Faggot = Loser
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4577580 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ken Corbett (British Psychoanalytical Society, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2001 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 3-28 |
| Publication date | 2001-01-15 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Studies in Gender and Sexuality (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1524-0657 • E-ISSN: 1940-9206 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/15240650209349168 |
| OpenAlex | W4246310968 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 36 |
This essay investigates the projectile force and projective work of the designation faggot by examining a clinical moment during which a child patient called me a “faggot.” Particular attention is paid to the defensive function that “faggot” played in this boy's effort to disavow smallness and losing. I use his specific dilemma to consider the more general boyhood quest to be big and winning. Focusing on the ways in which boys defend against the anxiety generated by the big-small divide, I argue for the clinical engagement of these defenses, including aggressive protest, bravado, and phallic narcissistic preoccupation. I propose engaging boys in the difficult process of thirdness as a psychic venue that offers a context of growth within which to cathect boys' anxiety and aggression. Such cathexis stands in contrast to the manner in which boys' narcissistic preoccupations and aggression are simultaneously prized and neglected through the “boys will be boys” approach to masculinity. Boys' aggression, which so often conceals their anxiety about losing, is neither adequately contained nor engaged. They are left to adopt a brittle bravado and to relate through control and domination. One routine form of bravado and domination is the contemptuous use of the word faggot. I conclude with some speculative thoughts about how the anxiety of loss that is initially managed through the diffuse projection of “faggot” might develop into a more specific form of hatred: homophobia
Aggression · Anxiety · Dilemma · Epistemology · Hatred · Masculinity · Phallic stage · Political science · Politics · Psychic · Psychoanalysis · Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · History · Law · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology
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Après Coup of “You Must Remember This”
I’m Queer but you’re a Fag
The Queering of Relational Psychoanalysis
Google, Tell Me. Is He Gay? Masculinity, Heterosexuality, and Gendered Anxieties in Google Search Queries about Sexuality
The Cultural Set Up of Comedy
Two To Tango
Components of gender-nonconformity prejudice
Heist-ing the Analyst's Penis (at Gunpoint)
Collaborative reading of medical records in psychotherapy
‘Dude, You’re a Fag’
No Homo
Notes on a Sociology of Bullying
Hybrid Masculinities
Yes-Saying, No-Saying, and the Places In-Between
Permeable Masculinities
Humanizing Different Archetypal Expressions of Gender Expansiveness 1
Exploring a patient’s shift from relative silence to, verbal expressiveness
Rethinking Homosexuality
Gender in Linear and Nonlinear History
The Riddle of Masculinity
Observations on Use of the N-Word in Psychoanalytic Conferences
Sex and Shame
Clinical Implications of Contemporary Gender Theory
This Strange Disease”
Homophobia, heteronormativity and melancholia
Gay men’s experiences of holding hands in public
The faggot clause
I've Always Wanted a Gay Family Member
From the Glory of Hera to the Wrath of Achilles
Masculinity as a Center, Centered Masculinity
On the enduring relationship between masculinity and homophobia
Effeminophobia, Misogyny and Queer Friendship
Constructing Masculinity through Penetration Discourse
Trading On Heterosexuality
Dude, you're a Bitch!' Gang Members' Internet Banging Masculinity via Bitch Discourse
| Unique citing works | 36 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,5 |
| Citation span | 2002 - 2025 (24) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 36 |