Gay sex macho

A sociological examination into the emergence of male homosexuality with a traditional masculine ethos

Before gay liberation, gay men were usually perceived as failed men—"inverts," men trapped in women's bodies. The 1970s saw a radical shift in gay male culture, as a male homosexuality emerged that embraced a more traditional masculine ethos. The gay clone, a muscle-bound, sexually free, hard-living Marlboro man, appeared in the gay enclaves of major cities, changing forever the face of gay male culture.

Gay Macho presents the ethnography of this gay clone. Martin P. Levine, a pioneer of the sociological study of homosexuality, was among the first social scientists to route the emergence of a gay community and this new style of same-sex attracted masculinity. Levine was a participant in as skillfully as an observer of gay culture in the 1970s, and this perspective allowed him to capture the true flavor of what it was appreciate to be a male lover man before AIDS. Levine's clone was a gender conformist, whose masculinity was demonstrated in patterns of social interaction and especially in his sexuality. According to Levine, his animation centere