Title: More Man Than You'll Ever Be - Gay Folklore and Acculturaton in Middle America Author: Joseph P. Goodwin Published by: Indiana University Press, 1989 ISBN: 0-253-20497-6 [trade paperback, 122]
No one is brought up to be gay. Lacking the formal support systems -- families, schools, churches -- gay men rely on their folklore in interacting with one another and to relieve the pressures of belonging to a stigmatized group. Jokes and other forms of humor, language, and personal experience narratives help gay men to identify and communicate with one another -- even in straight settings. These traditional behaviors also help to maintain group cohesion in the subculture and to cope with conflicts within the gay community and between it and the straight world.
AIDS is one of the greatest sources of stress that gay men face, and its reality is reflected in their folklore -- both in content and in form. Joseph Goodwin examines the differences between the way gays and straights deal with IDS in their folklore and suggests the forms that AIDS-lore will take as awareness of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome increases.
More Man than You'll Ever Be explores the uses of gay men's folklore. Whether funny or sad, poignant or shocking, each story and joke contains messages, sometimes surprising ones. Goodwin decodes some of these messages to help us understand not only the gay subculture but also ourselves.
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