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Straights underscores the shifting terrain of gender and sexuality in contemporary America. Through detailed, compelling analyses, Dean shows that being straight is a contested and increasingly fluid sexual and social status. This is an indispensable text for a gender and queer studies that aims to pivot beyond a minoritizing identity politics. -Steven Seidman, author of Beyond the Closet: The Transformation of Gay and Lesbian Life

It also provides a much needed critical lens for examining the identity at work involved in practicing heterosexual identities. -Sociological Inquiry [...] James Joseph Dean has written a valuable research work about true America between metropolises and hillbilly country. -Sexuality and Culture [A] contemporary classic that will long serve as the key introductory text on heterosexuality. -Teaching Sociology,Greggor Mattson The author has produced an innovative account of how the unprecedented cultural visibility of gays and lesbians compels black and white straight men and women to refashion their heterosexuality. -American Journal of Sociology Dean's timely research contributes to the field of critical heterosexuality studies. -Men and Masculinities One of the strengths of Dean's approach is his attention to the heterosexual identity management strategies of both men and women. This enables him to draw out gendered differences in the presentation of heterosexuality that enhances understanding of both sexes. -Sociology James Dean's book illuminates the cusp of lived social change in gender and sexual relations, with homophobic attitudes on the decline and public support for gay rights and families on the rise. Straights shows how, during this 'post-closet' historical moment, people of various racial-ethnic groups define, mark, and sometimes contest heterosexual identities, privilege, and heteronormative social relations. -Michael Messner,author of Power at Play: Sports and the Problem of Masculinity Straights underscores the shifting terrain of gender and sexuality in contemporary America. Through detailed, compelling analyses, Dean shows that being straight is a contested and increasingly fluid sexual and social status. This is an indispensable text for a gender and queer studies that aims to pivot beyond a minoritizing identity politics. -Steven Seidman,author of Beyond the Closet: The Transformation of Gay and Lesbian Life Dean has masterfully created a unique view of GLBTQ identity and its effect in heterosexuality, something heretofore seriously lacking in GBLTQ studies and highlighted with this book. -Choice This is a detailed account of an interesting empirical study. -Journal of Gender Studies We can get terribly caught up in trying to pin down and label human behaviors, as though we were consistent and immutable creatures rather than the messy bundles of complex contradictions that most of us actually are. What James Joseph Dean does so well in Straights: Heterosexuality in Post-Closeted Culture is provide a conceptual framework for thinking about this 'messiness' of human sexuality and identity ... Straights is timely and powerfully intersectional, with gender, sexuality and race established as robustly formative constellations of identity. Dean is the first commentator to articulate quite so clearly and thoughtfully how being 'straight' is no longer a social given, but a political position. -Times Higher Education Straights is a valuable contribution not only to the sociology of sexualities but also to the sociology of gender...a deeply thoughtful analysis. -Gender & Society

Author Information

James Joseph Dean is Associate Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University. His research focuses on the sociology of sexualities, particularly the sociology of heterosexualities. Dean's work has appeared in Sexualities, The Sociological Quarterly, and Sociology Compass, among others.

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