Becoming Down Low: A Review of the Literature on Black Men Who Have Sex With Men and Women

Abstract

The popular media has reinforced stereotypes of the down-low identity and Black men who have sex with men (BMSM) and women as being synonymous and directly responsible for the increased HIV infection rates among Black women in the United States. This review of literature found that the down-low identity was most often classified with the other MSM activities. HIV/AIDS were also closely associated with the down-low identity in much of the literature, either directly or indirectly. Results from this systematic literature, however, failed to support claims that risky sexual behaviors were directly associated with the down-low identity. None of the literature reviewed considered BMSM and women's gender expression within a bisexual context. Instead, this literature review generated new questions pertaining to the reductive manner in which Western societies organize BMSM and women's sexual identities, behaviors, and expressions.

Challenging Perceptions of “Straight”: Heterosexual Men Who Have Sex with Men and the Cultural Politics of Sexual Identity Categories

“…Glenn and Spieldenner (2013) note that black men on the down low have been particularly demonized in the US media and popular culture as a threat to the health of black families and communities. Han (2015) describes this characterization of the down low as a "neoracist" moral panic that holds black men directly responsible for high HIV infection rates in black US communities, despite scant empirical evidence to support this claim, while ignoring structural factors and inequalities that contribute to the HIV epidemic among African Americans (also Robinson 2009;Pettaway et al 2014;Ford et al 2007).…”

Bisexuality

“…As Epprecht (2006) argues, it is questionable as to whether the same/other sex sexualities found in some parts of Africa, for example, should be termed 'bisexual'. Internationally, there is a plethora of locality and community or ethnicity based terms for what could be seen as behavioural bisexuality, for instance the 'Down Low' (DL) lifestyle in the USA (see Pettaway et al, 2014). Being 'on the Down Low' involves publically identifying as heterosexual but being behaviourally bisexual.…”

Sexual and Gender Diversities: Implications for LGBTQ Studies

“…Meanwhile, a substantial proportion of the population internationally engage in same-sex sexual expressions without clearly relating to LGBTQ categories. For example, same-sex male sexual expression in UK saunas can take place with no verbal communication (see Monro 2015), and in the USA, being 'on the Down Low' involves publically identifying as heterosexual but being behaviourally bisexual (see Pettaway et al 2014).…”