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moral ambivalence and irregular practices: contextualizing male-to-male sexualities in Calcutta/India

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Feminist Review

Abstract

Male-to-male sexuality in India has been described as both heavily stigmatized and implicitly tolerated. This paper examines these apparently contradictory attitudes, arguing that they reflect broader moral ambivalence about homosexuality in Indian culture and society. While the effects of homophobia in India are very real, simultaneous social latitude allows for relatively un-scrutinized same-sex sexual contact. The paper explores this scenario as a post-colonial legacy and considers the consequences for contemporary sexual subjectivity, particularly in respect of irregular responses to emerging gay identities and socially ambiguous male-to-male sexualities. Conceiving of men who have sex with men as subject to both prejudice and tolerance raises complex questions for HIV/AIDS related policy, programming and activism. The paper argues that understanding male-to-male sexualities in India as practiced within a climate of ambiguous moral censure offers critical insights for the future promotion of health.

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Notes

  1. All names used in this paper are pseudonyms and identifying details of the people featured have been disguised and ‘fictionalized’ so as to respect anonymity.

  2. Neither is this a culturally peculiar phenomenon. Prototypically Western ‘coming out’ narratives offer accounts of usually young gay, lesbian and/or queer subjects as they navigate self-revelation and concealment. Recent work with young gay men and lesbians in the UK has reiterated the navigation of secrecy, exposure and the choice to ‘come out’ as a persistent rite of passage, rather than a straightforward coming out trajectory (Warwick et al., 2003).

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Acknowledgements

I thank Deep Purkayastha, Clare Hemmings, Henrietta Moore, Pawan Dhall, Peter Aggleton and the un-named research participants for their valuable contributions towards this paper.

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  1. Paul Boyce
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Boyce, P. moral ambivalence and irregular practices: contextualizing male-to-male sexualities in Calcutta/India. Fem Rev 83, 79–98 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.fr.9400282

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