Gay men and heterosexual women may share some common interests in critiquing hetero-patriarchy. However feminism and gay liberationist politics do not always coincide and the role of individual subjectivities in recognising oppressive discourses of normativity remains debated. Interviews were conducted with seven friendship dyads of heterosexual women and gay men. Transcripts were subjected to discourse analysis, which suggested extensive management of heterosexist norms in the friends’ accounts of friendship. The analysis highlighted ambiguity over the ‘male’ status of gay men, a concern with constructing the friendships as legitimately asexual, and the use of parody in the face of homophobia to disrupt normative assumptions. Although we primarily considered the role of heterosexist discourses, there is also evidence that other dimensions of non-normativity (for example, gender and ethnicity) are implicated in friendships constructed around shared otherness and mutual non-normativity.
Braun, V. ( 2000) ‘Heterosexism in Focus Group Research: Collusion and Challenge’, Feminism & Psychology10: 133-40.
2.
Burr, V. ( 2003) Social Constructionism (2nd edition). London: Routledge.
3.
Butler, J. ( 1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity . London: Routledge.
4.
Butler, J. ( 1993) Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’ . London: Routledge.
5.
D’Emilio, J. ( 1983) Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
6.
Diamond, L.M. ( 2005) ‘"I’m Straight, but I Kissed a Girl": The Trouble with American Media Representations of Female-Female Sexuality’Feminism & Psychology15: 104- 10.
7.
Edwards, D. and Potter, J. ( 1992) Discursive Psychology. London: Sage.
8.
Finnigan, K. and Hine, D. ( 2003) ‘Help! I’m a Gay Man Trapped in a Woman’s Body!’, Elle, November, pp. 131-2.
9.
Frye, M. ( 1983) The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory. New York: The Crossing Press.
10.
Jackson, S. and Scott, S. ( 2004) ‘The Personal is Still Political: Heterosexuality, Feminism and Monogamy’, Feminism & Psychology14(1): 151-7.
11.
Jagose, A. ( 1996) Queer Theory: An Introduction. New York: New York University Press.
12.
Jefferson, G. ( 2004) ‘Glossary of Transcript Symbols with an Introduction’ , in G.H Lerner (ed.) Conversation Analysis: Studies from the First Generation, pp. 13-31. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.
13.
Jeffreys, S. ( 1991) Anticlimax: A Feminist Perspective on the Sexual Revolution . New York: New York University Press.
14.
Jeffreys, S. ( 2003) Unpacking Queer Politics: A Lesbian Feminist Perspective . Cambridge: Polity.
15.
Kitzinger, C. and Perkins, R. ( 1993) Changing Our Minds: Lesbian Feminism and Psychology. London: Onlywomen Press.
16.
Lamos, C. ( 1994) ‘The Postmodern Lesbian Position: On Our Backs’ , in L. Doan (ed.) The Lesbian Postmodern, pp. 85-103. New York: Columbia University Press.
Lorde, A. ( 1984) Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press.
19.
Nardi, P.M. ( 1999) Gay Men’s Friendships: Invincible Communities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
20.
Nentwich, J.C. ( 2008) ‘New Fathers and Mothers as Gender Troublemakers? Exploring Discursive Constructions of Heterosexual Parenthood and their Subversive Potential’, Feminism & Psychology18: 207-30.
21.
Parker, I. ( 1992) Discourse Dynamics: Critical Analysis for Social and Individual Psychology. London: Routledge.
22.
Peel, E. ( 2005) ‘Effeminate ‘Fudge nNudgers’ and Tomboyish ‘Lettuce Lickers’: Language and the Construction of Sexualities in Diversity Training’, The Psychology of Women Section Review, 7(2), 1-13.
23.
Potter, J. and Hepburn, A. ( 2005) ‘Qualitative Interviews in Psychology: Problems and Possibilities’, Qualitative Research in Psychology2: 281-307.
24.
Quimby, K. ( 2005) ‘Will & Grace: Negotiating (Gay) Marriage on Prime-Time Television’, The Journal of Popular Culture , 38(4), 713-31.
25.
Rich, A. ( 1980) ‘Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence’ , Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society5: 631-60.
26.
Richardson, D. ( 1996) ‘Heterosexuality and Social Theory’, in D. Richardson (ed.) Theorising Heterosexuality: Telling it Straight, pp. 1-20. Buckingham: Open University Press.
27.
Rose, S. ( 2000) ‘Heterosexism and the Study of Women’s Romantic and Friend Relationships’, Journal of Social Sciences56: 315-28.
28.
Rubin, G. ( 1984) ‘Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of Politics of Sexuality’, in C.S. Vance (ed.) Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality, pp. 267-319. London : Pandora Press.
29.
Sandfield, A. and Percy, C. ( 2003) ‘Accounting for Single Status: Heterosexism and Ageism in Heterosexual Women’s Talk about Marriage’, Feminism & Psychology13: 475-88.
30.
Stokoe, E.H. and Weatherall, A. ( 2002) ‘Gender, Language, Conversation Analysis and Feminism’, Discourse & Society13: 707-13.
31.
Valentine, G. ( 1993) ‘(Hetero)sexualising Space: Lesbian Perceptions and Experiences of Everyday Spaces’, Environment and Planning: Society and Space11: 395-413.
32.
Warner, M. ( 1993) Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics & Social Theory . Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
33.
Weeks, J. ( 1981) Sex, Politics and Society. The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800. London: Longman Press .
34.
Werking, K.J. ( 1997) ‘Cross-sex Friendship Research as Ideological Practice’ , in S. Duck (ed.) Handbook of Personal Relationships (2nd edition), pp. 391-410. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
35.
Wetherell, M. ( 1998) ‘Positioning and Interpretative Repertoires: Conversation Analysis and Post-structuralism in Dialogue’, Discourse & Society9: 387-412.
36.
Willig, C. ( 2001) Introducing Qualitative Research in Psychology: Adventures in Theory and Method, Buckingham: Open University Press.
