"Coming out" and fitting in: the role of dress and style in fashioning gay men's identities in the new millenium
"Coming out" and fitting in: the role of dress and style in fashioning gay men's identities in the new millenium
‘Coming out’ has traditionally been an important step in the lives of LGBT individuals, marking a moment when a ‘secret’ identity is made more public. Recent discussion has highlighted this ongoing process in LGBT lives and how this relates to the intersectional nature of contemporary lives. This chapter draws on interviews with gay men to examine coming out moments and the impact that this had on dress styles, particularly in relation to ‘becoming’ part of a gay scene or community. The ways in which theses gay men discussed their sense of belonging and the role that their style choices have played in forming their intersectional identities or subject positions is significant to this chapter. The concept of ‘fitting in’ can also be related to the ways in which clothes sit and are worn on the body and this chapter also considers how the interviewed gay men discuss the fit of their clothes on their body and how the notion of comfort, both physically and emotionally, is related to gay men’s dressed appearance in the twenty-first century.
Gay men, coming out, sexuality, identity, Dress, Fashion
150-160
Cole, Shaun
e74cdd05-e4da-46e9-9b25-e13ab0c21a79
15 July 2022
Cole, Shaun
e74cdd05-e4da-46e9-9b25-e13ab0c21a79
Cole, Shaun
(2022)
"Coming out" and fitting in: the role of dress and style in fashioning gay men's identities in the new millenium.
In,
Karaminas, Vicki, Geczy, Adam and Church Gibson, Pamela
(eds.)
Fashionable Masculinities: Queers, Pimp Daddies and Lumbersexuals.
Rutgers University Press, .
Record type:
Book Section
Abstract
‘Coming out’ has traditionally been an important step in the lives of LGBT individuals, marking a moment when a ‘secret’ identity is made more public. Recent discussion has highlighted this ongoing process in LGBT lives and how this relates to the intersectional nature of contemporary lives. This chapter draws on interviews with gay men to examine coming out moments and the impact that this had on dress styles, particularly in relation to ‘becoming’ part of a gay scene or community. The ways in which theses gay men discussed their sense of belonging and the role that their style choices have played in forming their intersectional identities or subject positions is significant to this chapter. The concept of ‘fitting in’ can also be related to the ways in which clothes sit and are worn on the body and this chapter also considers how the interviewed gay men discuss the fit of their clothes on their body and how the notion of comfort, both physically and emotionally, is related to gay men’s dressed appearance in the twenty-first century.
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More information
Published date: 15 July 2022
Keywords:
Gay men, coming out, sexuality, identity, Dress, Fashion
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 473559
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/473559
PURE UUID: 9ac236d8-1562-4f9a-a1d7-2ea3fdeafba9
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Date deposited: 23 Jan 2023 17:51
Last modified: 23 Jan 2023 17:51
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Contributors
Editor:
Vicki Karaminas
Editor:
Adam Geczy
Editor:
Pamela Church Gibson
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