| UPDATE! New article--> Men on the Down Low: Misinformation and Fascination Duke Media Stretches Up to the Down Low Originally posted to Goddessblogs.com/October 26, 2005 By Nordette Adams  Actor turned director/producer Bill Duke has produced a move about a man named Dutch who has everything he's ever dreamed of, a beautiful wife, a daughter, a successful medical career, but something's missing it seems. The movie's entitled Invisible and you can add it to the growing number of entries to pop culture on the subject of living life "on the down low." See the trailer here: Invisible
Here a low, there a low, everywhere a down low. Increasingly it appears that "living life on the down low" is the hottest subject going that people either hate to hear about, love to hear about, or love to hate to hear about. Author J. L. King's built a cottage industry discussing his double life of having sex with other men "on the down low." He's written a second book, Coming Up from the Down Low. For the uninitiated, the down low simply means to do something in secret, and long before it was applied to men having sex secretly with other men, it was used to refer to anything that one did but wanted kept quiet like taking cash for a job so you didn't have to report the income on your taxes, er um, "No checks, you know? On the down low." Confused? "This is old news. Men been doing this for millenia," you say. "Haven't they already heard the term 'in the closet'," you ask? Yes and no, would be the answers here. Men who consider themselves to be "on the down low" also resent being called "gay." They don't think of themselves as gay men in the closet or homosexual. They are adamant that they are straight, that is heterosexual, except they frequently enjoy a roll in the hay with another man instead of a woman. Black and Hispanic men appear to be more likely to have this view, and some health professionals are concerned that this attitude and the secrecy are contributing to the rise in AIDS cases among African-American women, usually the sex partner left in the dark about secret activities, in particular. Perhaps this subject suddenly seems everywhere to me because I've been covering New Jersey talk show host Lisa Durden's work on this subject. She's just released her documentary Project W.O.W.--Inside the Lives of Men Having Sex With Men on the Down Low. Durden started making her documentary four years ago, a good while before J. L. King released his explosive book and Terry McMillan fell off her Stella groove. However, today I learned in addition to J. L. King's growing line of down low offerings, urban fiction author E. Lynn Harris' true life story of growing up as a closeted gay African-American boy in the south (What Becomes of the Brokenhearted), Harris' novel Invisible Life and its sequels that may have started it all, and Durden's genuine, edgy documentary Project W.O.W., we add Bill Duke's movie Invisible. We add Invisible to the growing library of research, tales, articles, film, and screaming drama on what's ironically become a very visible issue involving the destruction of lives, charges of oversensationalism, suspicions of attempts to stigmatize black males across the board, and, most important, the increase of AIDS and the threat of more deaths in the black community. Oprah danced with the subject via J. L. a few years ago, "Sex, Lies & Double Lives". And here's the subject again online at Essence Magazine, "Body & Soul". So, you might as well click here for the Bill Duke trailer, Invisible and see what's up with the down low. I guess the heat is on for somebody. McMillan's new book The Interruption of Everything is not based on her marriage break-up with Jonathan Plummer. Click this link for McMillan's Interview on NPR JG A Little Blogging on the Down Low Originally posted by Nordette October 20, 2005/www.njspokenword.com From the publisher of J. L. King's book, On the Down Low: A Journey into the Lives of "Straight" Black Men Who Sleep with Men--"African American women represent 68 percent of new HIV cases, and an alarming one out of 160 black women carries the virus, compared to one in 3,000 white women." “I don’t care about him being gay,” McMillan continued. “But he risked my life. What if I’m sitting here HIV positive? I can’t be – I can’t be..." ~~Best selling author Terry McMillan in a July 12, 2005 PBS interview with Tavis Smiley regarding her discovery that her husband, Jonathan Plummer, had been having an affair with a man. The two have since divorced. Plummer received $50,000 in the settlement ("$20,000 in cash, $20,000 to pay off the loan on his car and $10,000 in temporary spousal support"), according to an article in The San Francisco Chronicle As I research the issues addressed in Lisa Durden's new documentary Project W.O.W: A Look Inside the Lives of Men Having Sex with Men On the Down Low, I am discovering that the subject of "men on the down low" (men having sex with other men secretly while maintaining sexual relations with heterosexual women) evokes anger in many people, namely black men. I mentioned I was covering Durden and the documentary to one black male and he responded, "Frankly, I'm sick of hearing about black men on the down low! I'm nearing 50 and I've never had sex with another man." He went on to indicate that he thought the entire subject was just one more stigma that would be attached to black men in general. Like many others, he pointed out that men having sex with men secretly is nothing new, but he's concerned that the perception is becoming that it's a new phenomenon and somehow related more to black men than to white men. In addition, healthcare professionals are concerned that too much emphasis on men leading secret homosexual lives as a factor in the spread of AIDS in the black community will cause a loss of focus on the primary cause of the increase in AIDS, people having unprotected sex. However, Durden's documentary does not suggest "on the down low" behavior is new, unique to black men, nor does the documenatary claim the duplicitous behavior is the primary cause of AIDS increasing in the black community. In light of the success and high visibility of J. L. King's explosive book On the Down Low: A Journey into the Lives of "Straight" Black Men Who Sleep with Men and  best-selling author Terry McMillan's recent revelation that her estranged young Jamaican spouse is gay, a greater association of the "down low" lifestyle to black males may increase. Consequently, some African Americans are not just afraid of this subject of "men on the down low" but downright hostile toward it. A real shoot the messengers attitude is rearing its head.
