The Spectacle of Violence: Homophobia, Gender and Knowledge

The Spectacle of Violenceexplores the contexts and implications of homophobia-related violence and hostility. Through research based on in-depth interviews, Gail Mason draws on a range of experiences of verbal hostility, physical violence and sexual violence related to sexuality to ask fundamental questions about where violence comes from and what effects it has. How do lesbians and gay men manage the risk of violence? And what is the relationship between violence and power? Resisting easy categorizations, Mason highlights the ways in which different identities, different bodies and different systems of thought interact, and she argues for the importance of thinking about homophobia-related violence in the context of other core issues such as gender and race. Stressing the visual nature of violence, she demonstrates how violence infiltrates not just the daily experience of lesbians and gay men, but also the knowledge systems through which we construct and recognize sexual identities.

Gail Mason is lecturer in the Department of Gender Studies at The University of Sydney.