This article examines gay men’s efforts to break into the exclusive traditional fraternity institution by adopting the hegemonic model on their own terms. The authors examined to what extent members of a national gay fraternity, Delta Lambda Phi challenged or modified the entrenched fraternity culture that was hostile to homosexuals and whether they resisted or reproduced hegemonic masculinity in their efforts to redefine the meaning of college fraternities. This research examines gay fraternities in relation to two dimensions of hegemonic masculinity. (...) The authors explore how members of gay fraternities negotiated their stigmatized status among other men—that is, within the internal dimension of hegemonic masculinity. They explore the external dimension of hegemonic masculinity by analyzing how gay brothers, as men, related to all women. The authors further examine the connection between these two hegemonic dimensions and provide evidence showing how these two dimensions are coupled or disjointed. (shrink)

Fraternity little sister organizations are a relatively unexplored aspect of the contemporary college campus culture. This article examines the construction of the collective sexual reputation of fraternity little sisters and how fraternity little sisters interpret and resist it in an effort to maintain their individual sexual reputations. Further analysis shows how fraternity men contribute to the collective sexual reputation and control women in little sister organizations by sexually objectifying and commodifying them, by sending them purposefully vague and conflicting messages about (...) sexual expectations, and by sexually abusing them. (shrink)