Being Gay, Being Straight: An Anthropological Critique of Manchester's Gay Village

Abstract

This thesis is an ethnographic study of an area in Manchester known as the 'Gay Village'. It explores the history and changes in the meaning of this term for the people who live and work in the Village, as well as for those who visit it for leisure. The Village was originally created by gay activists who emphasised being gay as the basis for having a separate gay community. However, since being incorporated into Manchester City Council's culture-led regeneration strategy the area now attracts large numbers of heterosexual male and female users. For many heterosexual Village users being gay attaches as much to 'things' that they feel able to engage with in the making of themselves, as much as what it attaches to persons through the way they define their sexuality. Within the Village previous assumptions about the authenticity of the categories 'gay' and 'straight' have been subjected to much debate. The aim of the thesis is therefore to subject current understandings of contemporary gay and straight sexuality to critical analysis and to explore how ideas about sexual identity may be changing in Britain in the first decade of the 21St century.