“Straight acting to the front” : investigating how homonormative values influence the identity construction of gay and lesbian students in the South African context of the North-West University

Abstract

Heteronormativity positions heterosexuality as the only acceptable and normal presentation of gendered and sexual identities, structuring society according to a heteronormative hierarchy of value while (re)producing hegemonic and prevailing inequalities based on traditional sex and gender binaries (Gansen, 2017). Duggan (2002) and Hermann-Wilmarth and Ryan (2016:849) argue that homonormativity structures society and social life along similar heteronormative beliefs and ideals in order to construct conventional gay and lesbian identities. Those gay and lesbian individuals who do not align with these homonormative beliefs and ideals are denied access to in-groups and mainstream society, as they are deemed a threat to heteronormative social order (Clare, 2013; Del Castillo, 2015:13; Murphy et al., 2008), even in tertiary education settings (Msibi, 2013). Using this as a point of departure, the current study aimed to critically explore the influences of such homonormative beliefs and ideals on the identity construction of gay and lesbian students on a South African university campus. Discourse in this study was explored through a qualitative research paradigm focussed on the lived experiences and reported narratives of gay and lesbian students on said university campus. This highlighted the inadequate focus placed on the politics of acceptance and rejection based on specific and gendered presentations of non-straight identities in their own communities. The research was informed by the meta-theoretical principles of poststructuralism and methodologically through the central facets of the social constructionist paradigm. Ten in-depth interviews, along with 17 in-depth electronic questionnaires, were conducted with 11 self-identified gay students, 10 self-identified lesbian students, three self-identified pansexual females, two self-identified bisexual females, and one self-identified bi-curious female. Three inductive themes emerged from the data which guided the analysis. The first centred on the “ideal” gay and lesbian typologies based on hetero- and homonormativity as narrow, interrelated, overlapping, mutually reinforcing and socially constructed with definitive influences on the identity construction and social placement of gay and lesbian students. The second theme focussed on the social (and sexual) placement of gay and lesbian students according to both hetero- and homonormative values and ideals in in- and/or out-groups, specifically centred on participants’ motivations to either assimilate into or transgress hetero- and homonormative expectations. The last theme highlighted the construction of homonormative values and the North-West University gay and lesbian student. This theme focussed on the perfect gay and lesbian identity on campus and students’ decisions to either assimilate into or transgress this perfect identity based on the opportunities and challenges of such decisions. Throughout the analysis, it became evident participants ideally aimed to present straight enough to be accepted into straight communities, while presenting stereotypically gay and lesbian enough

to still find acceptance from gay and lesbian communities. This relates back to the interrelated hetero- and homonormative expectations placed on gay and lesbian students to present conventionally gay and lesbian (Hermann-Wilmarth & Ryan, 2016) in order to avoid the denial of their essential humanity. However, this resulted in an increase of self-regulation, objectification and internalised homophobia (Kozak et al., 2009).