Social identities and hegemonic masculinity

The construction of sexuality throughout a man`s life

André Luiz Clemente and Victor Clemente

Abstract

Men are expected to be physically strong, independent, manly and

powerful. Since their early lives, boys are raised in order to fulfill such

requirements. This pressure reflects on the construction of social identity and

thus, of sexual identities. We discuss how one can construct and deconstruct

his/her sexuality. Then we analyze self-experienced narratives in which a young

man describes how he constructs two sexual identities in his life:

heterosexuality, when he was an adolescent; and homosexuality, when he was

a young adult (Tilio, 2001).

KEYWORDS: SOCIAL IDENTITY; SEXUALITY; HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY;

NARRATIVES

Introduction

Social Identities are fragmented, contradictory, and are always changing

(Moita Lopes, 1999 apud Tilio, 2001). One can construct an identity in an early

age and then change it completely in another moment of his/her life. Several

researches have exploited the dynamics of constructing and reconstructing

theses identities (Bradley, 1996; Louro, 2000; Moita Lopes, 1998b; Sarup,

1996; Tilio, 2001; Weeks, 1990;).

People are expected to live their sexuality and gender according to their

biological sex. But since sexuality is a social identity (Tilio, 2001), it can be

constructed and reconstructed as many times as possible. One can identify

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oneself as heterosexual, live this identity for years, and then feel like living a

homosexual identity.

In this paper, we analyze how a man constructs two sexual identities in

his life. In order to do so, we use fragments of a narrative that he delivered to

Tilio (2001)1 in which he describes how gradually he constructed a heterosexual

identity in his adolescence and then how he identified himself as a homosexual

in his early adulthood.

In the first section we exploit how the data used throughout the whole

paper was collected. Then we discuss hegemonic masculinities and we

exemplify how boys are raised to be hegemonic men. Afterwards, we talk about

social identities and how one identity can interfere in another. Next we explore

Gender and Sexuality and how these two concepts are distinct and not

necessarily directly related to one another. Subsequently we investigate how

heterosexuality is viewed as norm and how assuming homosexuality publicly

unfolds to our interviewee.

Contextualising the interview

The narratives that will be presented here were made in order to produce

a research to Masters Dissertation (Tilio, 2001). By the time of the interview,

Henrique2, the interviewee, was 29, graduated in secondary school, and a sales

representative. He used to live in the south zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (a

noble region). The interviewer, an intimate friend of Henrique, was 26, used to

live in the same area of Rio de Janeiro, was an EFL teacher graduated in

1
A detailed description of the data collection can be found in the same publication.
2
Every proper name used in the narrative fictional.

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Economy and a Master’s student in the area of Applied Linguistics. It is also

worth mentioning that they were both white.

The fragments of the interview appear in chronological order. We did not

use his entire narration, but, we kept the order in which he tells his stories.

Hegemonic Masculinity

The concept of hegemonic masculinity is what society establishes to a

model of man whose characteristics are mostly: physical strength,

independence, manliness and power. The dominance and respect over other

men is something quite valuable to what Badinter (1992:134) calls “supermale”.

This kind of man is reserved about his own experiences, what gives him a

lonely image, while women are skilful in dealing with situation of strong emotion

(Nolasco, 1997).

By the age of seven (...) my father used to take me [to the

beach]; we would go the four of us: me, my father, my
mother, and my sister. By certain point, in a part of the day,
he called to walk around with him, jus the two of us, (…).
While we walked, he started to show me women in bikini,
and how I should act, how I should approach (…) Hmm, how
she was hot, what I liked the most, if I liked breasts,
buttocks… hmm, but only in order to have sex. You see, he
didn`t talk anything about dating, marriage… just sex.3

This excerpt corroborates the claim from Simone de Beauvoir (1990:487)

that “no one is born man; people become man. Virility is not present since the

beginning either”. Henrique’s father stimulated Henrique to become a man; it

was not something that appeared normally in his life.

3
Every narratives have been translated from the Portuguese. Original narratives can be found in Tilio
(2001)

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 Another point that is worth of mention is that reunion between men is

valued. Henrique’s father needs to create a moment just for the boys, in order to

talk about things that women could not listen to, to talk about other women and

how men ought to desire them. Being with other men is a way of reaffirming

hegemonic masculinity (Louro, 2000; Moita Lopes, 1999 apud Tilio, 2001).

