“It's not rocket science, what I do”: Self-directed harm reduction strategies among drug using ethno-racially diverse gay and bisexual men

Littoral Spaces of Performance: Findings from a Systematic Review and Re-analysis of Qualitative Studies on Men Who Have Sex with Men, Substance Use and Social Venues

“…Similarly, many of the included studies referred to the spaces in which MSM use substances as 'marginal', if not the population of substance-using MSM as marginal themselves (inter alia, Bauermeister, 2007;Brown et al, 2000;Caceres & Cortinas, 1996;Elwood & Williams, 1998;Green & Halkitis, 2006;Green, 2003;Greenspan et al, 2011;O'Byrne & Holmes, 2011a, 2011bO'Byrne, 2011;Slavin, 2004;Southgate & Hopwood, 1999b;Westhaver, 2003Westhaver, , 2006. Instead, 'littorality' presumes a different process: the idea of being in a liminoid state, with the experience of tribal identity, solidarity, and disruption of external social structures, as a purposeful, temporary end in itself rather than a 'passing through' point.…”

“…Viewed from a Goffmanian perspective, substance use becomes the 'signequipment' (Goffman, 1959) used to indicate belonging; from a Butlerian standpoint, substance use is the performative act that creates the anticipated belongingness in the littoral space. The role of substance use as a mechanism also manifests in the 'folk pharmacologies' and harm reduction practices that readily develop in groups (Greenspan et al, 2011;Ireland et al, 1999;O'Byrne, 2009;Southgate & Hopwood, 1999b;Westhaver, 2003). Groups of friends, or even bystanders, at a dance party may know what to do if someone is believed to have overdosed (Greenspan et al, 2011).…”

“…The role of substance use as a mechanism also manifests in the 'folk pharmacologies' and harm reduction practices that readily develop in groups (Greenspan et al, 2011;Ireland et al, 1999;O'Byrne, 2009;Southgate & Hopwood, 1999b;Westhaver, 2003). Groups of friends, or even bystanders, at a dance party may know what to do if someone is believed to have overdosed (Greenspan et al, 2011).…”

“…Yet it was also common across included studies for participants to state that they knew when they had reached their own sexual or substance use limits (Greenspan et al, 2011;Husbands et al, 2004;Ireland et al, 1999;Klitzman, 2006;O'Byrne & Holmes, 2011b;Slavin, 2004;Southgate & Hopwood, 1999a). These limits were both identified beforehand and also in the Even when substance use was employed as part of sexual performance, all authors addressing sexual limits observed that participants reported having some prior limits, particularly around safer sex and esotery of sex acts (Green & Halkitis, 2006;Green, 2003;Greenspan et al, 2011;Husbands et al, 2004;Ireland et al, 1999;O'Byrne & Holmes, 2011a, 2011bSlavin, 2004). For example, in a quote that also reflects the tribal and mechanistic dimensions of substance use and performance in the littoral space, one participant reports about being with his friends: 'I wouldn't want to go home with someone I didn't really like.…”

“…Moreover, within these countries, several key populations were under-sampled. Despite several authors' efforts to 'oversample' underrepresented ethnic groups (Greenspan et al, 2011;Husbands et al, 2004;Natale, 2008) and several authors' focus on Latino MSM (Bauermeister, 2007;Caceres & Cortinas, 1996;Wilson, 2004), the experiences of ethnic minority MSM were inadequately represented. We were also unable to locate relevant studies on the experiences of MSM not living in the Global West.…”