For example, sexual contact between men is often seen as a kind of heterosexual bonding if the participants loudly declare how disgusting the activity is (think frat boys 'forced' to insert things into each others' assholes-a frequent occurrence in the pages of Not Gay). She neatly breaks down common defenses given to 'explain' such actions. In particular, Ward pays close attention to the ways in which white straight men justify their own sexual behaviors with other men. But straight white men are generally held up as the paragons of our sexually normative culture, oriented in one rigid direction, unwavering and in fact disgusted by any other kind of sexuality. Women, Ward contends, are allowed (or, increasingly, expected) to be more sexually fluid and 'open,' while the concept of the 'down low' has prompted many recent discussions on the supposed sexual fluidity (and duplicity) of men of color. Each chapter in the book explores a different framing device that our culture uses to understand sex between straight white men: frat house or military hazing rituals, boys-will-be-boys summer camp circle jerks, or the 'situational homosexuality' of sailors at sea, for instance.
