Gay Skins

"Is the phenomenon of the gay skin a cop-out to oppressive straight patriarchy? Or does it queer this totem of authentic masculinity? Sharing a uniform, a propensity for stripping to the waist, all-male environments and hard lads, straight and gay skins are radically similar - which could spell bovver for both parties. Are the two practically indistinguishable? Were all skinheads always just a touch queer? As many a gay skin will recall of his straight mates, 'You'll be amazed what a skinhead'll get up to after a few pints...'" "Through accounts from straight skinhead subculture, contemporary news coverage, subcultural theorists and memories of gay skins in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Murray Healy puts the boot into those myths of masculinity which constitute and which are seemingly evidenced by the skinhead, and challenges assumptions about class, queerness and real men. Tracing the historical development of the gay skin from 1968, he assesses what gay men have done to the hardest youth cult of them all - and how it has transformed the gay scene."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of LGBTQ+, Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.