ABSTRACT

This book provides critical insights into the many, often overlooked, challenges and societal issues that face contemporary black men, focusing in particular on the ways in which governing societal expectations result in internal and external constraints on black male identity formation, sexuality and black ’masculine’ expression. Presenting new interview and auto-ethnographic data, and drawing on an array of theoretical approaches methodologies, Hyper Sexual, Hyper Masculine? explores the formation of gendered and sexual identity in the lives of black men, shedding light on the manner in which these are affected by class and social structure. It examines the intersecting oppressions of race, gender and class, while acknowledging and discussing the extent to which black men’s social lives differ as a result of their varying degrees of cumulative disadvantage. A wide-ranging and empirically grounded exploration of the intersecting roles of race, masculinity, and sexuality on the lives of black men, this volume will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, social stratification and intersectionality.

chapter |4 pages

Introduction

Blackness, Maleness, and Sexuality as Interwoven Identities: Toward an Understanding of Contemporary Black Male Identity Formation

part |38 pages

Challenges and Constraints of Masculine and Sexual Identity Formation

chapter |12 pages

Notes from a Former Homophobe

An Introspective Narrative on the Development of Masculinity of an Urban African American Male

chapter |14 pages

Growing Up Male

A Re-Examination of African American Male Socialization

chapter |10 pages

The Black Box

Constrained Maneuvering of Black Masculine Identity

part |30 pages

Negotiating Unequal Ground

chapter |14 pages

Against All Odds

African American Male Athletes' Pursuit of Professional Sports Careers

chapter |14 pages

Vagrant Frontiers

Black Gay Masculinity and a Quest for Community—The Issues That Shape My Viewpoint

part |28 pages

Critical Interpretations of Black Men and Genderism

chapter |16 pages

Complexity Within and Similarity Across

Interpreting Black Men's Support of Gender Justice, amidst Cultural Representations that Suggest Otherwise

part |82 pages

Black Men's Counter-Narratives in the Struggle for Masculine and Sexual Autonomy

chapter |30 pages

The Tears of Black Men

Black Masculinity, Sexuality, and Sensitivity in R&B and Hip Hop

chapter |16 pages

More than Meets the Eye

The Use of Counter-Narratives to Expand Students' Perceptions of Black Male Crack Dealers

chapter |16 pages

No Longer Silenced

Excerpts from Mirrored Invisible: Race, Patriarchy, Masculinity and the Formation of Black Male Identity

chapter |18 pages

‘I just be myself'

Contradicting Hyper Masculine and Hyper Sexual Stereotypes among Low-Income Black Men in New York City