Mathew and Me: A Musical Performance Autoethnography Exploring Same-Sex Attraction in Sport

Abstract

Mathew and Me is a musical performance autoethnography that explores embodied experiences of same-sex attraction between men within heteronormative sport cultures. The performance comprises a layering of original songs, performance poetry, and personal narrative. Songwriting is used as a critical arts-based methodology to discover, interrogate, and communicate fragmentary, sensory, and embodied remembrances of lived experience. Alongside a textual representation of the performance, reflections are offered on the two methodological issues: first, the challenges of sharing music and songs within conventional academic publication and, second, the possibilities and nuances of songwriting as a methodology for critical qualitative inquiry.