'Success' and 'Failure' in Gay Male Identity: An Intertextual Analysis

In order to further identify how marginalised sexuality has been intersected with neo-liberal binaries of “success” and “failure”, this paper provides an explanation of the extent that gay lifestyle(s) have aspired for values associated with both the “straight subject” and commercial forms of “success” whilst also appearing discrete. In doing so, I undertook a case study of Gay Times and Attitude, the two highest-circulating British gay men’s publications over the twenty years since Thatcher stepped down. Although Gay Times was initially campaign-oriented, Attitude was more focused on lifestyle(s) and culture, ensuring that a contrasting readership was provided for. Similar to identifying how neo-liberal binaries were assimilated into an abject gay identity, the study of lifestyle(s) magazines printed from 1991 complemented earlier scholarship on straight men’s publications, targeting a marginalised gender reliant on signifiers of “empowerment” and “choice”. Through analysing high-circulating gay men’s lifestyle(s) magazines published between 1991 and 201, this paper contributes to the wider literature on sexuality. To support results gleaned through the coding of these texts, it was necessary to conduct a selection of secondary interviews with respondents identifying as gay men concerning their perceptions of the publications, alongside broader themes of gay lifestyle(s) and the aspiration to appear “successful”. As respondents were all over twenty-one, they could draw on how they regarded the publications when younger in comparison to how they considered them at present. Although sampling from a broad demography, interviews were conducted in Manchester, London and Brighton, areas with a notable Pink Pound presence, enabling respondents to provide further evidence concerning how a gay sub-culture had changed in comparison to that (re)presented in Attitude and Gay Times. The lifestyle(s) and perceptions of the publications as outlined by varying respondents provided further comparison with the opinions of readers articulated in the letters pages of the magazines.