men’s use of the tolerance dividend and the resources of ageing indicate limits to the argument that queer use of public spaces is structured by actual and symbolic violence (Moran 2004), I also mark limits to more recent accounts that overstate the decline of homophobia, especially among young men (McCormack 2012). Whilst greater tolerance of sexual difference appears characteristic of metropolitan areas, I argue instead that the situation is more complex than the two above polarities allow. I show how the situated resources of ageing are used in ways that not only involve challenge to homophobia and heteronormativity but also capitulate to or negotiate in complex ways with it (Simpson 2012). Whilst some heterospaces were thought to offer freedom from the ageist gay gaze, allowing expression of more ‘authentic’ aspects of the midlife-aged self that even included opportunities for ‘gaying’ heterospace, the normativity of certain heterospaces could compel self-censoring/‘de-gaying.’ Middle-aged gay men reported being differentiated by heterosexuals who assume greater legitimacy within public space - younger men were particularly feared. But, more ambivalently, informants differentiated themselves through involvement with heterosexual friends/others in ways that could either invoke authenticity or classed differentiation from ghettoised ‘scene queens’ that denied inequality and reinforced homophobia. Given the persistence of homophobia – now expressed more circumspectly - I argue that tolerance itself indicates a power relationship and that much cultural labour needs to happen before we can claim to be nearing erotic democracy/equality and the inconsequentiality of sexual difference. Following McGhee’s (2008) work in ethnicity, current tolerance is based on indifference/social distance that is no substitute for a more engaged dialogue across difference to promote mutual understanding.