Citation

Ward J. Sexualities 2008; 11(4): 414-434.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1363460708091742

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Based on examination of an online community in which white `str8'-identified men assert that sex with other white men bolsters their heterosexual masculinity, this article examines the heterosexual and racialized meanings that white str8 dudes attach to their same-sex behaviors. The study points to the role of whiteness in the process of establishing heterosexual `realness', or believable straight culture. Findings indicate that for the white str8 dude, Black male bodies disrupt the staging of normal `male bonding', and occupy a distinctly queerer space `down low'. I argue that in a culture constituted by both a racial and sexual binary, whiteness and heterosexuality are `natural' bedfellows that simultaneously signify the `really, really normal' subject.