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The expression “A Table for One” is borrowed from Lahad (A table for one: A critical reading of singlehood, gender and time. Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2017) to metaphorically signify the sheer loneliness, solitude, and invisibility that some single homosexuals embody in the midst of individualism and secularization. This book chapter, then, critically details the ways in which gay love is often constructed as taboo, deviant and made stigmatized during social relations Drawing on the works of Goffman, I attempt to understand how homosexual singles are subjected to hostility, social disapproval and stigma, often resulting in the absence of same-sex love. Love is usually out of reach for many gay men because of the rise of fleeting sexual and fluid intimacy. Therefore, I argue herein that the exposure to such intimacy can reproduce a homosexual single identity that becomes stigmatized during social relations, in which their singlehood ascribes a “spoiled identity” (Goffman, Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1963a). That is, the single stigmatized homosexual identity, with whom no one to go out with, is interactional and socially accomplished. The homosexual single, although he can be seen, is unnoticed and fades into the background for he has nothing to converse about regarding coupledom at family gatherings, Birthday parties, and at other social events occupied by heterosexuals and non-heterosexuals, singles and non-singles. Gay singles are like “non-persons” since they are “treated in social interactions as if they are not there” (Goffman, E., The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (p. 152). Anchor Books, New York, 1959). The “double stigma” emanating from embodying both a homosexual and a single identity can draw in social exclusion and alienation during everyday encounters with strangers and non-strangers. Their singlehood career (Lahad, A table for one: A critical reading of singlehood, gender and time. Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2017) evokes the absence of romantic love, leaving the homosexual single eating alone at a table for one.

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A Table for One: The Homosexual Single and the Absence of Romantic Love

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年

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  • Aliraza Javaid

摘要

The expression “A Table for One” is borrowed from Lahad (A table for one: A critical reading of singlehood, gender and time. Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2017) to metaphorically signify the sheer loneliness, solitude, and invisibility that some single homosexuals embody in the midst of individualism and secularization. This book chapter, then, critically details the ways in which gay love is often constructed as taboo, deviant and made stigmatized during social relations Drawing on the works of Goffman, I attempt to understand how homosexual singles are subjected to hostility, social disapproval and stigma, often resulting in the absence of same-sex love. Love is usually out of reach for many gay men because of the rise of fleeting sexual and fluid intimacy. Therefore, I argue herein that the exposure to such intimacy can reproduce a homosexual single identity that becomes stigmatized during social relations, in which their singlehood ascribes a “spoiled identity” (Goffman, Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1963a). That is, the single stigmatized homosexual identity, with whom no one to go out with, is interactional and socially accomplished. The homosexual single, although he can be seen, is unnoticed and fades into the background for he has nothing to converse about regarding coupledom at family gatherings, Birthday parties, and at other social events occupied by heterosexuals and non-heterosexuals, singles and non-singles. Gay singles are like “non-persons” since they are “treated in social interactions as if they are not there” (Goffman, E., The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (p. 152). Anchor Books, New York, 1959). The “double stigma” emanating from embodying both a homosexual and a single identity can draw in social exclusion and alienation during everyday encounters with strangers and non-strangers. Their singlehood career (Lahad, A table for one: A critical reading of singlehood, gender and time. Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2017) evokes the absence of romantic love, leaving the homosexual single eating alone at a table for one.