His Kind: A Study of Male Sexual Being and Homosociality Donovan Cleckley Faculty mentor: Deborah Lowry University of Montevallo
“To imagine a sexual act that doesn't conform to law or nature is not what disturbs people,” Michel Foucault once said. “But that individuals are beginning to love one another—there's the problem.” Friendship and love, then, allow for the re-vision of human relations between men and between women. But, the imperatives of gender and (hetero)sexuality complicate the ideal communion among humans in society. The project then addresses the development of male homosocial relationships, whether they be gaily straight or queerly fraught with panic and peril. It considers the peculiar social and cultural construction of male sexuality, which has been subject to changes rooted in sexual and economic causes. Works used in this analysis include, among others, Phyllis Chesler’s About Men, bell hooks’ The Will to Change, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s Between Men.
Donovan Cleckley is a senior double major in English and Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Montevallo. He grew up in Clanton, Alabama and intends to pursue graduate studies in literary and social studies.
