LGBT Pride Month: Harrison Oakes Discusses His Research
Friday, June 30, 2017
Harrison’s
research
reflects
his
commitment
to
social
justice,
and
his
desire
to
pursue
interdisciplinary,
multi-method
research
projects.
Through
his
current
research
focusing
on
the
ways
in
which
homophobia
motivates
straight-identified
men
to
closet
their
gender
atypicality,
he
hopes
to
challenge
the
notion
that
homophobia
drives
only
sexual
minority
men
to
closet
aspects
of
themselves.
The
theoretical
grounding
of
Harrison’s
current
work
comes
from
sociology,
specifically
Eric
Anderson’s
(2009)
Inclusive
Masculinity
Theory.
One
particularly
influential
research
report
Harrison
came
across
was
Mark
McCormack’s
2011
ethnographic
study
of
high
school
boys
in
England.
McCormack
reported
that,
across
a
5-month
period
of
regular
observations,
he
witnessed
no
acts
of
homophobia.
Harrison
notes,
“I
was
shocked
by
McCormack’s
report,
not
only
because
it
contrasted
so
strongly
with
my
own
experiences
of
homophobic
bullying
in
high
school,
but
also
because
it
contradicted
the
reality
I
repeatedly
encountered
in
my
previous
academic
and
activist
work
on
bullying.
Intrigued,
my
supervisor,
Dr.
Richard
Eibach,
and
I
began
discussing
the
implications
of
a
homophobia-free
social
environment
for
men,
which
eventually
lead
us
to
the
question
of
whether
such
social
environments
might
weaken
the
perceived
association
between
gender
atypicality
in
men
and
being
gay.”
Harrison’s
work
suggests
that
eradicating
homophobia
frees
up
men,
regardless
of
sexuality,
to
express
all
aspects
of
themselves,
whether
or
not
they
align
with
traditional
notions
of
masculinity.
