Why so much homophobia? Why, indeed.

[flewellyn]

I wrote this originally on another forum. The question someone was asking was, "Why can't straight guys who get hit on by gay guys just take it as a compliment, and be flattered?"

Here's what I said:

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Straight men, by and large, can't think that way.

The reason, I think, has to do with (what I believe is) the real source of homophobia. To a great many men, there are two sex roles, and the equation works out like this:

Man = one who penetrates.

Woman = one who is penetrated.

Woman < Man, because woman = sex object, not person.

Therefor, being penetrated < man, because only sex objects are penetrated.

Now, men with this mindset will react with confusion and fear to the idea that a man could be penetrated, and thus made "less than" a man. These men are used to objectifying, not being objectified, so the idea that a man could find THEM attractive in a sex-object way is terrifying to them, because it upsets their conception of the natural order of things: man fucks, woman gets fucked. Because, you see, to these men sex is a form of power, not intimacy, where the man shows his dominance and his "fitness" by penetrating a worthy woman. A man being penetrated would mean the man lost his power, and turned into something less than a man (which, to these men, means woman).

So if we really want to combat this sort of idea, the first thing we need to do is convince these men that 1) Women are not sex objects, and 2) Sex is not all about power. This may take awhile...

Comments

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Yes....but look at the aspects of the "gay" image that are threatening to this "essential male" image.

They are feminizing.

[iagor.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. :)

[anwyn18.livejournal.com]

OKay, I have so many things to say about this. Firstly, the "essential male" image is largely perpetuated by other males - and yet violence against gays can occur in situations where no one would ever have found out that the two men were together. Therefore one would have to assume that at least part of the reaction is entirely contained within the man and his sense of self.

Secondly, consider how violently women can also react to being hit on by lesbians if they consider themselves straight. Even in this age of "trysexuals", there is still a great deal of risk attatched to hitting on a girl you don't know to be that way inclined. Not physical violence true, but I've seen more than one case where lives were ruined by offended parties. Personally, I think this is because women are taught to react to things they don't like/that scare us with psychological violence, and men with their fists. This parallell suggests to me that there is more than just masculinity or femininity issues involved.