Posted by Adam on August 3, 2001, at 11:33:43
In reply to Roots of Homophobia, seems Freud was right, posted by stjames on August 3, 2001, at 0:53:24
stjames, your experiences are very unfortunate. I think there is certainly reason to believe that homophobia stems, in some cases, from fear of one's self, which is projected outwards at those who embody the fear.
But if homophobia is, indeed, a bona fide "phobia", then it must be considered that the anxiety one might experience while being confronted with images of homoeroticism or pornography can cause a state of intense physical arousal. It has been demonstrated in studies done years ago (don't have the references offhand) that people, when made anxious, actually get more "turned on" then when calm, when presented with sexual stimuli.
"Gay" and "straight" are rather rigid classifications. I think the best way to deal with human sexuality is to acknowlege varying degrees of homo- and heterotic capacity in each individual, which by no means remains the same throughout life. There are certainly people who are strictly homo or hetero, and everything in between. People can flip-flop. We're all over the map, really, and would probably be more so if there were not societal pressures to conform to a strictly hetero lifestyle.
Given that anxiety can enhance sexual arousal, and that people are not strictly confined to a particular sexual preference, making the leap from "violent homophobes get erections when they see gay porn" to "violent gay-bashers are gay" isn't that easy. I'm not even sure that it has much meaning, under scrutiny. I prefer to leave Freud out of most modern discussions anyway, since Freud is hardly an example of one who strived for scientific accuracy or rigor. Other hypotheses need to be considered and ruled out. This is not to diminish the concern that "autohomophobia" cannot lead to acts of violence against others in some cases, and that addressing such a concern would be helpful to society as a whole, it's just that I feel one needs to be a bit ambivalent about such theories. Human sexuality is too complicated not to have such cautions.
> From: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/assault/roots/freud.html
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> Hostility and discrimination against homosexual individuals are well-established facts. On occasion, these negative attitudes lead to hostile verbal and physical acts against gay individuals with little apparent motivation except a strong dislike. In fact, more than 90% of gay men and lesbians report being targets of verbal abuse or threats, and more than one-third report being survivors of violence related to their homosexuality. Although negative attitudes and behaviors toward gay individuals have been assumed to be associated with rigid moralistic beliefs, sexual ignorance, and fear of homosexuality, the etiology of these attitudes and behaviors remains a puzzle. Weinberg ( 1972 ) labeled these attitudes and behaviors homophobia, which he defined as the dread of being in close quarters with homosexual men and women as well as irrational fear, hatred, and intolerance by heterosexual individuals of homosexual men and women.
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> snip
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> Specifically, the present study was designed to investigate whether homophobic men show more sexual arousal to homosexual cues than nonhomophobic men as suggested by psychoanalytic theory. . . .
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> The results of this study indicate that individuals who score in the homophobic range and admit negative affect toward homosexuality demonstrate significant sexual arousal to male homosexual erotic stimuli.
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> James here...
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> The actual study is password protected but basically they showed gay porn to very homophobic men and not
> homophobic men. The homophobic men got erections and other signs of sexual arousal while the other group did not. Isn't that special ? I always wondered why 3 men jumped out of a car and knocked me to the ground and started kicking me, people I did not know and had done nothing to. They were quite surprized when a bar full of buff gay men attacked them. One was about to hit me with a baseball bat. Thank god for buff gay men.
>
> james
poster:Adam
thread:8617
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010731/msgs/8648.html