Gay Male Masters

Today, The Trocks are still performing, and have become an international sensation. But in 1974, they were a small group of determined male ballerinas, dancing in makeshift loft stages off-off Broadway. Little did they know they were on the brink of breaking enormous barriers.

gay male masters

Laura Townsend is an essayist and screenwriter based in Los Angeles. She studied writing at The University of Iowa and UCLA. She is passionate about American history and deeply inspired by the masters who came before her.

He-Man has been singled out for the homoeroticism and gay subtext surrounding his character. Despite the original series having aired during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, many individuals and publications have noted that since his inception, He-Man's character has contained elements of queer coding. Discussions have focused on his adherence to various gay stereotypes regarding his physical appearance, which relates to LGBT subcultures such as the "gay clone" culture. Attention has also been afforded to his double life being reminiscent of closeted gay men, and his perceived homosexuality. Concerning his sexual orientation, He-Man's relationships with other male characters, such as Man-at-Arms, have also been highlighted.

In the world of Masters of the Universe, the body is "text, to be read as key signifier in the fashioning of male identity".[21] Within gay clone culture, the male body is viewed both as "object of desire and object of subjective fashioning",[21] with said culture requiring an impressive musculature to "manoeuvre successfully".[21] Cornelius further notes that while He-Man likely was not created to reflect this aspect of gay clone culture, both display similar social anxieties and desires regarding the male body that differ from the "larger heteronormative continuum present in society at the time".[21]

British newspaper The Daily Telegraph said the character's dual identity represents a man's struggle to accept his sexuality; Prince Adam is closeted and has a secret while He-Man is "out-and-proud".[35] Writing for The Johns Hopkins News-Letter, Matt Johnson described the series' depiction of He-Man as a "thinly veiled treatise on the state of gay male sexuality in the eighties".[36] Johnson views He-Man as a sexually repressed, closeted gay man whose transformation from Adam into He-Man represents his pent-up frustrations reaching their peak and needing to being released.[36]

"Masters of Sex" doesn't get nearly as much attention as it deserves -- the subtle, unshowy series about early investigations into human sexuality doesn't stand out in a time of ever-more-baroque investigations of the male antihero. What attention the period show gets is generally for its depiction of the relationship at its center -- between the two sex researchers, the highly respected William Masters and the marginalized Virginia Johnson. (They're played, well, by Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan; Caplan is nominated for a best actress Emmy and would be a worthy winner.)

Bridges' Barton Scully, a fictional provost at Washington University (where Masters and Johnson work), only supports the study of human sexuality because he's been blackmailed -- Masters knows Scully sleeps with male prostitutes. Scully wants, very badly, to be "good" by the standards of the day; he's married, with a daughter, and he wants the marriage to work even despite his wife's misery. His wife, Margaret, is a glum survivor who knows that her marriage is not like that of others; the scene in which Allison Janney's tense face betrays her character's embarrassment over her nonexistent sex life is, a year later, painful to watch.

Homosexuals, who do not have the burden of deciphering the opposite sex, generally communicate better. Committed, attached homosexuals are less preoccupied with orgasm than married heterosexuals, and more aware of the exact level of their partners' sexual excitement. And single gays did better than single straights. Masters and Johnson found the same patterns among the am-bisexuals: they acted like homosexuals when they were with homosexuals (e.g., more communication) and like heterosexuals while making heterosexual love (e.g., an assumption that the male should take the lead). To Masters and Johnson, this is clearly a result of "cultural influence" -ambisexuals pick up different cues on how heterosexuals and homosexuals make love.

The primary fantasy found in the two heterosexual groups was a recurring daydream of sex with a different partner. On the other hand, the leading fantasies of gay men involved body parts-usually the genitals and buttocks. Homosexual fantasies about forced sex were more violent and sadistic than those among heterosexuals. Straight women repeatedly conjured up images of gang rape but the assaults were relatively tame: although the woman is given no choice in the matter, she is treated lovingly by a circle of panting admirers. In most cases the lesbian version of these fantasies showed a theme of revenge against another woman. The daydreamer engineers the humiliation of the woman and then stands by enjoying it. Straight men had less violent fantasies about forced sex than gay men, and in fact played the part of rapist slightly less often than they did that of the rapee-a helpless male ravished against his will by a group of lusty women.

The finding that homosexuals often fantasize about having heterosexual sex confirms reports from some psychologists and counselors. For instance, in the recent book on female homosexuality Our Right to Love: A Lesbian Resource Book, Los Angeles Clinical Psychologist Nancy Toder reports that many of her lesbian patients talk of sexual feelings or dreams about men. Toder thinks that these musings are partly out of curiosity, partly reminiscences of sleeping with men. There is no evidence, however, that homosexuals dream of straight sex any more than heterosexuals dream of gay sex.

