Teenage Kicks: QRG At The Good Men Project

I was delighted to get the chance recently to edit a theme at the Good Men Project website. I chose teenage kicks  and sought out articles by and about young men and teenagers.  These are the ones which have been published: Bully : Surviving School by Mic Wright (@brokenbottleboy): http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/bully-surviving-school/comment-page-1/#comment-163054 Advice for parents of teens by [...]

Teenage Kicks – Good Men Project Call For Submissions

What is life like for 21st century teenage boys and young men? If gender roles are changing, is the change being led by young people? Are we seeing glimpses of the men (and women) of the future, via the teenagers of today? Are you a teenage boy or a young man? What issues are most [...]

I Don’t Think Your Dad’s Ready (for the homoerotics of Arnie)

Someone on twitter this week was talking about how she tried to explain to her Dad the ‘homoerotic subtexts’ in the 1980s Hollywood film, The Lost Boys. But he couldn’t (or wouldn’t) see it, and thought it was just a movie about vampires. This led me to introduce her to the work of Mark MetroDad Simpson. [...]

Feminism Is Creepy (and full of contradictions)

‘I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo, what the hell am I doing here? I don’t belong here.’ What is the worst thing you can call a man? According to feminism, it seems the worst thing you can call a man is a ‘woman’ or a ‘girl’. Most feminist writing on masculinity focuses on ‘misogyny’. If [...]

We’re All Queer In The End: Review of The Declining Significance Of Homophobia

This is another version of my review of  Mark McCormack s new book on Declining Homophobia. ——————————————– The Declining Significance of Homophobia, by Mark McCormack, is, according to its author, a ‘good news story’. The good news being that homophobia amongst young people is on the wane. His research with mainly young men students in three English [...]

Why Feminism Is Wrong About Patriarchy by Typhon Blue

Typhon blue, who sometimes comments here at QRGHQ, is, according to her profile on her own blog: ‘a Canadian in her thirties. She writes about the state of decay in the relationship between the genders in our culture with a focus on men’s vulnerability and women’s agency. She is also currently working on a sci-fi [...]

Attitude Jumps The Shark

Attitude, the UK magazine by, for and about gay men, seems to have jumped the shark. Once this magazine had some good points, not least the brilliant columns by Mark Simpson in the 90s, which later featured in his books It’s A Queer World and Sex Terror. But now it is a glossy gay ‘lifestyle’ magazine from hell, [...]

The Possibility Of Independent Thinking

‘The entire gay male community seems at times to be colluding against the possibility of independent thinking. The gay rights movement, too often, is focused on theatrics rather than on discourse; we want to be entertained and flattered, not criticised’. – John Weir in Anti Gay (1996 ed. Mark Simpson). I was delighted to have [...]

Metrosexy Hegemony

I have critiqued the feminist concept of hegemonic masculinity before. The idea that there is a ‘masculine ideal’ that some men achieve and exploit, and others are oppressed by does not work for me. Also if there is a ‘hegemonic masculinity’ why is there not a ‘hegemonic femininity’. The concept relies on the idea that patriarchy exists, [...]

MMA: Gay For Pay

Back in 2008 Mark Simpson asked a simple question: how gay is MMA? And the simple answer was: VERY! His steamy description of a live fight he attended sounded (deliberately of course) like a review of the latest homo porno: ‘Mac Danzig is still on his back; his sweaty, pumped, almost translu­cently white torso is flushed with [...]