Men Like That: A Southern Queer History

by John Howard

We don't usually associate thriving queer culture with rural America, but John Howard's unparalleled history of queer life in the South persuasively debunks the myth that same-sex desires can't find expression outside the big city. In fact, this book shows that the nominally conservative institutions of small-town life—home, church, school, and workplace—were the very sites where queer sexuality flourished. As Howard recounts the life stories of the ordinary and the famous, often in their own words, he also locates the material traces of queer sexuality in the from the farmhouse to the church social, from sports facilities to roadside rest areas.

Spanning four decades, Men Like That complicates traditional notions of a post-WWII conformist wave in America. Howard argues that the 1950s, for example, were a period of vibrant queer networking in Mississippi, while during the so-called "free love" 1960s homosexuals faced aggressive oppression. When queer sex was linked to racial agitation and when key civil rights leaders were implicated in homosexual acts, authorities cracked down and literally ran the accused out of town.

In addition to firsthand accounts, Men Like That finds representations of homosexuality in regional pulp fiction and artwork, as well as in the number one pop song about a suicidal youth who jumps off the Tallahatchie Bridge. And Howard offers frank, unprecedented assessments of outrageous public a conservative U.S. congressman caught in the act in Washington, and a white candidate for governor accused of patronizing black transgender sex workers.

The first book-length history of the queer South, Men Like That completely reorients our presuppositions about gay identity and about the dynamics of country life.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Queer, LGBT, Gay, Historical, Gender and Sexuality

395 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

About the author

Dr. John Howard is professor in and head of the Department of American Studies at King’s College London and the author of Men Like That: A Southern Queer History.

Dr Howard is interested in the historical production of human differences and their attendant inequalities. His work also assesses differences as productive mechanisms of affiliation, identity, coalition, and struggle. Informed by queer, feminist, materialist, critical race, and spatial theory, and his research and teaching engages primarily with the categories now known as sexuality, gender, class, race, and region.

His work has received awards and commendations from the American Sociological Association, American Studies Association, Arts and Humanities Research Council, British Academy, Delfina Studio Trust, Fulbright Commission, Rockefeller Foundation, and King’s College London Students’ Union, among others.

Reviews

[Dasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mississippi has largely been left out of the literature on queer history, viewed as a monolith of repression which anyone with queer tendencies escaped from to move to urban centres. Indeed, Howard argues that identity-based networks existed outside of urban centres and demonstrates how class and race influenced the everyday experiences of same-sex desiring men in Mississippi and how their patterns were a part of, not away from, everyday spaces of community (p. 77). Howard aptly demonstrates how these men shaped and were shaped by their environment and were entrenched into the patterns of daily life. For example, men utilized the many desolate dirt paths as queer spaces that afforded them privacy (p. 81). To varying degrees, these men subverted religious and culturally-reinforced ideas about gender and sexuality. Finally, Howard demonstrates that progress does not move along in a linear fashion. Certainly, the Civil Rights Movement’s association with Queer Civil Rights activists brought repression down for both groups in the mid to late 1960s in contrast to the years previous.

[Meow · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A very interesting perspective of mid-20th century homosexuality in Mississippi that mixes academic history with oral history/interviews. Sometimes on the subjective side and focuses almost solely on homosexual males (or at least males who engage in "homosex" but do not identify as homosexual). Well-arranged (if you read the intro, he explains how the book is laid out), mostly easy to read, but can be repetitive.

[Jerra Runnels · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone interested in the history of gay men in small and/or Southern towns in the 1940s through the 1980s. As a native Mississippian, I was quite surprised to learn of the vast queer presence in Mississippi, and how public perceptions and tolerance towards homosexuality changed. Having the oral histories as part of the text was informative and made for interesting reading to hear in their own words their experiences of lust, sex, and sometimes violence. Once again the complexity of Mississippi is shown in Howard’s work on the history of male homosexuality, especially with the intersection of white resistance and the fight for racial equality.

[rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, oddly leans a bit too hard on postmodernist thinkers for a book mostly composed of meticulous research and oral histories for my taste - I felt the Bourdieu mentions were unneeded!

This being said, this book contains some of the most amazing research I have ever seen! Chapter 5 was otherworldly in that regard.

Loved it, less books about Provincetown and more books like this please!

[Sarah Shepherd · Rating 5 out of 5]

A highly enjoyable read! Howard’s book is extremely readable and he focuses on letting his oral histories speak for themselves. It’s a pioneering work on queer communities in rural areas especially in the South which historically is seen as very hostile. An amazing book!

[H. Givens · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is separated into two parts. The first uses oral histories to narrate a loose history, an impression of the time period as a whole for queer men. He frankly discusses the limits of this type of history, the types of narratives received when a historian asks for queer interviewees — you miss out on the huge pool of men who “liked that,” but weren’t “like that.” Still, even though it’s limited, it’s useful. The second part of the book, larger in size, deals with more traditional historical methods. It’s more chronological, and covers such history-ish things as laws, activist organizing, public backlash, the civil rights movement, and fictional representations (not in that order).

I was pleased by Howard’s treatment of race and religion throughout the book. He rightly notes that the book would be devastatingly incomplete without discussing race and the intersection of race with sexuality, and he follows through on discussing that in pretty much every section, although he was limited in some areas by lack of available sources. Fun and significant fact — according to Howard (although not in his words), things were relatively chill for queer men in Mississippi in the 50s, but racism was huge. After the civil rights movement got started there was backlash, and queer folks got caught up in it, in large part because the anti-civil rights people tried to accuse civil rights leaders of crazy pervy stuff in general to discredit them. Also just because the dominant classes were doubling down on their definitions of propriety in general, but ALSO because queers and queer activism were legitimately linked to the Civil Rights Movement proper. The 60s and 70s were the hardest time for queer folks, not the 50s.

Men Like That isn’t a perfect book. The main issue is too much editorializing, without clearly linking his interpretation to his evidence. Interpretation, in a historian’s parlance simply meaning “chitchat and conclusions based on evidence,” is the whole point of history writing. I just prefer to have very explicit linkages between the discussion and the evidence being discussed, because it minimizes confusion. However, this is a very common thing in history books, and it didn’t hamper my enjoyment. The work is copiously endnoted, and being a nerd working on a project, I spent a lot of quality time with those endnotes. So, I can confidently say if you want more information about any of his topics, you can easily figure out his sources and continue on your own. Another minor criticism is that he quotes Novid Parsi in glowing terms on several occasions, without mentioning that they were partners at the time. He mentions it in the acknowledgements, but not when actually using Parsi’s work.

Full review: https://hannahgivens.wordpress.com/20...

[Michael Padden · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book. Howard's structure changes throughout which takes a little getting used to. It can be dry in places, but I found it an interesting depiction of gay live in southern rural cities. I think the most interesting take away was his discussion of how gay men and women weren't persecuted harshly in these communities until the started to align themselves with the civil rights movement. This book looks at Mississippi from 1945-1985. It ends right when HIV/AIDS enters the picture.