Fault Lines: Queer Skinheads and Gay Male Subjectivity in the Film Praxis of Bruce LaBruce

Abstract

Fault Lines positions a theory of gay male subjectivity as it relates to the Queer skinhead and its dissemination in gay male pornography. In narrating the transformation of the original skinhead as a subcultural youth type to its present re-signification as a fetish and sexual identity within gay male subculture, Fault Lines reveals a tripartite problem of fetishism, sadomasochism and fascism. Through an analysis of Bruce LaBruce's film Skin Gang / Skin Flick (1999) these problems are contextualised within a discourse of gay male pornography, broadening the investigation to consider how problems of masculinity, violence and race manifest within a distinctly gay male sexual imaginary. Examining the representational function of the Queer skinhead, Fault Lines seeks to speculate on how notions of a gay male subject and subjectivity can be established at the intersection of an aesthetic, political and social experience.