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down low

Down-low or on the down low is a slang phrase. It is often used to refer to something that is secret or hidden. This may originate from the combined effect of the two words "down" and "low".

One popular usage is to describe men who have sex with men secretly, but who identify themselves as neither homosexual nor bisexual due to being in the closet. This use of the term is often associated with African American men, but this type of sexual behavior exists in all cultures.

Contents

  • 1 Origin
    • 1.1 Similar uses
  • 2 Sexual behavior
  • 3 Media interest
  • 4 Perceived connection to HIV/AIDS
  • 5 Existence in various cultures
  • 6 Fictional and popular media references
  • 7 References
  • 8 See also
  • 9 External links

Origin

"Down-low" or "DL" is an African American slang phrase used in the United States for "secret information," as in "Keep it on the down-low" (meaning "Do not make it known"). It can now be used to refer to secret sexual activity, particularly homosexuality by men, but most usages of the term refer to the original meaning of "secret information".

Focus on possible origins for the term may distract from the most common usage of the term -- "do not make it known". Interpreting the phrase to have completely homosexual connotations may be misleading.

Similar uses

"Downe" is a term similar to Down-low. Derived from the definition of "down-low", and "Are you downe?," this term was brought in by the Filipino American and Asian American male & female LGBT community. Its origin may be from California or Hawaii. Downe eventually became an all encompassing term for those who identify as gay.

Sexual behavior

Among some sectors of African American male sub-culture (called "men on the DL" or "down-low"), same-sex sexual behavior is sometimes viewed as solely for physical pleasure. Men on the "down-low" may engage in regular, secret sex acts with other men while continuing sexual and romantic relationships with women. Some have argued that being openly gay may lead to considerable stigma in the African American community, thus leading men to engage in male-to-male sex in secret while publicly maintaining heterosexual relationships.

Another possible explanation for "being on the down-low" concerns lost social status in traditionally masculine-oriented or patriarchal cultures. Homosexual men may not necessarily have a moral problem in such a culture, but often lose social rank if they accept a "passive" sexual role. They are viewed as being "less than a man". Further, men in such cultures who take an "active" sexual role with other men (sometimes openly) often believe that their actions are not homosexual. Finally, a childless man can lose status in any culture that places high value on children, especially if reasonable people consider the man likely to remain childless.

Media interest

The earliest person to use "down-low" in a homosexual context was George Hanna, who used the words "down-low" in the 1930 song Boy in the Boat about lesbian women.

The first mainstream media account of the down-low as a homosexual or bisexual issue was reported in the Los Angeles Times on February 7, 2001. By the end of the year, numerous major media outlets had reported on the down-low. They included The New York Times (Feb. 11), USA Today (Mar. 15), Columbus Dispatch (Mar. 19), St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Apr. 1), New York Times (Apr. 3), Chicago Sun-Times (Apr. 22), Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Jun. 3), San Francisco Chronicle (Jun. 4), Village Voice (Jun. 6), VIBE magazine (July), Jet magazine (Sep. 8), Essence magazine (October), San Diego Union-Tribune (Dec. 2), and Los Angeles Times (December 7). Nearly all these stories connected the down-low to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the African-American community.

In the summer of 2003, two black gay cultural critics published controversial op-eds that questioned the relationship between HIV/AIDS and men "on the down low". Village Voice contributing writer Jason King published "Remixing the Closet: The Down Low Way of Knowledge" in the newspaper's summer 2003 (June 2003) "Queer Issue" and San Francisco Chronicle contributing writer Frank Leon Roberts published "Stereotypes and Sexual Orientation: The 'down-low' -- Coming out your own way in black clubs"in the newspapers' July 23, 2003 issue. Both writers critized negative mainstream media depictions of down low men and argued that the use of the term "down low" was a way for many African American men to admit to having sex with other men without necessarily identifying as "gay" in the traditional sense.

In August 2003, the New York Times Magazine ran a cover story called "Double Lives on the Down Low", written by Benoit Denizet-Lewis. On April 16, 2004 J.L. King, author of On the Down Low appeared on Oprah to discuss his life on the down-low, a month before the release of his tell-all book about the subject. The down-low was also part of story lines on episodes of the television shows Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and ER. Several episodes of The Oprah Winfrey Show were also dedicated to the subject.

