Black Gay Men Essay

March 30, 2015 | 1 Comment

1. At page 3 of the introduction Robert Reid-Pharr says about the goal of his essay: “[…] I am groping for a method by which to bridge the divide between theory and practice, to break down barriers between the ways I think about American life as a professional critic and the manner in which i comport myself in my everyday life passings.” Do you think he is using this method? According to what you can understand from the Introduction.

2. In his essay the author sets the stage for an interesting battle for everyone’s rights in the American nation. He agrees with Richard Rorty saying: “Rorty is right. It is time for us to begin again the challenging labor of articulating, without shame a positive vision of the american community, the american tomorrow”. When the battle for rights becomes oversharing? Must we try every possible and shameless way to reach the goal? After few pages, you can be shocked by reading the description of his relationship with Rick (pages 9-10), and his detailed description of sex acts with him seems exaggerated compared to his noble goal. What do you think?

3. “[…] we must at the very least offer an alternative that speaks to the realities of people’s lives, the means by which they seek not only for justice but also for beauty, light, the transcendent, the metaphysical”. (page 9) Do you think this is oversharing? Is his way of writing the only possible chance to talk about his battle for gays’ rights? Do you think there are other ways without drill down the subject and reveal private details?

 

– Nico


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. Patricia Wadsley on March 31, 2015 3:29 pm

    In response to Q2, Pharr is struggling with bridging the gap between academia and “everyday life,” between theory and practice, particularly for American gay men of African origins.

    In order to Bolster’s Pharr’s choice to reveal disown sexual forays, I am drawing on McBride’s essay about gay sex ads. In Mc Bride’s view, gay black men’s sex lives are often determined, undermined, or fetishized by gay white men. For gay white men, often, McBride says, sex with a black man is a function of entitlement.

    Since the appropriation of male bodies is a political act, Pharr has chosen to reclaim his body in a peer reviewed “print” publication through visceral descriptions of what might be considered “non-normative” sex, or sex that does not conform to the ideals of gay whites. He is making the personal political, and I, like Sarah (in earlier comment) feel that these revelations are necessary and expedient in the act of reclaiming one’s body.

    This leads to Mattheus’ question whether discussions about “oversharing” are significantly infused with our presuppositions about race. Yes. any conversation about oversharing has to do with class, culture, gender and race, and sexual habits definitely create conflicts on all these levels.

    Thank You. Pat Wadsley

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