TY - JOUR
T1 - Reconciling self : gay men and lesbians using domestic materiality for identity management
AU - Gorman-Murray, Andrew
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Responding to calls to 're-materialize' research in social and cultural geography, this paper critically considers the role of domestic materiality in gay/lesbian identity management, and makes a particular contribution to work on gay men's and lesbians' experiences, meanings and uses of domestic environments. Prior work in other contexts has shown that the maintenance of domestic materiality - that is, the accumulation and arrangement of meaningful possessions in domestic space - underwrites identity work. Drawing on in-depth interviews with gay/ lesbian Australians, I apply this contention to gay/lesbian homemaking practices. In particular, conceptualizing identity as fractured, I argue that the maintenance of domestic materiality reconciles diverse dimensions of multi-faceted selves. Different possessions embody different facets of self - not only sexuality, but also familial connections, cultural heritage, spiritual beliefs, inter alia. Juxtaposing these objects at home brings together the diverse fragments of self, materially embedding a holistic sense of self within domestic space. Domestic materiality thus (re)unites various dimensions of fractured selves, reconciling sexual identities with familial, ethnic-cultural and spiritual identities, inter alia. This reconciliatory function of material homemaking is a key way in which sexual identities are affirmed in the everyday lives of these gay/ lesbian Australians.
AB - Responding to calls to 're-materialize' research in social and cultural geography, this paper critically considers the role of domestic materiality in gay/lesbian identity management, and makes a particular contribution to work on gay men's and lesbians' experiences, meanings and uses of domestic environments. Prior work in other contexts has shown that the maintenance of domestic materiality - that is, the accumulation and arrangement of meaningful possessions in domestic space - underwrites identity work. Drawing on in-depth interviews with gay/ lesbian Australians, I apply this contention to gay/lesbian homemaking practices. In particular, conceptualizing identity as fractured, I argue that the maintenance of domestic materiality reconciles diverse dimensions of multi-faceted selves. Different possessions embody different facets of self - not only sexuality, but also familial connections, cultural heritage, spiritual beliefs, inter alia. Juxtaposing these objects at home brings together the diverse fragments of self, materially embedding a holistic sense of self within domestic space. Domestic materiality thus (re)unites various dimensions of fractured selves, reconciling sexual identities with familial, ethnic-cultural and spiritual identities, inter alia. This reconciliatory function of material homemaking is a key way in which sexual identities are affirmed in the everyday lives of these gay/ lesbian Australians.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:25534
U2 - 10.1080/14649360801990504
DO - 10.1080/14649360801990504
M3 - Article
SN - 1464-9365
VL - 9
SP - 283
EP - 301
JO - Social and Cultural Geography
JF - Social and Cultural Geography
IS - 3
ER -