Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM), But What About MSW…?
Rhodes, S., Hergenrather, K., Vissman, A., Stowers, J., Davis, A., Hannah, A., Alonzo, J., & Marsiglia, F. (2010). Boys Must Be Men, and Men Must Have Sex With Women: A Qualitative CBPR Study to Explore Sexual Risk Among African American, Latino, and White Gay Men and MSM American Journal of Men’s Health DOI: 10.1177/1557988310366298
I heard on breakfast television this morning that Tiger Woods fessed up while in rehab to having had no less than 121 sexual partners, who he can recall. By most people’s standards, that’s an awful lot of $2 champagnes. When we think about sexual behaviours, we so often associate gay men with being the all-time, gung-ho champions. However, this article by Rhodes et al. (2010) questions that pecking order. They argue that men who have sex with men (or MSM for short), represent a really, sexually adventurous group, predominant in African American and Latino cultures (2010, p.1). These men want all the joys of fucking men with all the respectability of being straight (2010, p.1). That is correct: an each way bet in a two horse race.
The authors conclude that some MSM ‘try to overcome external and internal perceptions about their masculinity through risk behavior’ (2010, p.10), which is another way of saying that they fuck unsafe and often, men and women, so as to prove that they are ‘real’ men. At work here, are the disclosure tensions between needing to keep a lid on who they really are while acting out their sexual desires to the fullest extent possible. When the authors urge that we reach out to these men to encourage safe sex practices (et al.) I think ‘fat chance’ (2010, pp.10-11). You are talking about a group of men for whom the honesty of homosexuality or bisexuality is replaced with the lie that they only need to play around with men, occasionally.
I should contemplate why there is no such thing as ‘MSW’, that is, gay men who occasionally have sex with women? Whenever you raise the topic of men who have sex with men on the sly, you need to defer to the literature on masculinity in general and hegemonic masculinity, in particular, to get a rough idea about what the fuck is going on. Those men who organise their lives so carefully, so assiduously given to detail and deception but who claim to be ‘straight’, are basket cases of repression just waiting to blow. My heartfelt thoughts go out to all the wives, girlfriends, male friends and others, who engage in unsafe sex with these men unknowing of the risks that they are creating for themselves. Rather than propagate the idea of ‘MSM’ I say we need to encourage some sexuality ‘honesty’…
Of course, it’s possible that some of these men really do fit 1 or 2 scores on the old Kinsey 7-point scale, and really are mostly into women but get these… urges every once in a while…
can’t rule anything out.
I agree. It is possible that some MSM do fit scores of ’1 or 2′ on Kinsey. However, I would argue that most do not. We need to address the complexities of this problem, for example, the tensions that exist for many of these men between masculine ideals and sexual desire.
In my month of blogging about HIV/AIDS I came across this term frequently. The point is not to legitimize infidelity, but to reach a population that hasn’t been reached by traditional approaches. These men don’t identify themselves as “gay,” so many attempts to reduce unsafe sex practices weren’t reaching them. It’s a tough balance: stigmatize this group, and they’ll resist any interventions. But as you point out, many labeled MSM are engaging in unsafe/unethical behavior. (As are many heterosexuals and gays)
That’s the tough bit: how do you reach out and support a group of men, many of whom are already feeling stigmatised? In that article I referred to by Rhodes et al. (2010), they briefly refer to the possibility of using ‘[f]acilitated small group dialogue for MSM to discuss and reconcile issues of masculinity; family, religious, and societal expectations; and intimacy among men’ (p.10).
Tiger Woods Inks New Mega-Dollar Endorsement Deal – SPN Headlines Exclusive:
http://spnheadlines.blogspot.com/2010/03/tiger-signs-major-endorsement-deal-cola_31.html
Keep smiling!
There’s an old legal principle that goes, ‘he who comes to equity must come with clean hands’. So whenever I hear people blasting Tiger for being a skank, I think ‘who are you?’. Like that el supremo dude from the golfing association of whatever it was, castigating the man called Tiger for bringing the game into disrepute, when up until quite recently, many of the clubs at which that association held its tournaments would not let you through the door unless your skin was whiter than Artic snow (what’s left of it).
There are “MSW” in the HIV sector — but it’s “male sex workers” and not men who have sex with women. MSW are a little studied and even less understood group of people at very high risk to HIV and STI. When lumped in with FSW (female sex workers), their specific issues are often overlooked accidentally or ignored intentionally. When lumped in with MSM (men who have sex with men), they do not “relate” – even those who have mostly male clients! So please leave the MSW acronym where it belongs — to those shut out of most standard, ordinary and easily accessible health and economic services.
I should hope that we never end up with a category, gay men who occasionally have sex with women (MSW). Having counselled quite a few male sex workers, including men who were HIV+, I am aware of the issues faced and yes, the frequent barriers to health and other necessary services.