Mark McCormack

Aston University · School of Languages and Social Sciences

This article examines the emergence of progressive attitudes toward homosexuality among working-class boys in a sixth form in the south of England to develop an intersectional analysis of class, youth masculinities and decreasing homophobia. Drawing on three months of ethnographic data collection, I find that working-class male youth intellectualiz...

Research has traditionally shown high schools to be hostile environments for LGBT youth. Boys have used homophobia to prove their masculinity and distance themselves from homosexuality. Despite these findings over the last three decades, The Declining Significance of Homophobia tells a different story. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews of young m...

This qualitative research examines the influence of pornography consumption on young men with non-exclusive sexual orientations. Drawing on 35 in-depth interviews with young men from an elite university in the north-eastern United States, we examine how pornography was experienced as a leisure activity to be consumed in free time. Rather than focus...

In 2010, this journal published an early exposition of inclusive masculinity theory. Since then, the theory has been widely adopted within both the sport and masculinities literature. Furthermore, a large number of other scholars not using the theory have also documented and labelled new masculinity types. There has also been refinement of Inclusiv...

Sociology has an ambivalent relationship with advocacy research because the benefits of participation and engagement must be balanced with concerns about bias. The current study uses 10 recent research reports on homophobia in British educational settings, written and funded by campaigning charities, as a case study of contemporary advocacy researc...

This paper explores the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics, self-reported alkyl nitrite (‘poppers’) use and sexual behaviours against a backdrop of UK policy change and ambiguity surrounding legal status. In 2024, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs recommended a unique, government-initiated, legal exemption from the Psy...

Kink, often referred to as BDSM, is an important aspect of a sizable minority's sexual desires, practices, and personal relationships, yet there are few ways to assess kink engagement in a holistic manner. This study aimed to develop the Kink Orientation Scale (KOS), a novel short tool for measuring different aspects of kink sexuality. In phase one...

Pup play is a kink or BDSM activity and subculture that provides opportunities for social and sexual play and exploration. While growing scholarly attention has focused on the diverse dynamics of pup play cultures, and reasons for participation within them, no research has considered how pup play may be attractive for neurodivergent people. This st...

COVID-19-related social lockdowns had profound consequences in all aspects of social life, yet technology’s role in mediating relationships during lockdown has received little attention. Drawing on a survey of 565 young adults in the UK, we used mixed methods to explore (a) differences in technology use by people in serious romantic relationships (...

Little is known about the other leisure activities of people who engage in kink, including sexual practices and the use of alcohol and other drugs. This article examines the drinking, illicit drug use and sexual practices of people who engage in kink from a novel sample of attendees at an English festival. Of 966 respondents, 64 reported having eng...

This article provides a critical review of recent research about bisexual men. It foregrounds research dedicated to this group, rather than when bisexual men are included in a broader study, providing a rationale for the importance of doing this. The review finds that there is still a preponderance of research on bisexual men focused on experiences...

Non-exclusive sexuality identity labels such as “mostly straight” and “mostly gay” describe distinct sexualities. While research documents their existence and distinctiveness, little focus has been given to friendship dynamics with these groups and research on friendship has a heteronormative bias. In this study, we use data collected with 25 men w...

This study presents findings from a community survey on pup play. Pup play is a kink activity and a form of role play that is growing in popularity internationally, and gaining increasing attention in sexology, yet prior research on pup play has almost entirely employed qualitative methods and primarily involved gay and bisexual men. Using survey d...

Introduction: Pandemic-related social lockdown limited many sexual behaviors, but to date, no study has examined the perceived impact of social lockdown due to COVID-19 on sexual fantasy and solitary sexual behavior. Aims: The present study sought to examine the perceived impact of social lockdown on sexual fantasy and solitary sexual behavior a...

Drag performance has entered mainstream British culture and is gaining unprecedented appreciation and recognition, yet no sociological accounts of this transformation exist. Using an inductive analysis of in-depth interviews with 25 drag performers, alongside netnography of media and other public data, this article develops a sociological understan...

