Queer men, affect, and physical education

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this paper was to explore the role of queer men’s desire in physical education. The author used interview data from an ethnography with queer youth to explore the relationship between desire, affect, and physical education. Drawing on new materialist theory, the author asserts that queer desire is not ‘pre-existing’ and therefore outside of physical education, but rather the field plays an active role in the production and shaping of homoerotic desire. By contending that physical education plays an active role in producing desire, the author asserts that the field of physical education affects queer men’s potential. Alternatively, the author also claims that since queer desire is produced within physical education, the productive potential of queer desire can reciprocally affect the field and its practices.