Books by James Joseph Dean
Routledge International Handbook of Heterosexualities Studies, 2020
This is an interesting cultural moment in which to critically examine heterosexuality. Picture tw... more This is an interesting cultural moment in which to critically examine heterosexuality. Picture two different scenes that one might encounter in a given day in contemporary western societies. The first scene is set in a university classroom, where one mixed race student who uses they/them pronouns is talking about what it means to identify as pansexual and refers to their current partner as their "girlfriend." In the same small-group discussion is another white student who uses she/her pronouns, identifies as transgender, enacts a rather masculine self-presentation and talks about her "boyfriend" and what they will do this weekend. A few hours later in a hotel bar, a second scene unfolds between three straight, white, middle-class men in their early 30s who are catching up over drinks. Two of them are single, while the third talks about how his love life has changed since his girlfriend became his wife, and the couple now has two small children. He wistfully recalls the days when his partnership was filled with more sexual desire, which has diminished since the birth of their children. His tone has the air of inevitability about the trajectory his life has taken, from the fun sexy times with his girlfriend to the adult responsibility of married couplehood with two children. Conventional heterosexual nuclear families comprising two married biological parents and their children-like that of the wistful father in the bar-are not the statistical family norm in America, even if they are still the culturally sanctioned ideal family (Essig 2019; Stacey 2012). Nostalgic images of conventional nuclear heterosexual families have been increasingly challenged by today's shifting gender and techno-social dynamics. We are witnessing changing norms in heterosexual arrangements like online dating and hooking up (Kalish and Kimmel 2011; Wade 2018), the increase in single-person households (Klinenberg 2014), and the decoupling of gender identity from sexual identity. Straightness and its identity forms are bending into new arrangements, identity conceptions, and more flexible social statuses that build upon, morph, and attempt to supplant older, traditional patriarchal gender-normative arrangements. In return, those who hold traditional patriarchal beliefs about gender and heterosexuality continue to try to use their positions of political and institutional power to make heterosexuality "compulsory" and try to erase and/or demean new gender and sexual identities and relationships. At this cultural moment of both progressive change and reactionary politics, heterosexual identities, practices, and institutions are ripe for social analyses, theoretical explanations, and historical contextualization.
Papers by James Joseph Dean
Routledge International Handbook of Heterosexualities Studies, 2019
The Sociological Quarterly, 2013
In this study, I use in-depth interview data with black and white heterosexual men to explore shi... more In this study, I use in-depth interview data with black and white heterosexual men to explore shifts in the role of homophobia in the social construction of heterosexual masculinities. A continuum is introduced to map a range of interactional practices through which these men enact heterosexual masculinities. Heterosexual men who, on one end of the continuum, construct their heterosexual masculinities through homophobic practices establish strong boundaries of social distance from gays. The other end documents heterosexual men's anti-homophobias, moving from men who establish weak boundaries to those who blur them. These heterosexual men's anti-homophobic stances trade on the prestige of being tolerant of gays, with black men's anti-homophobias drawing on their experiences with racism.
In this study, I use in-depth interview data with black and white heterosexual men to explore shi... more In this study, I use in-depth interview data with black and white heterosexual men to explore shifts in the role of homophobia in the social construction of heterosexual masculinities. A continuum is introduced to map a range of interactional practices through which these men enact heterosexual masculinities. Heterosexual men who, on one end of the continuum, construct their heterosexual masculinities through homophobic practices establish strong boundaries of social distance from gays. The other end documents heterosexual men's anti-homophobias, moving from men who establish weak boundaries to those who blur them. These heterosexual men's anti-homophobic stances trade on the prestige of being tolerant of gays, with black men's antihomophobias drawing on their experiences with racism.
Sociology Compass, Jan 1, 2011
In this article, the author reviews current scholarship on the cultural construction of heterosex... more In this article, the author reviews current scholarship on the cultural construction of heterosexual identities. Specifically, this article examines current research on how heterosexual identities are (i) central to the production of the ritual practices of marriages, weddings and high school proms; (ii) ever more salient due to increases in lesbian and gay visibility in America; and (iii) formed through their relationship with constructions of masculinity and discourses of homophobia. Finally, I briefly discuss new scholarship on queer heterosexualities as a way to illustrate how queer cultural studies are influencing the field of sexualities studies more generally.
This article examines independent cinema's depictions of homosexuality from 1990 to 2000. Using m... more This article examines independent cinema's depictions of homosexuality from 1990 to 2000. Using mainstream Hollywood films of the 1990s as the context for their development, I show significant differences in how homosexuality is represented outside mainstream films. Specifically, I divide independent films into two types: gay and lesbian standpoint films, and queer cinema. Gay standpoint films are distinguished by their narrative focus on a gay and lesbian subculture, whereas queer cinema generally depicts representations of a character's sexuality as decentered. I suggest that if we understand gay and lesbian standpoint films as a response to mainstream Hollywood ones that exclude subcultural depictions, then queer cinema can be seen as a challenge to both gay and lesbian standpoint films, and mainstream Hollywood films that center and normalize homosexual identity.
Book Reviews by James Joseph Dean
La recensione offre una lettura del volume Alterazioni. Introduzione alle sociologie delle omoses... more La recensione offre una lettura del volume Alterazioni. Introduzione alle sociologie delle omosessualità di Cirus Rinaldi (a cura di), che ne evidenzia l"idea di fondo: la necessità di "alterare" la sociologia per superare definitivamente i limiti dell"approccio tradizionale al tema delle omosessualità, caratterizzato anzi condizionato dalla ricerca di regolarità. La difficoltà di riconoscimento delle differenze è il grande tema che attraversa l"intero volume nell"articolazione multidisciplinare dei diciotto saggi che lo compongono e che rispondono, secondo l"esplicito criterio del curatore, alla necessità di moltiplicare gli sguardi e di sollecitare il più ampio confronto tra saperi accademici e non. L"istanza asimmetrica e gerarchizzante dell"ordine sociale costituito è la chiave mediante la quale vengono analizzate le varie forme di violenza antiomosessuale nel quadro di un"approfondita trattazione dell"omofobia.
Social Forces, Jan 1, 2010
to know how Cincinnati fared as a destination for black migrants compared with other regional cit... more to know how Cincinnati fared as a destination for black migrants compared with other regional cities such as Louisville and Indiatiapolis.
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Books by James Joseph Dean
Papers by James Joseph Dean
Book Reviews by James Joseph Dean