The relationship between drug use and sexual practice is complex. Significant focus has been placed on risky practices, yet the broader associations between drug use and sexual activities remain elusive outside such contexts. This is despite similar trends of liberalizing attitudes and practices being identified in each area, theorized as the norma...

This study examined self-reported changes in young adults' sexual desire and behaviors during the most significant social restrictions imposed to deal with COVID-19. Drawing on a survey of 565 British adults aged 18-32 collected at the peak of social lockdown restrictions, we document an overall decrease in sexual behaviors consistent with abiding...

Muslim women in Iran live in a patriarchal society which significantly restricts their freedom and agency. While there is a growing understanding of social change as it relates to younger Muslim women in Iran, the perspectives and experiences of older women are marginalized; mirroring problems with the intersections of age, gender, and sexuality in...

Competitive teamsport at university level is predominantly segregated by gender in many western countries, despite concerns that gender segregation in sport can perpetuate sexism and gender inequality. While policies and activities seek to challenge sexism and gender inequality, the use of gender collaboration within a gender-segregated system as a...

Smartphones and internet technology have radically altered the ways in which social and romantic relationships are initiated, consolidated, and maintained. In academic research, a debate has emerged between those who see potential for reconfiguring gender and sexual norms and those who view technology as an interference in the maintenance of seriou...

The social trend of decreasing homophobia and liberalizing attitudes toward homosexuality is a contentious sociological issue. In a recent article in this journal, Diefendorf and Bridges contend that differences in findings of quantitative and qualitative research related to masculinities and homophobia demand new theories and methods to chart the...

The social trend of decreasing homophobia and liberalising attitudes toward homosexuality is a contentious sociological issue. In a recent article in this journal, Diefendorf and Bridges contend that differences in findings of quantitative and qualitative research related to masculinities and homophobia demand new theories and methods to chart the...

Drawing on life-course interviews with 30 Iranian menopausal women, this study examines menopause as an extended period during which women evaluate their lives in the context of the patriarchal culture of Iran. Referring to this period as menopausal time, we document how these women use “loss narratives” to understand the negative impact of the gen...

In 2010, this journal published an early exposition of inclusive masculinity theory. Since then, the theory has been widely adopted within both the sport and masculinities literature. Furthermore, a large number of other scholars not using the theory have also documented and labelled new masculinity types. There has also been refinement of Inclusiv...

This is the first research to assess the prevalence of same-sex kissing among college-attending, heterosexual men in the United States. We utilized a mixed-method study of 442 quantitative surveys and 75 in-depth interviews with participants from 11 universities in order to understand the frequency, context and meanings of same-sex kissing. We foun...

In this article, the author details how 16–18-year-old boys ascribe to the tenets of inclusive masculinity in a U.K. secondary school that the author calls “Standard High.” Drawing on five months of participant observation and twelve in-depth interviews, this article demonstrates that the boys' masculinities are predicated in opposition to the orth...

This study presents the narratives and experiences of 30 gay and bisexual men who participate in a behavior known as “pup play.” Never empirically studied before, we use in-depth interviews and a modified form of grounded theory to describe the dynamics of pup play and develop a conceptual framework with which to understand it. We discuss the dynam...

This article examines the emergence of progressive attitudes toward homosexuality among working-class boys in a sixth form in the south of England to develop an intersectional analysis of class, youth masculinities and decreasing homophobia. Drawing on three months of ethnographic data collection, I find that working-class male youth intellectualiz...

In January 2014, Conner Mertens publicly came out as bisexual, making him the first NCAA American Football player to announce a non-heterosexual sexual orientation while still being an active team member. In doing so, he became the first active athlete in a long line of athletes to publicly come out, thus paving the way for acceptance for LGB athle...

This major new textbook uses lively prose and a series of carefully-crafted pedagogical features to both introduce Sociology as a discipline and to help students realize how deeply sociological issues impact on their own lives. Over the book’s ten chapters, students discover what Sociology is, alongside its historical development and emergent new c...