McMillan's marriage to the man who inspired the book and movie How Stella Got Her Groove Back fell apart when McMillan discovered her husband, a much younger man, Jonathan Plummer, was having an affair with another man, McMillan claims. Plummer, however, asserts that he admitted to McMillan that he was gay months before she filed for divorce or found out about the affair. Furthermore the Jamaican claims that he didn't know he was gay until a few years ago. McMillan believes he knew he was gay from the first day he met her and intentionally seduced and deceived her for financial reasons. "Down Low" author J. L. King has expressed doubt that Plummer is being honest in his claims that he didn't know he was gay, and the author says he feels sorry for McMillan. The dissolving of the McMillan marriage appeared to be on the path to increasing nastiness, but the couple settled in mid-October. McMillan, a genuinely confessional author, has already produced a new novel (fiction) that would seem from the title could be based on the author's Plummer experience. The book's called The Interruption of Everything; however, the novel is not based on her break-up. (Click here for more about the novel.) Perhaps I'm finding these trends of hostile reception on the "down low" subject because men leading double sex lives hits too many people in their own backyards these days, digging up bodies they'd hoped they'd buried more deeply. Or perhaps J. L. King, who has become the poster child for the "down low" experience, in emphasizing his blackness rather than simply sticking to the idea of men in general leading double sex lives seems to some in the black community, especially some black men, as one more slap in the face to a population already plagued with negative stereotypes. In this instance, the negative stereotype is not just the perception that homosexual sex acts are a perversion, but also that the hiding of the activity to the harm of others via exposing unwitting bystanders to AIDS is somehow a lie black men are telling more than men of other races. Certainly it would be unfair for anyone to think that black men are the primary group having homosexual sex "on the down low." White men do the same, but call it being "in the closet." However, one key difference is that white men who consider themselves to be "in the closet" tend to also think of themselves as being gay. Men who call this secretive behavior being "on the down low" tend to assert that they are not gay but straight, that repeatedly engaging in homosexual sex acts does not mean they're gay because to them being gay means to embrace a lifestyle with which they would rather not be associated. Are they lying to themselves? J. L. King's response to the "are you gay" question?-->"Why do I have to label myself to make you comfortable? …The act of the sex is homosexuality, but I don't want to get caught up in the whole gay culture, because the media and people look at gay people as being less than a man [in the black community]. The media has let white gay people feel more comfortable in their skin and it's accepted. The greatest taboo is to be black and homosexual, and I refuse to be labeled and classified that folks will look at me as something different. I am a man." Several men in Durden's documentary echo King's response. Durden's documetary features extensive footage of men in a support group environment explaining how they feel about possibly being labeled "gay." Durden's documentary "Project W.O.W." has been applauded by those who've attended her first two previews. The Newark, NJ, talk show host has been requested to do an encore presentation of the documentary in NYC by the ActNow organization. The encore's been scheduled for November. Other Links Nordette Adams Men on the Down Low: Misinformation and Fascination<--Click for most recent post! © Copyright 2005 Nordette Adams |
