Gay men's identity attempt pathway and its implication on consumption

Abstract

This paper integrates sociological and psychological perspectives to examine gay consumption practices in relation to the dynamics of gay identity development. Specifically, this paper investigates how internal motivational factors underlying gay identity formation and external social influence work in concert to affect gay identity attempts throughout the gay identity development process. The findings of this study reveal that the consumption patterns of gay men are continuously evolving and correspond to attempts at discovering, disclosing, constructing, maintaining, (re)constructing, suppressing, and/or disposing the gay social identity. Precipitated by individual differences, two divergent pathways-the linear progression and pendular progression pathways-of identity attempts emerged from the gay identity development process. The data used in this study were collected through in-depth interviews with gay men in Taiwan, where homosexuality is traditionally stigmatized but is gradually gaining acceptance with the global emergence and spread of the gay subculture.

Constructing and communicating an ethical consumer identity: A Social Identity Approach

“…In contemporary societies, consumption has been recognized as central to the construction of the self (Belk, 1988;Hsieh and Wu, 2011). Firat and Dholakia (1998: 2) propose that ''understanding ourselves as people who consume may explain much of what we are about as human beings, since [..], consumption is much of our life''.…”

A New Perspective on Sexual Mixing among Men Who Have Sex with Men by Body Image

“…Studies of psychology and psychiatry have demonstrated the tendency of gay men to experience poor body image and a larger drive to thinness [23] , but this might not be true among non-Western societies [31] . The formation of gay subculture and the identity may also be different from a Chinese emic perspective [32] . However, exploring their true meanings and definitions require anthropological and ethnographical efforts and was not the aim of this analysis.…”

Gay Consumers and Brand Usage: The Gender‐Flexing Role of Gay Identity

“…The gay population includes a large variety of individuals manifesting different rates of belonging and attachment to the gay community and various levels of social visibility of their sexual orientation (Visconti, ). Given the role of gender‐atypical consumption as either or both a marker of gay belonging within the gay community (Kates, ) and freedom from the gender confines of heteronormative consumption (Hsieh & Wei, ), it is suggested here that gender‐atypical consumption behavior is moderated by an individual's identity and involvement with the gay community.…”

“…Conversely, individuals that hold a strong gay identity will tend to be more centrally connected to the gay community, less susceptible to the influence of social prejudice in mainstream society, and, hence, more likely to possess gender‐inverted traits (Lippa, ). Hsieh and Wu () discuss the evolution of gay identity as it relates to changes of an individuals’ interaction with and contribution to gay subculture. They suggest that individuals focused on identity construction and identity maintenance have high levels of interaction with the gay community and are thus more likely to conform to the gay subcultural ethos and to reconstruct the meaning of gay identity‐enabling consumption practices.…”

“…Although various models of gay identity development differ in the number of stages, their defining characteristics, and transitional mechanisms, they all propose that an individual progresses through a series of developmental stages and the process generally begins with an initial awareness of same‐sex attraction, followed by same‐sex sexual experience, self‐labeling, self‐disclosure, and eventually, the adoption of a positive gay identity (which acknowledges the value of both heterosexuality and homosexuality). Progression through these stages is driven by the desire to establish congruence between the individual's self‐perception and the environment (Cass, ), and with this progression, the nature of the interactions between an individual and the gay community evolves similarly (Hsieh & Wu, .) Additionally, gay individuals can experience the identity development process differently (Kates, ) and present variation in terms of desires, behaviors and self‐identification (Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, & Michaels, ).…”