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Abstract

This article presents a critical account of heterosexual men’s online sex webcam performances in terms of the capacity for challenging or disrupting heteronormativity and opening the field for the representation of a greater range of heterosexualities. Using a narrative analysis of selected examples of heterosexual performances on visual sex sites, it is argued that a deeply felt attachment to heterosexual identity coexists in complex, critical, and potentially disruptive ways with a contemporary, online approach to diverse, individualized sexual practices. Investigating examples of male performers who articulate an avowed heterosexual identity but perform acts for a gay male spectatorship and engage in practices such as self-penetration that are discursively marked by nonheterosexuality, this article explores the potential for the productive disruption of normative views of masculine heterosexuality without the need to resort to a free-floating argument for sexual fluidity. It is argued that, while heteronormativity is disrupted in such sites, masculinity has the capacity to reincorporate nonheterosexual behaviors and acts.

Keywords

heterosexuality masculinity queer theory digital interactivity sexual coherence

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Visual Heteromasculinities Online

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