CULTIVATING COMMUNITY: CONTENT ANALYSIS OF FRANK OCEAN’S COMING OUT AND ENSUING COMMENTARY A thesis submitted to the faculty of A s San Francisco State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for Xq($ the Degree HMSX Master of Arts In Sexuality Studies by Anthony Freeman San Francisco, California August 2015 Copyright by Anthony Freeman 2015 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL I certify that I have read Cultivating Community: Content Analysis of Frank Ocean’s Coming Out and Ensuing Commentary by Anthony Freeman, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Master of Arts in Sexuality Studies at San Francisco State University. Rita Melendez, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Sexuality Studies Dawn-Elissa Fischer, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Afiicana Studies CULTIVATING COMMUNITY: CONTENT ANALYSIS OF FRANK OCEAN’S COMING OUT AND ENSUING COMMENTARY Anthony Freeman San Francisco, California 2015 On July 4th, 2012 musician Frank Ocean posted an open letter on his tumblr explaining he once fell in love with another man. The announcement was notable for several reasons. Ocean an up and coming artist, known for his work with the LA-based hip hop collective, Odd Future, acknowledged his same sex attraction in an industry/genre popularly regarded as homophobic and misogynist. Moreover, Ocean made this announcement one week before the debut of his studio album, Channel Orange.. The impact of Ocean’s announcement on album sales in addition the artist’s overall popularity was proposed to be a litmus test of the current state of homophobia in hip hop as well as larger society. Therefore, the ensuing commentary on his identity and its symbolic meaning is the focus of this thesis. As such, I examine how Black gay, bisexual and “same sex attracted” men construct their identity and how Ocean’s announcement was interwoven in this discursive practice online. At the intersection of race, sexuality and gender performance in online speech communities, lays a complicated conversation that has contributed to the how Black gay/bisexual men navigate the politics of masculinity in Black and in gay cultures. In this work, I analyze online discussion concerning Ocean as it relates to Black male queer identities to further explore representations of selves, prevalent stereotypes and implications for social advocacy, self efficacy and health outcomes. Finally this project interrogates whether Ocean’s eschewing the label of “gay” and donning others, such as “same sex” love, in his announcement elucidates progress in larger society by recognizing Black gay/bisexual males, especially in hip hop? I certifyjhat the abstract is ac^-mw rqjresentation of the content of this thesis. ()h M I 'V U f August 12,2015 Chair. Thesis Committee Date ACKNOWLEGEMENTS Thank you to Rita and Dawn. I wouldn’t have finished without you. v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures...................................................................................................................vii List of Appendices..........................................................................................................viii Chapter One: “Rap” and “Black” are “So Masculine”........................................................1 Chapter Two: Is Ocean Out?...............................................................................................8 Chapter Three: Concluding Remarks.................................................................................15 Works Cited.......................................................................................................................16 Appendix............................................................................................................................19 LIST OF FIGURES Figures Page 1. Frank Ocean’s Letter........................................................................................8 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix Page 1. Table of Discussion Threads.............................................................................19 1 CHAPTER ONE: “RAP” AND BLACK ARE “SO MASCULINE” “He's a singer. It's acceptable in the singing world, but in the rap world I don't know if it will ever be acceptable because rap is so masculine.” - Snoop Lion Snoop Lion, also known as Snoop Dogg, is a hip hop artist who ushered in the transformation of record labeling from “Black Singles” to Hip Hop/ R&B and eventually the purposefully ambiguous “Urban Contemporary” Billboard musical categories to track sales and assume popularity. Along with Dr. Dre, industry executives utilized artists like Snoop to cross-market hip hop to mass audiences, particularly those beyond the borders of Black communities. Videos like “Nothin’ but a G Thang” streamed meticulously edited clips performing presumed ethnographic experiences to nonBlack audiences via cable television such as MTV and BET (cf., Chamas, 2011). Images in these videos by these artists purported “authentic” clips of Black life. These clips’ autheticity continue to be contested as they are edited and audited via an encoding, decoding loop that Stuart Hall identified as reifying identity stereotypes taken to be “naturally given” (Hall, 1993, p. 95). Nonetheless, hip hop remains a trope for Blackness and Black masculinities, in particular. While the culture of hip hop has long included diverse musicians, such as singers and more, those dubbed as hip hop were expected continue “normative” Black representations. Thus it is possible to have hip hop soul singers such as Nate Dogg from 2 the Doggpound and Devin the Dude who spent 15 years on Houston’s Rap-a-lot Records. It is within this context that we review Frank Ocean. Ocean is a singing artist who had an affiliation with the LA-based hip hop collective Odd Future. This crew was considered the hope and future of hip hop prior to its more recent overtake with artists such as Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Odd Future brought wildly fresh innovations to a genre that was seemingly starting to stagnate. Frank Ocean’s breakout solo album was expected to be successful as were his art mates’ Tyler the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt. However, Ocean’s album popularity expectations stumbled when he stole Anderson Cooper’s thunder by coming out, or at least releasing a statement about his “same sex attraction” a week before his album debuted. Herein lies the conundrum that Snoop Lion/ Snoop Dogg outlined in the opening quote, “[Ocean is] a singer. It's acceptable in the singing world, but in the rap world I don't know if it will ever be acceptable because rap is so masculine” (Bassett, 2013). To many rappers and rap aficionados ranging from queer artists like Deep Dick Collective (or recent breakouts like Cake da Killa) to queer authors/ art critics Joel Tan, all that masculinity can be quite hot (Tan, 2005). Understanding tropes of Blackness, masculinity and sexual attraction in popular culture presents an intervention for public thought on these topics. Indeed as Stuart Hall observed, Popular culture is where we discover and play with the identifications of ourselves, where we are imagined, where we are represented, not only to