Recent evidence suggests it is useful to distinguish sexual identities among young men at the gay end of the spectrum because of group differences between primarily gay, mostly gay and gay orientations on several assessed physiological, behavioural and self-report measures. However, little is known about individuals’ rationales for choosing sexuali...

This study presents the narratives and experiences of 30 gay and bisexual men who participate in a behavior known as "pup play." Never empirically studied before, we use in-depth interviews and a modified form of grounded theory to describe the dynamics of pup play and develop a conceptual framework with which to understand it. We discuss the dynam...

This exploratory study assessed physiological, behavioral, and self-report measures of sexual and romantic indicators of sexual orientation identities among young men (mean age = 21.9 years) with predominant same-sex sexual and romantic interests: those who described themselves as bisexual leaning gay (n = 11), mostly gay (n = 17), and gay (n = 47)...

This article draws on in-depth interviews with 35 openly gay male undergraduates from four universities in England to develop an understanding of the changing nature of language related to homosexuality. In addition to finding a diminution in the prevalence of homophobic language, we demonstrate that participants maintain complex and nuanced unders...

The principle topic of this chapter is to examine how men’s bisexuality is gendered. Using the concept of homohysteria, defined as the cultural aversion to being socially perceived as gay, it examines how homohysteria influences men’s gendered behaviors. Central to this process is the “one-time rule of homosexuality, where same-same sexual behavior...

Contrasting those who had their adolescence in the 21st century, this chapter shows that the collective experience of the youngest cohort is substantially more positive than those in the two older cohort groups studied. Many participants still felt that coming out was an important milestone in their social lives, but it was frequently experienced a...

We begin this chapter with a simple fact: bisexuality exists. Whatever the constellation of sexual and emotional desires and behaviors that constitutes it, scientifically and socially speaking, some people are bisexual (Rullo et al. 2014). Long before there was a cultural awareness that bisexuality exists as a non-pathological and stable orientatio...

Highlighting the unique social problems that bisexuals face in a monosexist culture, this chapter contends that homophobia is not sufficient as a term to understand sexual prejudice against bisexuals. It conceptualizes the forms of marginalization unique to bisexuals as bisexual burden, and documents eleven distinct forms. It examines sociological...

This chapter discusses the coming out experiences of participants who had their adolescence in the 20th century. It documents that they experienced significant elements of bisexual burden, often facing rejection from their friends and delaying coming out to their family for many years. It then discusses the problems of coming out in two key social...

This chapter examines the methods by which bisexuality can be studied. It discusses the methods by which sexual attraction can be measured (including physiological, implicit attitude tests, and viewing time), highlighting problems associated with each method. It then examines the history of surveying bisexuality, first analyzing the Kinsey Scale an...

This chapter provides a detailed description of the methods used in the research and the rationale for doing so. It provides a rationale for using interview research, and our hypothesis that decreasing homophobia would influence bisexuals’ lives in diverse ways. The chapter describes the generational cohort design for participant recruitment, and d...

Chapter seven examines the ways in which participants identified as bisexual, and how this changed according to the age of the men interviewed. Primarily, the chapter shows that early recognition of and identification with bisexual desire was harder for the older men (in their early 40s), compared to the younger (in their late teens). As with other...

This chapter examines bisexual men’s romantic relationships, showing increased personal acceptance by partners, compared to what is described in the literature. Most of the 90 men interviewed were open with their partners. However, younger men disclosed their bisexuality earlier in the relationship. There were also remnants of bisexual burden for s...

This important book provides unique new knowledge on the lived experience of openly bisexual men without medicalizing or pathologizing them. Presenting research from sexology, sociology, and psychology, it features extensive findings on the sexual, social, romantic, and emotional behaviors of the 90 men interviewed in the U.S. and U.K. Issues and c...

High levels of cultural homophobia meant that early research on homophobia in sport did not collect data with sexual minority athletes who were public about their sexuality. However, as homophobia has decreased in Western cultures, there has been a proliferation in research on openly gay athletes. Accordingly, this article investigates the experien...