In this piece of narrative, it is possible to identify the importance given to

sexual dominance over women. Since Henrique was a little child, his father

stimulated him to be attracted to women, but in a way that disvalues women.

Henrique could use them whenever he wanted to; he did not need to construct

a stable relationship with women, it was “just sex”.

Social Identities

Social Identities can be understood as a form of establishing a difference

from one person to another, that is, the singularity a person or a group

represents. Religion, for example, is one of the identities which a person can be

“constituted”; it is a piece of information about someone that is in constant

transformation.

Social Identities are interactional features. There is a relation between

the members of society in their shaping: “the social identity refers to the way

we, while individuals, position ourselves in the society we live and the way we

realise others positioning us”. (Bradley, 1996: 24)

When I was in the 4th grade, I guess, I had my first

girlfriend. But it was some silly thing like, a kiss on the
cheek, there was nothing more than that. But when I was
little I thought I would marry Rosa [his girlfriend then], I
would be very happy, and so on. But I didn’t clearly think
about sex because… the way my father explained me, and
the way people saw it, we only have sex with a person we
don’t like [resentful]. Because my father would say all of that

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 and then he would say “there’s only one thing: you can’t talk
about this in front of your mother”, and then I would think:
“hey, if he doesn’t talk about this in front of my mother, then
he mustn’t do this with my mother… Therefore I can’t do this
with the mother of my children; It gotta be in another way or
it can only be done in order to have children”; and there was
the religious thing, I have always been a really religious
person, I used to go to the church, I used to attend the
Church Mass, and the priest didn’t use to talk about sex –
not even now. That’s another reason that led me to think we
could only do that with prostitutes. (…) I was really afraid of
committing sins. I was afraid of God, or anything else, to be
mad at me.

This piece of narrative shows how Henrique started developing his

straight sexuality (a sexual identity). According to Sarup (1996) Social

Institutions have an effect on the construction of social identities. It is clear that

the environment around him influenced in this development. The school was the

place where he could find a girlfriend and establish a relationship. And then the

church made him avoid thoughts related to sex, because they never talk about

that there. This narrative also reflects the claim that social identities articulate

and interfere one another (Louro, 1997).

Gender and Sexuality

Tilio (2001) claims that gender and sexuality, albeit often understood as

the same thing, are distinct concepts.

Gender is another social identity that constitutes one’s profile and its

definition becomes essential to the necessary differentiation of the

understanding of sexuality. According to Eckert and McConnell-Ginet (2003),

the formation of gender is a process that goes on with individual growth and is

part of the acts and performances of these individuals. These gendered

identities are reproduced in different social events in a way that we cannot say

that one can live in “a nongendered way, and impossible not to behave in a way

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that brings out gendered bevaviour in others.” (Eckert and McConnell-Ginnet,

2003:50)

There are expectations that people live their sexualities according to their

gender (Tilio, 2001), that is, a man is expected to live his masculinity and direct

his sexuality to women (and the same way to women). Sexuality is a social

identity, thus, it is constructed and reconstructed throughout people’s lives

(Tilio, 2001).

Pedrinho was a friend from “Hell [a night club]”, (…) I

have always had thin legs (…) I liked to see the guys with
thick legs; I always wanted to have thick legs that way. (…)
By that time (16-17 years) I already masturbated, but never
thinking about men. Pedrinho was a close friend, and I
couldn’t admit that but I found Pedrinho very handsome.
Pedrinho and Felipe, my brother-of-saint4, were very alike,
but Felipe was my brother, I didn’t have any intentions, but
with Pedrinho I did. I discovered that when one day I was
masturbating and thinking of a girl. Then suddenly I thought
of Pedrinho. It was despicable to me, I got really upset and I
commented that with Alessandra, my sister-of-saint4, and
she said “no, silly thing, it’s nothing, don’t mind about it…”.
(…) I let it go, but I kept on admiring Pedrinho’s beauty. (…)
I used to see Pedrinho dancing, and… he had a more
feminine way; he wasn’t girly. (…) Then, Pedrinho moved on
with his life, and so did I, still having my girlfriend.

Now we can see that Henrique is constructing another identity, a

homosexual one. There is not a clear distinction between this recently

constructed identity and the heterosexual model he is already accustomed.

There is a new desire for another man (his friend “Pedrinho”), but it is still

awkward to Henrique. It supports what Moita Lopes (1999) has already said

about social identities: they are contradictory. There is also a definite confusion

caused by that new perspective that goes against everything his father taught

concerning sexual maturation.

