Brooke Brandeberry
From Drmills
Topic: Male Homophobia
Contributor: Brooke Brandeberry
Class: Psyc 310
It is almost impossible to walk through campus without hearing some word that refers to homosexuals in a negative way (i.e. gay or faggot). These words, among others, have become very prevalent in our society, and most specifically, among the male population. What is it about our culture that makes these words so widespread? Many people would say that these words are not used to cause anyone pain, however, when looking at the statistics, there are far too many violent and aggressive acts against homosexuals and lesbians for this to be true. According to Fassinger (1991), more than 90% of gay men and lesbians are targets of verbal abuse and that over one third report interpersonal violence directly related to their sexual orientation. This statistic is not only shocking, but begs our society to reflect on our morals and actions. What is it about our human nature that justifies the aggression and hatred for one group of people? More specifically, I am referring to homophobia. Homophobia, according to Bernat et al. (2001), is defined as self-reported negative affect, avoidance, and aggression toward homosexuals. This definition will suite well for further discussion on homophobia, because, even though many people may subconsciously hold prejudices towards gays and lesbians, those measures will not be discussed in this paper. Topics to be discussed will be the findings of current research on homophobia and masculinity (i.e. masculinity, modern manhood, and hypermasculinity), physical aggression towards homosexual versus heterosexual men, and anxiety/defensive loathing towards homosexuals.
There have been studies conducted that have concluded that men who are homophobic are actually aroused by gay erotica and the like, and the reason for their prejudice is that they are in denial of their own sexual identity. However, subsequent studies have shown that this arousal may not be due to sexual desire or lust, but rather, is caused from an anxiety. Meier et al. (2006), conducted a study that challenged the idea of sexual arousal, and instead, hypothesized that this arousal was a physiological response to a ‘phobia’ or ‘anxiety.’ They presumed homophobia as anxiety-provoking, further suggesting that anxiety is an indicator of defensive processes. In the experiment, they had male participants view images, either heterosexual or homosexual. They were told to hit the space bar when they were finished viewing the image, and could accurately evaluate it based on pleasantness. There were other measures involved, such as a sequential priming task, a self-deception test, and a homophobia survey. Their findings supported the notion of the defensive loathing hypothesis, further disproving the secret attraction hypothesis.
I remember, when I was in the fourth grade, some of the boys were going around asking people to look at their fingernails. If you were a girl, you were expected to extend your arm and point your fingers up in order to look at them. If you were a boy, however, you were expected to bring in your arm and curl in your fingers in order to look at them. One boy, Stan, looked at his nails in a way that only the girls were supposed to look at them; and because of this, for the rest of the week, Stan was known as being ‘a sissy and a girl.’ This is an excellent example of how our peers, as Kimmel (1994) perfectly states, are a kind of gender police, who are constantly threatening to unmask us (males) as feminine or sissies. Homophobia, in today’s society, does not necessarily only refer to the discrimination of gays and lesbians. It goes beyond that, “targeting anything that signifies a lack of allegiance to the collective expectations of male peers—it is much more than heterosexism or a variant of misogyny or a ‘simple’ prejudice against homosexuals” (Plummer, 2001).
There have been many studies conducted that have supported the notion of the affects of masculinity and manhood on views about homosexuals and the levels of homophobia that individuals have. In one study, done by Parrott et al. (2000), the link between homophobia, and both personality and attitudinal variables were examined. Their findings found positive associations between responses to the homophobia scale and the indices of hypermasculinity and misogynistic attitudes. More specifically, they found significant positive correlations between homophobia and endorsement of violence as a manly attribute, callous sexual beliefs, and finding danger exciting.
