Haze Him! White Heteromasculinity, Anal Resilience, & the Erotic Spectacle of Repulsion
a lecture by Jane Ward
November 10, Tuesday
6:30 to 8 pm
PLEASE NOTE VENUE CHANGE: 19 West 4th Street, room 101
Jane Ward, Gender & Sexuality Studies, University of California, Riverside
This talk examines the function and effects of homosexual contact in the hazing rituals of the United States military. Juxtaposing documented military hazing rituals with scenes of hazing in the widely popular series of “reality” internet porn, HazeHim.com, Ward considers how male-male anal penetration has been framed as a practice of hetero-masculine resilience, one to be suffered with performative repulsion and endurance. While the spectacle of homophobic repulsion is often offered as evidence of the non-erotic nature of hazing, a reading of gay hazing porn—wherein flaccid penises, expressions of disgust and repulsion, and homophobic outbursts take on erotic currency as signals of the authentic heterosexuality—illuminates a more harmonious relationship between heteromasculine repulsion and homosexual desire. Ward argues that in both examples, the hazing undertaken by the U.S. military and the hazing eroticized in gay porn, the whiteness of male participants is central to the homosocial narrative, wherein utterly normal white boys are offered the opportunity to inoculate themselves against sincere homosexuality and enemy perversion, and to demonstrate their allegiance to a white brotherhood.
19 West 4th Street, Room 101
Co-sponsored by the NYU Center for the Study of Gender & Sexuality and Department of Social & Cultural Analysis.
This event is free & open to the public. Venue is wheelchair-accessible. No RSVPs. Seating is first-come.
For more information about this event, contact the Center for the Study of Gender & Sexuality at csgs(at)nyu.edu or 212-992-9540.
Facebook event page here.
