Straight-acting is a term used to describe an LGBT

LGBT

LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...

 person who does not exhibit the appearance or mannerisms of the gay stereotype

LGBT stereotypes

Stereotypes about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are conventional, formulaic generalizations, opinions, or images about persons based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Stereotypes and homophobia are a learned outlook, i.e...

. Although the label is used by and reserved almost exclusively for gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

 and bisexual

Bisexuality

Bisexuality is sexual behavior or an orientation involving physical or romantic attraction to both males and females, especially with regard to men and women. It is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation, along with a heterosexual and a homosexual orientation, all a part of the...

 men, it may also be used to describe a lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

 or bisexual woman with stereotypical feminine

Femininity

Femininity is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with girls and women. Though socially constructed, femininity is made up of both socially defined and biologically created factors...

 appearance and mannerisms. Because the term invokes negative stereotypes of gay people, its application is often controversial and may cause offense.

Proposed explanations and criticisms

Shinsuke Eguchi proposes to explain the emergence of the straight acting phenomenon "because some gay men want to achieve hegemonic masculinity to overcome gay effeminate images". Both Eguchi and Tim Berling relate it to the general context of sissyphobia

Sissyphobia

Sissyphobia: Gay Men and Effeminate Behavior is a book by gay author Tim Bergling,Dylan Vox, , Gaywired.com, Dec 20, 2007, also appeared in Edge, Boston investigating why some gay men are more masculine than others and why society finds effeminate men objectionable...

—the dominant cultural norm

Norm (sociology)

Social norms are the accepted behaviors within a society or group. This sociological and social psychological term has been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. These rules may be explicit or implicit...

 that disparages effeminate men, which is not restricted to the gay culture.

Sex advice columnist Dan Savage

Dan Savage

Daniel Keenan "Dan" Savage is an American author, media pundit, journalist and newspaper editor. Savage writes the internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column Savage Love. Its tone is frank in its discussion of sexuality, often humorous, and hostile to social conservatives, as in...

 commented on the popularity of the term "straight-acting" in gay personal ads

Personal advertisement

A personal or personal ad is an item or notice traditionally in the newspaper, similar to a classified ad but in nature. In British English it is also commonly known as an advert in a lonely hearts column. With its rise in popularity, the World Wide Web has also become a common medium for...

, criticizing both the practice and the idea that a man seeking a gay relationship

Intimate relationship

An intimate relationship is a particularly close interpersonal relationship that involves physical or emotional intimacy. Physical intimacy is characterized by romantic or passionate love and attachment, or sexual activity. The term is also sometimes used euphemistically for a sexual...

 through a gay personal ad is acting straight. Defenders of the term maintain it refers merely to one's mannerisms and that critics' isolation of the word "acting" in the phrase distorts the intended meaning of the phrase. Use of the term itself has been labeled as damaging to the LGBT community, as it associates certain attributes with homosexuality

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

.

Men who use the expression "straight-acting" may express resentment that critics claim the term implies they are acting and not being their true selves.

In popular culture

Filmmaker Spencer Windes explored the term and the definition of masculinity in his film Straight Acting

Straight Acting (film)

Straight Acting is a 2005 documentary by filmmaker Spencer Windes about his journey from closeted Mormon missionary into an openly gay man, through involvement in the subculture of gays who play contact sports....

. The film is a documentary about Windes' transformation from a closeted Mormon

Mormon

The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...

 missionary

Missionary

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

 into an openly gay man, through his involvement in the subculture of gays who play contact sport

Contact sport

Many sports involve a degree of player-to-player or player-to-object contact. The term "contact sport" is used in both team sports and combat sports, medical terminology and television game shows, such as the Gladiators and Wipeout, to certain degrees...

s.

In a 2006 interview with People

People (magazine)

In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...

magazine, former 'N Sync

'N Sync

N Sync was an American boy band formed in Orlando, Florida, in 1995 and launched in Germany by BMG Ariola Munich, *NSYNC consisted of JC Chasez, Justin Timberlake, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick...

 member Lance Bass

Lance Bass

James Lance Bass , best known as Lance Bass, is an American pop singer, dancer, actor, film and television producer, and author. He grew up in Mississippi and rose to fame as the bass singer for the American pop boy band 'N Sync. 'N Sync's success led Bass to work in film and television...

 referred to himself and his friends as "straight-acting," stating, "I call them the SAGs the straight-acting gays. We're just normal, typical guys. I love to watch football and drink beer." After receiving heavy criticism from some in the LGBT community, Bass later stated that he was unaware of the negative implications surrounding the term.

See also

• Acting white
  Acting white
  In the United States, acting white is a pejorative term usually applied to African-Americans, which refers to a person's perceived betrayal of their culture by assuming the social expectations of white society. Success in education in particular can be seen as a form of selling out by being...
  
  
• Butch and femme
  Butch and femme
  Butch and femme are LGBT terms describing respectively, masculine and feminine traits, behavior, style, expression, self-perception and so on. They are often used in the lesbian, bisexual and gay subcultures...
  
  
• Classical definition of effeminacy
  Classical definition of effeminacy
  Malakia was a particular type of cowardice, associated with effeminacy in men, that was widely condemned in ancient Greek society. To the ancient Greek, bravery was such an essential character trait of manliness that its absence was associated with femininity...
  
  
• Down-low
• Frot
  Frot
  Frot is a slang term derived from frottage describing a form of non-penetrative male/male sex that usually but not always involves direct penis-to-penis contact....
  
  
• Gaydar
  Gaydar
  Gaydar is a colloquialism referring to the intuitive ability of a person to assess others' sexual orientations as homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual. Gaydar relies almost exclusively on non-verbal clues and LGBT stereotypes...
  
  

• Gender role
  Gender role
  Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, which differ widely between cultures and over time...
  
  
• Masculinity
  Masculinity
  Masculinity is possessing qualities or characteristics considered typical of or appropriate to a man. The term can be used to describe any human, animal or object that has the quality of being masculine...
  
  
• Men who have sex with men
  Men who have sex with men
  Men who have sex with men are male persons who engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex, regardless of how they identify themselves; many men choose not to accept sexual identities of homosexual or bisexual...
  
  
• Metrosexual
  Metrosexual
  Metrosexual is a neologism derived from metropolitan and heterosexual coined in 1994 describing a man who spends a lot of time and money on shopping for his appearance...
  
  
• Same-sex attraction
  Same-sex attraction
  Same-sex attraction is a term occasionally used instead of the more common term homosexuality to refer to a person's feelings of sexual attraction toward members of the same gender identity....