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EROTICS & POLITICS This book aims to provide an interface between the study of sexuality and gender, and in particular between gay men’s studies and feminism. In doing so it covers a wide range of issues of concern to gay and feminist movements over the past twenty-five years including gay liberation, lesbianism, sado-masochism, pornography, promiscuity, personal relationships, AIDS and postmodemity. The central focus throughout is on the nature, development and consequences of gay male sexuality and masculinity. Erotics & Politics is unique in its coverage of a wide range of issues and in the connections it makes between subjects which are typically examined separately. Tim Edwards is Lecturer in Sociology at Oxford Brookes University. Critical studies on men and masculinities Jeff Hearn and David H.J.Morgan (editors) Men, Masculinities and Social Theory David Jackson Unmasking Masculinity A critical autobiography David H.J.Morgan Discovering Men Jeff Hearn Men in the Public Eye Arthur Brittan The Competitive Self (forthcoming) Editorial advisory board Harry Brod (Kenyon College, Ohio) Cynthia Cockburn (City University, London) Bob Connell (University of California, Santa Cruz) Paul Gilroy (University of Essex) Jalna Hanmer (University of Bradford) Jeff Hearn (University of Bradford) Michael Kimmel (State University of New York) Marianne Krüll (University of Bonn) David Morgan (University of Manchester) Mary O’Brien (Ontario Institute of Studies in Education) Pratibha Parmar (Writer and Film-maker) Ken Plummer (University of Essex) CRITICAL STUDIES ON MEN AND MASCULINITIES iii Rosemary Pringle (Macquarie University, Sydney) Lynne Segal (Middlesex University) Victor Seidler (Goldsmiths’ College, London) Elizabeth Stanko (Brunel University, London) Jeffrey Weeks (University of the West of England at Bristol) Sue Wise (University of Lancaster) EROTICS & POLITICS Gay male sexuality, masculinity and feminism Tim Edwards London and New York First published in 1994 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1994 Tim Edwards All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Edwards, Tim (Timothy C.), 1963– Erotics & politics: gay male sexuality, masculinity, and feminism/Tim Edwards. p. cm.—(Critical studies on men and masculinities) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Homosexuality, Male. 2. Masculinity (Psychology). 3. Feminist theory. I. Title. II. Title: Erotics and politics. III. Series. HQ76.E3 1993 305.3–dc20 93–17214 CIP ISBN 0-203-42396-8 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-73220-0 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-09903-X (hbk) ISBN 0-415-09904-8 (pbk) For my mother and in memory of my father This page intentionally left blank. Contents Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 1 Coming out, coming together 14 2 Sexual politics and the politics of sexuality 31 3 Gender and generation 54 4 Sado-masochism, masculinity and the problem of pornography 72 5 Public sex: the eroticisation of an oppressed position 88 6 Private love: an alternative? 107 7 The AIDS dialectic 118 8 Politics, plura