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.This is not the end of the story.There are notable, if subtle,differences between the ways each pair reiterates their identi®cation withheterosexuality.While Hunt and Nott compose a robustly exclusive formof heterosexuality, Bungay and Holden appear to occupy a moreambivalent position in relation to its norms.Central in this regard is therespective styling of each of the portraits.In Nott and Hunt's image, thereis a lumpen blokishness about the way they are dressed.In particular, theway Ben Nott is dressed in bridal wear ± where there is no attempt toglamourise his appearance and where the exposure of his hairy chestemphasises that he is not attempting to pass as a women but is de®nitely aman in a frock ± plays up the ridiculousness of the `marriage'.The imageof Bungay and Holden is, on the other hand, altogether a more highlystyled composition.In terms of dress ± be it Bungay's sari or Holden'sstylised regency fop look ± there is a degree of accomplishment around thestyling of appearance that is missing from Nott and Hunt's image.Thepostures of Holden and Bungay ± while highly staged ± further suggest apreparedness to enter into more sexually ambivalent roles.Both throughdress and posture, then, their image hints at a greater ambivalence in theiridenti®cation with these perverse positions.Thus, while in the end they tooreaf®rm the cultural divide between heterosexuality and homosexuality,they hint at sexual ambiguity.In this sense, an important difference existsin the in¯ections given to the metaphor of marriage in these representationsof creative partnerships ± a difference bound up with the subtle differencesbetween the masculinities composed by these men.This, however, was notthe only way in which the intimacies between men were handled and themetaphor of marriage in¯ected.In the accounts of the men I interviewedthere were further distinct ways in which the metaphor signi®ed.It is tothese accounts that I now turn.126gender, creativity and creative jobs the ties that bind Phil Chantler was a thirty year old art directorworking for the Soho-based agency Rowlands and Partners.Like many ofthe practitioners I interviewed, he had ®rst met and then teamed up with hiscurrent creative partner while at college.In Chantler's case this had beenNewcastle College of Art and the pair had initially been drawn to each otherby a mutual recognition that each was committed to working hard on thecourse and were serious about succeeding in their chosen studies.When Iinterviewed Chantler, his partnership with Steve was in its ninth year andhad clearly developed over that time into a close friendship.This closenesswas evidenced by the fact that Steve had been best man at his marriage andthat they were, as he put it, `good mates'.The intensity of their bond wasevidently strong enough to not go unnoticed by colleagues.Picking up onthe way they related to each other ± and echoing the more titillating lan-guage seen in the trade press ± Geoff Rowlands, the pair's creative directorsuggested, `Phil and Steve are like husband and wife.I can tell which one iswhich, you usually can'.Chantler put things somewhat differently.Re¯ect-ing on what made their relationship work, he suggested:We're both from Newcastle and the same age and come from similar backgrounds.Ithink some teams are alike and we're quite alike.He's more.I can't stand themusic he likes ± he likes Frank Sinatra and stuff.That's quite annoying.It's like beingmarried almost.But I think we are quite different.[.] It's almost like a marriage witha purpose though.It's not just being together.We're here for a purpose.To do goodwork.In searching for a way of explaining his working relationship with Steve,Chantler moves fairly quickly in this extract to describe it in marital termsand, in the end, to offer a description of their partnership based upon aquali®ed use of this metaphor.In doing so, he in¯ects the metaphor largelyaway from the more sexualised meanings prevalent within the traderepresentations and towards other, more prosaic, meanings.Central to theseis his emphasis on the time they spend together
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