Title |
“I Kiss Them Because I Love Them”: The Emergence of Heterosexual Men Kissing in British Institutes of Education
|
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Published in |
Archives of Sexual Behavior, October 2010
|
DOI | 10.1007/s10508-010-9678-0 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Eric Anderson, Adi Adams, Ian Rivers |
Abstract |
In this article, we combined data from 145 interviews and three ethnographic investigations of heterosexual male students in the U.K. from multiple educational settings. Our results indicate that 89% have, at some point, kissed another male on the lips which they reported as being non-sexual: a means of expressing platonic affection among heterosexual friends. Moreover, 37% also reported engaging in sustained same-sex kissing, something they construed as non-sexual and non-homosexual. Although the students in our study understood that this type of kissing remains somewhat culturally symbolized as a taboo sexual behavior, they nonetheless reconstructed it, making it compatible with heteromasculinity by recoding it as homosocial. We hypothesize that both these types of kissing behaviors are increasingly permissible due to rapidly decreasing levels of cultural homophobia. Furthermore, we argue that there has been a loosening of the restricted physical and emotional boundaries of traditional heteromasculinity in these educational settings, something which may also gradually assist in the erosion of prevailing heterosexual hegemony. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Spain | 3 | 16% |
United States | 3 | 16% |
Canada | 2 | 11% |
New Zealand | 1 | 5% |
Comoros | 1 | 5% |
France | 1 | 5% |
South Africa | 1 | 5% |
Brazil | 1 | 5% |
India | 1 | 5% |
Other | 1 | 5% |
Unknown | 4 | 21% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 17 | 89% |
Scientists | 2 | 11% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom | 3 | 4% |
United States | 2 | 2% |
Iran, Islamic Republic of | 1 | 1% |
Canada | 1 | 1% |
Unknown | 77 | 92% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 13 | 15% |
Student > Bachelor | 12 | 14% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 10 | 12% |
Student > Master | 8 | 10% |
Professor | 5 | 6% |
Other | 22 | 26% |
Unknown | 14 | 17% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Social Sciences | 29 | 35% |
Psychology | 22 | 26% |
Arts and Humanities | 3 | 4% |
Nursing and Health Professions | 3 | 4% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 3 | 4% |
Other | 9 | 11% |
Unknown | 15 | 18% |