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2 ratings since posting on Monday, August 30, 2004|
in Everywhere
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There is a certain salaciousness to some of the accounts of sexual encounters and relationships in prison in "Boys Behind Bars" that might strain the credulity of some readers. Free World people with little knowledge of life, culture and sexuality in male prisons would have their doubts about these accounts; especially those whose outlooks and experiences are defined by and confined to middle class values and experiences. But having known, and dated, a few ex-cons in the past, I can say that for those of us with a little inside information, they have a ring of truth. A better understanding of some of the claims in "Boys Behind Bars" might be had if readers keep the following in mind. Prison populations are and always have been lop-lopsidedly drawn from the lower classes. In recent decades that has also meant being drawn lop-lopsidedly from black and brown populations. The poorer classes have not shared the same ideological outlook of the Free World middle classes, whose hegemony in sexual matters have been expanding for decades. This is especially true on issues of same-sex sexuality, where the construction of a so-called "gay" identity around homosexual desire is especially bound up with the class ambitions of a mostly white upper-middle class self-identifying gay activism, presented as a form of liberation politics (see Steve Valocchi, "The Class-Inflected Nature of Gay Identity," Social Problems, Vol. 46, No. 2 (May, 1999), pp. 207-224). What "Boys Behind Bars" does is give some sight into a radically different experience of a particular kind of male same-sex sexuality from that of "gay" men at a moment when a near-hegemonic definition over all forms of male homosociality has been successfully imposed by those same "gays". It reminds of how same-sex desire was once far more diverse than it is today. - Unsubscribed , posted 05/19/11 |
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Seems to be a dearth of quality used bookstores toward Claremont. This is one of the better ones, but that really isn't saying much. At least they have a searchable online database. However, they seem to do a thriving business in used VHS cassettes (they buy for $1 and sell for $2-4) and are expanding into old Laser Discs. I've found the occasional rare gem (I didn't even _know_ there was a movie of Wm Gibson's "New Rose Hotel".) - Unsubscribed , posted 08/30/04 |
