Item Detail
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18769
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0
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0
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English
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Reckoning with Sodom : An Idaho Memoir
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Logan, UT
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Utah State University
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Master's thesis
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Being gay is often looked at through the lens of American culture as an urban, almost big city phenomenon. In that regard many rural, Western gay men attempt to place their experiences within a paradigm that understates their lives. This thesis is an attempt to both ground the experiences of Western, gay men who vie for a piece of a prototypical Western identity, and also to see how the Mormon religion, with its codified gender demarcations allows the Western myth of masculinity to continue and, in a sense flourish. In the end, the memoir expresses what may be possibly felt in many rural communities by gay men that feel underrepresented and their stories marginalized because of location and also because of the inability to align with current stereotypes. It is my hope that the piece offers a look into a life that many Western myths deny and that many rural communities choose to wish away. [Author's abstract]