Queering cross-sex friendships: An analysis of gay and bisexual men’s workplace friendships with heterosexual women

an article by Nick Rumens (University of Bristol) published in Human Relations Volume 65 Number 8 (August 2012)

Abstract

Organizational research on cross-sex friendships frequently normalizes heterosexuality by excluding lesbian, gay and bisexual people. Challenging this heteronormative bias, this article mobilizes queer theories to examine how UK gay and bisexual men reproduce and contest heterosexist norms in the construction of workplace friendships with heterosexual women.

For bisexual study participants, interview data reveal how their friendship experiences can be rendered epistemologically invisible, especially within work environments where bi-negativity is anticipated.

In contrast, gay study participants appear to adopt discursive strategies in order to create friendships with women that are normatively accepted. This article develops a concept of ‘queer friendship’ as it relates to the opportunities that arise within workplace friendships for transcending heterosexist norms.

It is argued that sustaining the queer aspects of workplace relationships can be challenging but worthwhile, with implications for disrupting gender binaries and developing open-ended organizational policy definitions of ‘acceptable’ workplace relationships.

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