In 2003, Jeffrey Q. McCune, Jr. wrote a full-length play entitled, "Dancin the Down Low," He directed and produced this play at Northwestern Univesrity in April 2004. In addition, McCune has dedicated a whole dissertation on this topic. His study examines DL discourses closely, while also exploring how DL men "do" masculinity and sexuality.

Perceived connection to HIV/AIDS

The theory behind many of the media reports on the down-low was that men who were unable to confront their sexual identity were not responding to messages promoting safe sex. Because of the secretive nature of being on the down-low, it was thought that they didn't generally use condoms with their male partners.

Despite the numerous media accounts attempting to link the down-low to the occurrence of AIDS in the African-American community, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has never cited men on the down-low as the cause. No extensive research has ever been published about men on the down-low, in part because of the difficulty of identifying the targeted population. A 2003 CDC study of 5,589 men who have sex with men found that black men who have sex with men who do disclose their sexual orientation were more likely to be safe in some of their sexual practices and more likely to be HIV negative than other black men who have sex with men who do not disclose their sexual orientation.

The hype over the down-low has created an additional problem in HIV prevention efforts because many women have focused on determining whether male suitors are bisexual or gay instead of using protection in every single sexual encounter. The result is that men who may be infected by any means often have unprotected sex with these women who are solely concerned with whether or not the man is on the DL.

Existence in various cultures

Some journalists and commentators have speculated that the down-low is a mostly African American subculture that may have come about because of stronger stigmas against same-sex behavior in African American communities, and, due to more widespread poverty, a possible greater dependence on traditional family networks for support.

Other researchers believe that this covert bisexuality occurs in all races, especially in the area of gays cruising for sex, which is thought to be practiced by covert homosexuals or bisexuals.

Although the term has been widely used to apply to blacks, some have challenged the notion that the down-low applies only or primarily to African Americans. In his book, Beyond The Down Low: Sex, Lies and Denial in Black America, author Keith Boykin argues that the down-low has numerous meanings, is not specific to African Americans, is not specific to bisexual or homosexual behavior, and is not the cause of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in black America. Boykin argues that the down-low debate demonizes black men, stigmatizes black women and encourages an unhealthy "battle of the sexes" between black men and black women that distracts the community's attention from the issue of HIV prevention, personal responsibility and condom use.

Many high profile incidents involving white men demonstrate that the behaviour crosses all cultures. Former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey (previously married twice), N'Sync member Lance Bass (previously with girlfriends), pop singer George Michael (previously dated supermodels), Elton John (previously married), and Rock Hudson (previously married) all show the same "down low" behaviour in white men over the last several decades.

Fictional and popular media references

  • Several novels by black gay writer E. Lynn Harris, among them Invisible Life (1991), Just As I Am (1995), and And This Too Shall Pass (1997)
  • Invisible, 2006 independent film directed by Bill Duke, director of Sister Act 2
  • Kimberly Elise made a guest appearance on the UPN sitcom Girlfriends, in which she portrayed a woman infected with HIV by a boyfriend who was on the down low.
  • Law and Order: Special Victims Unit featured the phenomenon on the episode "Lowdown", episode 111 airing April 6, 2004.
  • in The Rundown, The Rock tells a character that he will "..keep it on the low-low...", an often misquoted way of saying "on the down low".
  • In the movie Philadelphia, Denzel Washington's character is hit on by another man in a drug store.

References

  • Boykin, Keith (2005). Beyond The Down Low. Avalon. ISBN 0-7867-1434-4.
  • King, J.L. (2004). On the Down Low. Broadway. ISBN 0-7679-1398-1.
  • Jones, Jonathan W. (2005). Get By: A Survival Guide for Black Gay Youth. Booksurge. ISBN 1-4196-2333-8.
  • Williams, Jeffrey Lee Jr. (2004). The Low-down on the Down Low.. The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide., 11(6), 6.
  • Hubbard, Thomas K. (2003). Homosexuality in Greece and Rome. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23430-8.
  • Roberts, Frank Leon (2003). The 'down-low' -- Coming out your own way in black clubs.. San Francisco Chronicle., July 24, 2003.
  • Williams, Craig A. (1999). Roman Homosexuality : Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-512505-3.

See also

  • The closet
  • African American transsexuality

External links

  • New York Times article abstract (Backup copy)
  • San Francisco Chronicle article
  • 10 Things You Should Know About the Down Low
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