4
In Afro-Brazilian religions, priests are called mother-of-saint (mãe-de-santo) and father-of-saint (pai-
de-santo). People who are affiliated to the same priests are called sister-of-saint or brother-of-saint
(irmã-de-santo and irmão-de-santo)

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Norm and Deviance

My friendship with Anderson kept on growing. Although I

defended him, his way disturbed me, but I liked Anderson,
so… ends up that… I was getting used to it… (…) Of course
my mother condemned him, she was sure that he couldn’t
be homosexual, because this was this, and that, and wrong,
and really Anderson never had told us because he actually
liked Jane, still in “Hell’s” time. (…) Alex, who was ex-
boyfriend of an ex-girlfriend of mine, showed up (…) and I
started to notice that Anderson was very attracted to Alex
and… he would always say Alex’s name, everything he
would say… It was irritating me… and I was also smelling a
rat. Then I remember one day taking Anderson to the beach
and practically forcing him to tell me about his feelings for
Alex. He rolled the talking up but then he confessed. He was
very embarrassed, ashamed, and told me “well, now you
won’t want to be my friend”, and I told him “no, come on! It’s
nothing”. I wouldn’t say that I wasn’t shocked, I was really
afraid, but I was kind of waiting. And, in fact, I wanted him to
give me that answer. (…) I know that first love affair with
Alex didn’t work out. (…) I enjoyed when Anderson came to
my place to tell the stories of the gay world. I was already in
a religion in which it’s not condemned, so I didn’t mind
about, right? I knew people like that… I started to get
accustomed with that, it did not stun me that much… (…)

Tilio (2001:50) claims that “heterosexuality has been considered the

norm for centuries, and any other sexuality that does not fit in this norm is

considered abnormal and must be banished from society”. In the narrative

above we can attest such claim. The fact that Anderson was gay and effeminate

disturbed Henrique because Anderson is diverted from the norm.

On the other hand we can also see how contradictory social identities

are. Henrique was developing another sexual identity, but he did not see

himself as a gay man yet. And yet he condemned his friend’s sexual behaviour.

Another point that should be emphasized is that his new religion did not

condemn homosexuality. This made him feel more comfortable about being

friend of a gay man, and then, to construct a homosexual identity, as it will be

explored in the further sections.

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Coming out of the closet

When I was 17 (…) Dedé (…) invited me out with a group of

his friends. It was on this occasion that I first met Otávio.
(…) Alex started to suggest that Otávio was liking me. (…)
Alex had called me during the day telling me that Otávio was
in love and that if I didn’t want something with him I should
at least have conversation with him… So I asked him to talk
to him. We were alone in his car and then we kissed. He
started to rub my dick and then he sucked me until I came.
What happened was the following, we were together but I
prohibited him to tell anyone, no one could know about it,
nobody. Fifteen days later we told our group about us and
we started to be boyfriends, then I chose to be with him and
no one else.

Finally Henrique had his first homosexual experience. He has been

“preparing the grounds” for it since he noticed that he was interested in

Pedrinho. Although he accepted his new sexual identity for himself, he did not

tell anyone, at the beginning, that he was in a relationship with another man.

According to Heilborn (2001 apud Tilio, 2001) the recognition of a sexual

identity socially accepted avoids certain embarrassments.

According to Weeks (2000) homosexuality has been becoming more

acceptable in the society lately; it is being seen as an option, symbolizing the

growing pluralisation of social life. So, we could deduce that Henrique felt more

comfortable about being an openly-gay man.

Final Remarks

According to Tilio (2001) it is possible to someone to construct any

sexual and or gender identity, regardless of his/her sex. The same author

(2001) also claims that, on the other hand, sexuality is related to biological sex.

That is, a man will always belong to the male biologic sex, and if his sexuality is

directed into people of his same biological sex he is homosexual, if directed to

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“biological” women, he is heterosexual. It does not matter if their gender

identities are different or equal.

In this paper we matched theoretical concepts of social identities,

hegemonic masculinity and gender, extending them to narratives of man telling

how he identified himself as straight and then as gay. We concluded that the

several social identities influence over one another. For example, Henrique`s

religion helped him to accept the homosexuality of his friends and later his own

“subaltern masculinity” (Tilio 2001:2). We have also talked about out how boys

are pressured to become hegemonic males, in a general view.

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