Homonormativity and 'Success': Aspirational Identity in Gay Masculinity

This paper identifies changes in gay masculinity, examining the impact a consumerist approach has had on the two bestselling gay lifestyle(s) – Attitude and GT (previously known as Gay Times) – over the period between 1991 and 2011. In both magazines over the period covered, the aspiration for a successful identity in a homonormative context, identifying neo-liberal signifiers through the textual analysis of the aspirational discourse and images (re)presented in both publications, specifically assessing the importance placed on signifiers of consumerism and celebrity role models. Through selecting the most-read lifestyle(s) magazines in Britain over the period under study, this paper is able to understand how mainstream forms of gay masculine identity have increasingly been underpinned by discourse pertaining to consumerism as opposed to campaigns against perceived homophobia and inequality. In arguing that a neo-liberal binary of “success” and “failure” has become increasingly prevalent since 1991, with signifiers (re)constructing the former as aspirational, this paper also notes that while Attitude and GT have remained directed toward an explicitly gay male audience, emphasis is placed on homonormative forms of “success” as an easily attainable norm. This paper’s central argument focuses on how gay masculinity in the British mainstream media has increasingly (re)presented neo-liberal conceptions of choice across varying lifestyle(s), but nonetheless based around (re)producing homogenous forms of “success” and heteronormative discourse similar to those in publications targeting straight men. Through observing how aspirational norms have been assimilated across varying gay lifestyle(s) in Britain over a twenty year period by coding the key themes of consumerism, celebrity and “success” in bestselling gay men’s magazines, a pertinent contribution to both masculinity studies and gender studies more broadly is provided, drawing attention to how neo-liberal discourse has affected a marginalised sexuality over the post-Thatcher period.