[Download] "Racing the Closet. (Symposium: Media, Justice, And the Law)" by Stanford Law School ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Racing the Closet. (Symposium: Media, Justice, And the Law)
- Author : Stanford Law School
- Release Date : January 01, 2009
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 461 KB
Description
INTRODUCTION Recently, the media have brought to light examples of ordinary black men who are said to live on the "down low" (or DL) in that they have primary romantic relationships with women while engaging in secret sex with men. (1) A central theme of this media coverage, which I will call "DL discourse," is that DL men expose their unwitting female partners to HIV, which stems from their secret sex with men. (2) DL discourse warrants examination because it sits at the intersection of three important civil rights movements: (1) the gay rights movement, (2) the black anti-racist movement, and (3) AIDS activism. In this Article, I critique DL discourse in order to reveal important lessons about media framing, gender schemas, and victimization, and the relationship of all three to law. DL discourse tends to conceal several relevant and interconnected groups, including nonblack men who engage in similar practices, down low women, and women whose sexual relationships are not monogamous or "respectable." These erasures permit the media to boil the underlying issues down to a battle between two caricatures--dangerous black men and their innocent wives and girlfriends. However, a close analysis of this framing provides the opportunity to recognize complicating nuances and draw structural connections between black men who have sex with men, or "MSM," (3) and black women. I argue that both of these groups confront structural constraints that push them to the fringes of the black community and the broader society while limiting their romantic possibilities.