Plummer et al. (2001) also investigated the link between homophobia and masculinity, more specifically masculine stereotypes and peer culture. They conducted detailed interviews with males about how they arrived at their views on sexuality. Their study focused on the usage of homophobic terms (i.e. faggot) and the meanings that were attached to them. Shockingly, these boys reported using these words as early as the fourth and fifth grades. However, many of the boys did not use these words with reference to homosexuality, but rather, called boys who were not tough enough, intellectual, academic, and teachers’ favorite, these homophobic terms. This study further supports the concept of the effects of homophobia on masculinity. Even as young boys, males know that anything that is set apart from masculinity is not only bad, but can create social conflict and social isolation. Homophobia does not only reinforce the importance of masculinity, but also helps keep up the boundaries between social groups. As Madureira (2007) explains, “homophobia and sexism are both cultural inventions that contribute to the constant process of creation and maintenance of important symbolic boundaries.” Kimmel (1994) further explains, “homophobia, the fear of being perceived as gay, as not a real man, keeps men exaggerating all the traditional roles of masculinity, including sexual predation with women. Homophobia and sexism go hand in hand.”
A very important area of research is on the effects of homophobia on physical aggression. A study done by Bernat et al. (2001) examined the relationship between homophobia and homosexual aggression. They were interested in seeing if homophobic aggression was content-specific or whether homophobic men were generally more aggressive than non-homophobic men. The study was set up like many other similar studies that involve levels of aggression. It used the electrical shocks set up, where electrical shocks are received from and administered to a fictitious opponent. Prior to the RT task (involving the electrical shocks) the participants watched a homosexual erotic video. Participants were aware of the sexual orientation of the ‘opponent’ before the task was started. Their results showed that the homophobic group demonstrated significant baseline increases in negative affect, anxiety, and anger-hostility following the homosexual erotic video. Also, the homophobic group showed significantly more aggression toward the homosexual opponent, but did not differ from the non-homophobic group in their aggression toward the heterosexual opponent. These findings provide strong support linking homophobia with aggression toward homosexual males.
There is obviously much more research on this topic, however, discussed above were some of the main findings and ‘themes’ with homophobia. It appears obvious that homophobia, unfortunately, is very present in our society today, and has profound social consequences. It takes a conscious effort on everyone’s parts to realize how much we are surrounded by homophobic terms and actions. We must all do our part to avoid such prejudice, and try to end this horrific cycle of oppression, violence, hate, and misunderstanding.
References
Bernat, J. et al (2001). Homophobia and physical aggression toward homosexual and
heterosexual individuals. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110(1), 179-187.
Fassinger, R. (1991). The hidden minority: Issues and challenges in working with lesbian
women and gay men. Counseling Psychologist, 19, 157-176.
Kimmel, Michael. (1994). Masculinity as homophobia. In E. Disch (Ed.) Reconstructing
Gender: A Multicultural Anthology. Third Edition. (pp. 103-109). New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Madureira, A. et al (2007). The psychological basis of homophobia: cultural construction
of a barrier. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 41(3), 225-247.
Meier, B. et al (2006). A secret attraction or defensive loathing? Homophobia, defense,
and implicit cognition. Journal of Research in Personality, 40(4), 377-394.
Parrott, D. et al (2000). Homophobia: personality and attitudinal correlates.Personality
and Individual Differences, 32(7), 1269-1278.
Plummer, D. et al (2001). The quest for modern manhood: masculine stereotypes, peer
culture and the social significance of homophobia. Journal of Adolescence, 24 (1), 15-23
Relevant Web Links
Videos
For Those who Misunderstand Homosexuality:
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v824147aK8cqZST
Video on the Experiment done that concluded that homophobic men were actually sexually aroused…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy-7AoxFEJA
Miscellaneous
Quiz Your own Homophobia:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/assault/etc/quiz.html
Rating scale:
Ratings ( 1 - 5):
- found appropriate research references relevant to a topic 5
- discovered, integrated and synthesized relevant information about the topic 5
- writing is of high quality: interesting, flows, analytic, organized 4
- used APA style referencing appropriately (including reference list) 4
- inlcuded as a list of web links to the original articles cited (if available), andincluded a list of additional resources relevant to the topic on the web 4
Total points: 22
