Johnson, C: Honky Tonk Angels

Informed by feminist theory and critiques of
masculinity, this narrative ethnography
focuses on how gay men come to understand and
negotiate the meaning of masculinity in a country-
western gay bar. Gay bars, specifically designed to
wall out straights, remain a
central social institution and leisure context for a
number of gay men. To understand the space as a
leisure context, this project thoroughly documents
the bar s relationship to the community, its physical
location, design, décor and ambiance, its
inhabitants, its historical existence, and how it
varies according to different nights of the week.
Moving beyond this description I also focus on the
social practices of dance, dress, patterns of
migration, and competing discourses about Lesbian
Night. These factors elucidate how organized social
space can allow non-heterosexuals to both resist and
reinforce compulsory heterosexuality and hegemonic
gender ideologies in and through leisure.