As part of a continued revolution in practices of gender and sexuality in the 21st century, people’s attitudes toward sexual practice are changing rapidly. Whereas the rationale for intercourse has traditionally been connected with reproduction within the context of marriage, there has been a shift toward the pleasurable aspects of sex across the W...

This research examines the construction of masculinity among a group of working-class boys aged sixteen to nineteen in the northeast of England. Drawing on data collected from a six-week ethnography with boys in a religious (Christian) sixth form college, this study documents how only a small minority of these boys embodied the orthodox archetype o...

This article examines the prevalence of homosocial tactility and the contemporary status and meaning of heteromasculinity among British male youth. Drawing on in-depth interviews with forty student-athletes at a British university, we find that thirty-seven participants have cuddled with another male. In addition to this cuddling, participants also...

Technology has revolutionised our lives. From free texts to dating and hook-up apps, technology, and specifically smartphones, are transforming the dynamics of our sexuality in contemporary culture. This research, funded by Durex, examined the impact of technology and smartphones on romance, intimacy and sex for people in long-term relationships. U...

Drawing on 90 interviews with openly bisexual men from three metropolitan cities, this research explores experiences related to relationships. In using a comparative cohort research design, the authors demonstrate the presence of a generational effect, with members of the youngest cohort finding that their partners grant the greatest legitimacy to...

Drawing on 90 interviews with men who identify as bisexual from Los Angeles, London, and New York, this article examines how bisexual men from three different age cohorts remember first experiencing bisexuality, how they identify today, and how this is changing with younger groups of men. Using an innovative recruitment strategy, the majority of pa...

Much of the literature concerning sexual minorities describes various forms of social mistreatment, alongside the psychological ill effects of minority stress. However, bisexual individuals are often described as having additional burdens compared with other sexual minorities. We conceptualise the collective of these social problems as ‘bisexual bu...

This article examines bisexual men’s experiences of coming out across three age cohorts, and documents generational differences in the reception from friends and family regarding this disclosure. Drawing on in-depth interviews with an ethnically diverse sample of 60 openly bisexual men from the United States, we find that the oldest cohort encounte...

This chapter examines two key issues about masculinities in contemporary Britain. First, we examine what the evidence says about the extent to which British masculinities are changing, and how this is manifest in contemporary society. Second, we explore how theoretical understandings of masculinities both shape one's findings, and evolve in relatio...

In this article, we engage with the commentaries of our Feminist Forum article (McCormack and Anderson 2014) by Parent et al. (2014), Plummer (2014), Worthen (2014) and Negy (2014) to enhance understanding of the concept homohysteria and to explore its application to a range of demographic groups. Developing a stage model of homohysteria that accou...

Generations of scholars have examined the variety of correlates of attitudes and behaviors of heterosexual men toward gay men. There has also been substantial exploration of the impact of homophobia on gay men and its gendering of heterosexual men. However, less research exists into the effects of the liberalization of sexual attitudes on these gro...

Drawing on in-depth interviews with 15 openly bisexual male youth from sixth forms across the UK, this article documents positive experiences of bisexual male youth in school: participants had positive coming out experiences and did not encounter significant discrimination or harassment because of their sexual identity. Participants attribute this...

Although making significant contributions to empirical and theoretical understanding of sexuality in society, qualitative research on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals encounters problems in participant recruitment and sampling. Participants for research on LGBT individuals are often recruited through counseling services an...

This chapter examines two key issues about masculinities in contemporary Britain. First, we examine what the evidence says about the extent to which British masculinities are changing, and how this is manifest in contemporary society. Second, we explore how theoretical understandings of masculinities both shape one’s findings, and evolve in relatio...

In this article, we discuss the methodological implications of a qualitative research project that examined the experiences of bisexual men living in three metropolitan cities. A detailed research proposal was approved in advance by both the funder and our university ethics review board. Once in the field however, we found our methods inadequate fo...