Same-sex partner abuse, Gay men-Services for-Evaluation, Victims of family violence-Services for, Social work with gays, Cultural competence, Domestic violence, Intimate partner violence, Gay males, LGBT, Intersectionality, Service provision

This theoretical study explores the problem of gaps in intimate partner violence services for gay male victims of abuse and the implications for social workers and other service providers. Unequal access to appropriate, affirming, and inclusive partner abuse services is a widespread problem for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals and communities, and, for the purposes of this study, partner abuse specifically among gay men is considered. This study utilizes two theoretical models, intersectionality and cultural competency, to provide a guiding framework for service providers to use when assessing current services and implementing improved policies and procedures. Intersectionality considers the "social contexts created by the intersections of systems of power (e.g. race, class, gender, and sexual orientation) and oppression (prejudice, class stratification, gender inequality, and heterosexist bias)" (Bograd, 1999, p. 276). Cultural competency focuses on the development of skills and self-awareness in order to provide higher quality services to groups and individuals (Abrams and Moio, 2009; Jani et al, 2011). These models, when combined, can potentially assist service providers who intend to serve populations that have historically been ignored or underserved. Two organizations in the Northeastern US are used as examples of community agencies that continue to successfully reach the LGBTQ population, provide appropriate partner abuse services, and offer technical assistance to other agencies that wish to make their services more inclusive.

Any book that unveils the male mystique with empathy and compassion, helping men understand themselves and helping women understand men, and that helps the culture understand the masculine dilemma should be hailed as a miracle. This is what Robert Augustus Masters does in To Be A Man. Every man should read it as autobiography, every woman should read it as revelation, and our culture should embrace it as a healing balm.

Robert Augustus Masters has written a powerful guide for men that integrates rigor and receptivity, aggression and authority, vulnerability and potency. With highly developed emotional intelligence, and a nuanced understanding of adult development including the importance of shadow work, Masters delivers a vision of mature, embodied male empowerment. To Be A Man is a fearless book from a master of psycho-emotional healing and awakening.

This book is an invitation to wholeness, to awakening, to the next step man. Compassionately written and wise, it invites men to make a conscious distinction between their benevolent and malevolent identifications, and paves the way for a way of being that is both sturdy and heartfelt. Highly recommended for anyone who has grown tired of limiting gender identifications!

Specific training for conducting psychotherapy with gay men is limited for psychologists, particularly when using a Self Psychology theoretical orientation (Robertson, 1996). In fact, psychologists often are faced with conflicting and contradictory points of view that mirror society's condemnation of homosexuality (Robertson, 1996). This paper is written from a self-psychological perspective to address the lack of a constructive body of literature that explains the unique treatment needs which impact gay men. Estimates of the prevalence of male homosexuality have generated considerable debate. A common assumption is that there are homosexual and non-homosexual men. However, scientists have long been aware that sexual responsiveness to others of the same sex, like most human traits, is continuously distributed in the population (Michaels, 1996). Still the presumption exists that such traits are stable within each man over time (Michaels, 1996). Conflating same-sex sexual experiences with a categorization of the man as homosexual is problematic, in that defining sexuality solely on the basis of experience excludes people who fantasize about sex with others of the same sex but never have sexual contact. Thus, most modern conceptions of sexual orientation consider personal identification, sexual behavior, and sexual fantasy (McWhirter, Sanders & Reinisch, 1990). Gay men's mental health can only be understood in the context of homosexuality throughout history, since religious and moral objections to sexual attraction between men have existed for centuries. Men who desired other men were regarded as sinful and depraved if not ill or abnormal, and same sex contacts were not distinguished from lewd behaviors (Weeks, 1989). Although most people, regardless of sexual orientation, have experienced some feelings of personal rejection, rarely do heterosexuals become targets for disapproval based on the nature of their attractions and behaviors relative to the same and to the other sex. For lesbians, bisexuals, and gay men, however, homosexuality becomes the focus of aspects of themselves that make them feel hated and hateful (Isay, 1989). While gay men and lesbians are often considered together because of the same-sex nature of their relationships and the similar issues that they may experience in their treatment within society, there are many issues where they might be best studied separately. Issues involving with health, parenthood, sexuality and perceived roles and status in society, for example, are often related more to gender than to any shared concept of a 'gay and lesbian community'. Many issues surrounding lesbians and lesbian culture will have more to do with women's issues, and some issues involving with gay men will have more to do with the gay male subculture and with masculinity. The author of this paper has limited experience in working with lesbian and bisexual individuals, and although it is likely that some of the concepts articulated in this paper could translate to working with lesbian and bisexual individuals, further research is indicated to examine the beneficence of utilizing a Self Psychological orientation in psychotherapy with lesbian women and bisexual individuals. This paper presents an overview of the literature including historical treatments of homosexuality, the history of Self Psychology, key principles in Self Psychology, research on Self Psychology, identity development models for gay men, and Self Psychological perspectives on identity development related to gay men. The literature review is followed by a section on treatment implications for psychologists seeking to treat gay men, including case vignettes based on work from my own practice. I have preserved the anonymity of clients by changing demographics, and rearranging and combining presenting issues and historical backgrounds among the case examples. 041b061a72