ABSTRACT
The simple fact that a body is sexed male is not sufficient for it to be characterized as masculine. Such factors as posture, manner of walking, gesture, and voice are interpreted by others as signaling levels or intensities of masculinity, or their lack. Take, for example, the stereotype of the gay man. He is frequently imagined as standing with one hip thrust out, “sashaying” rather than walking as a “proper man” should, gesticulating with limp wrists, and speaking in a high voice that lisps or emphasizes sibilants. Of course, some gay men behave in this way, but so do some straight men; many other gay men do not, and are indistinguishable from straight men in this regard. The point to grasp here is that such stereotyping indicates that we read the bodies of others for information, which we then assemble into a more or less whole meaning, to which we can then respond. In this chapter we explore some of the ways that the body, and in particular the male body, has yielded meaning through its “embodiment” of masculinity.