Five experts, Niobe Way, C.J. Pascoe, Mark McCormack, Amy Schalet, and Freeden Ouer shed light on the everyday lives of teenage boys and their relationships.

Education currently assumes a central role in the politics and policies of many countries across the world. Indeed, despite the recent global economic crisis, it is significant that the latest Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) annual report indicates that, of 31 industrialised countries with comparable data, only seven r...

In this chapter, I explore how the institutional discourses of sexuality and gender subjectivate students as legitimate or marginalized sexual and gendered beings at a UK secondary school. Employing participant observations, interviews, and auto-ethnographic data from a yearlong PGCE course, I reflexively analyze moments where subjectivation can be...

Previous research has demonstrated that LGBT students tend to have negative experiences of school, suffering social marginalisation and discrimination. One key reason for this has been the homophobia of heterosexual male students. However, my research into sixth forms in the south of England has documented a marked change in the attitudes of straig...

In this longitudinal ethnographic research, we report on 7 years of hazing rituals on two separate men’s sports teams at one university in the United Kingdom. Using 38 in-depth interviews alongside naturalistic observations of the initiation rituals, we demonstrate that hazing activities have changed from being centered around homophobic same-sex a...

This article explores the complex relationship between an openly gay instructor, homophobia, and heteronormativity in a university classroom. The authors first tabulated the frequency with which the instructor used the lives of heterosexuals and homosexuals as examples of content or as content itself, and then they interviewed 32 students about the...

In this article, I present a new model for understanding homosexually-themed language. By detailing how old conceptualizations of homophobic language no longer maintain heuristic utility in explaining the social dynamics of many sport and educational settings, I situate other conceptualizations of homosexually-themed language depending on the cultu...

This article is constructed around a keynote address given at the Bisexual Research Convention, held in London 2010. The keynote was delivered by sociologist Eric Anderson, on behalf of himself and the other authors of this article. The keynote reflected upon a body of ongoing research, funded by the American Institute of Bisexuality and collected...

English schools have traditionally been institutions with high levels of homophobia. This is attributed to the need that heterosexual boys have to maintain a heteromasculine identity. However, by drawing on 44 in‐depth interviews and 12 months of participant observation across three sixth forms, I detail the ways in which homophobia holds little cu...

In this article, the author details how 16–18-year-old boys ascribe to the tenets of inclusive masculinity in a U.K. secondary school that the author calls "Standard High." Drawing on five months of participant observation and twelve in-depth interviews, this article demonstrates that the boys' masculinities are predicated in opposition to the orth...

In this study, we draw on findings from one year of participant observation and 12 in-depth interviews with men in a highly-ranked English university rugby team in order to nuance theoretical understandings concerning the re-production of homosexually-themed discourse in organised sport. We use ethnographic data to theorise the complex relationship...

This ethnographic research interrogates the relationship between sexuality, gender and homophobia and how they impact on 16- to 18-year-old boys in a coeducational sixth form in the south of England. Framing our research with inclusive masculinity theory, we find that, unlike the elevated rates of homophobia typically described in academic literatu...

This article examines the influence of the racial categories of White and Black and the sexual categories of gay and straight on sporting American men. The effect of the intersection of these cultural categories is discussed by investigating the exclusion of athletes who are both Black and gay, as well as highlighting the culturally perceived diffe...

This study examined how coaches and players constructed and regulated masculinity in organized sport. Using participant observation, the authors examined the role of discourses in the construction and regulation of sporting masculinity within a semiprofessional British football (soccer) team. Two predominant discourses were present: (a) masculinity...

In this article, we examine the political stratifications of society by race and sexuality, and the processes by which sport helps subordinate members of each group. In applying social movement theory to gay and black men in sport, we highlight the historically similar patterns of oppression levied upon each group. We develop a four stage social mo...

Over the past 20 years, the English school system has changed substantially and the work of schools is now more complicated and demanding. These changes have important implications for school governing and are likely to further complicate the management of schools in the future. A study of school governing is therefore timely and appropriate.