5 ms·

I would agree; "homophobes" are not afraid of homosexuality.

krapp 5y ago
I kind of disagree. To me, there does seem to be an element of fear behind homophobia, and homophobes often act as if "the gay" is something they can catch like a disease, or be talked or tricked into. It's practically a stereotype for homophobes to present as hypermasculine in order to avoid doing or saying anything that might be perceived as "gay." Some men won't even wipe themselves out of fear that the sensation of toilet paper on their buttocks will turn them gay. And that's not even getting into political and culture fears like male-to-female transgender people "trapping" men into having sex with them, or using the "wrong" bathrooms, or the extreme right-wing fears of a "gay agenda" to undermine traditional Christian-oriented culture, or "feminizing chemicals" being added to the water (the whole "gay frogs" thing) to increase the homosexual population and emasculate male aggression and military readiness. People even argue that homosexuality presents a threat to human evolution itself, despite being present in many known (and not extinct) animal species and likely humanity's own evolutionary ancestors as well as humanity itself.
- mcguire 5y ago
  ""feminizing chemicals" being added to the water (the whole "gay frogs" thing) to increase the homosexual population and emasculate male aggression and military readiness..." Actually that part is kinda true. A fair bit of the effluent from paper mills, say, are estrogen analogs.
- faeriechangling 5y ago
  It's disgust not fear, which explains the disease analogy. Although I suppose we do call people germophobic.
  - Tainnor 5y ago
    I think it's often specifically the fear that condoning homosexuality will somehow undermine your masculinity (or that of your nation or whatever).
taneq 5y ago
This whole trope of recasting "anti-X" as "X-phobic" is something that really irks me. Maybe there's a group of closeted X who doth protest too much, but there's generally a much larger group of people who are just assholes to X, and trying to spin it as "they're just afraid of you" smacks too much of the old "the bullies are just jealous". No, often it's not jealousy, it's just people being assholes to targets they think can't fight back.
- pseudalopex 5y ago
  Phobic doesn't just mean afraid. Hydrophobic molecules for example.
  - taneq 5y ago
    Phobic literally means fear, from the ancient Greek 'phobos', meaning... fear. It's used for things (like hydrophobic molecules) that avoid other things (in this case water) as if they fear them. Unless we're doing one of those "literally literally means figuratively" things here in which case... meh? Just to be crystal clear here, I'm not saying we don't have groups who are anti-X for whatever value of X. I'm saying that recasting (and often miscasting) that antipathy as (maybe masked) fear is counterproductive.
    - pseudalopex 5y ago
      That's the etymological fallacy. Phobic literally means having an intolerance or aversion for.[1] [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phobic https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phobic
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
      - taneq 5y ago
        There's still a chasm between "having an intolerance of or aversion for" and "being mean to".
faeriechangling 5y ago
When I've looked into the research they tend to be mostly disgusted by homosexuality. Disgust sensitivity and Homophobia correlate whereas neuroticism and homophobia don't which you would predict if homophobes were literally afraid of gay people. Homophobia is just a nice spin though. For the most part I couldn't care less about who people are dating or boning.
the_only_law 5y ago
And hydrophobic substances do not express the emotion of fear against water.
- slipframe 5y ago
  Hydrophobic dogs do fear water though. (Hydrophobia is another name for rabies. Rabies often induces a fear of water.)
heavyset_go 5y ago
Many of them are afraid of a spectrum of things between being thought of as gay to actually being gay, to being afraid that their kids are/will be gay. It wasn't that long ago that they were claiming that gay marriage and acceptance would cause society to collapse, and believing that God would punish everyone for it. I had a neighbor who claimed that hurricane devastation is God's doing because gay marriage was legalized.

I kind of disagree. To me, there does seem to be an element of fear behind homophobia, and homophobes often act as if "the gay" is something they can catch like a disease, or be talked or tricked into. It's practically a stereotype for homophobes to present as hypermasculine in order to avoid doing or saying anything that might be perceived as "gay." Some men won't even wipe themselves out of fear that the sensation of toilet paper on their buttocks will turn them gay. And that's not even getting into political and culture fears like male-to-female transgender people "trapping" men into having sex with them, or using the "wrong" bathrooms, or the extreme right-wing fears of a "gay agenda" to undermine traditional Christian-oriented culture, or "feminizing chemicals" being added to the water (the whole "gay frogs" thing) to increase the homosexual population and emasculate male aggression and military readiness. People even argue that homosexuality presents a threat to human evolution itself, despite being present in many known (and not extinct) animal species and likely humanity's own evolutionary ancestors as well as humanity itself.

mcguire 5y ago
""feminizing chemicals" being added to the water (the whole "gay frogs" thing) to increase the homosexual population and emasculate male aggression and military readiness..." Actually that part is kinda true. A fair bit of the effluent from paper mills, say, are estrogen analogs.
faeriechangling 5y ago
It's disgust not fear, which explains the disease analogy. Although I suppose we do call people germophobic.
- Tainnor 5y ago
  I think it's often specifically the fear that condoning homosexuality will somehow undermine your masculinity (or that of your nation or whatever).

taneq 5y ago

This whole trope of recasting "anti-X" as "X-phobic" is something that really irks me. Maybe there's a group of closeted X who doth protest too much, but there's generally a much larger group of people who are just assholes to X, and trying to spin it as "they're just afraid of you" smacks too much of the old "the bullies are just jealous". No, often it's not jealousy, it's just people being assholes to targets they think can't fight back.

pseudalopex 5y ago
Phobic doesn't just mean afraid. Hydrophobic molecules for example.
- taneq 5y ago
  Phobic literally means fear, from the ancient Greek 'phobos', meaning... fear. It's used for things (like hydrophobic molecules) that avoid other things (in this case water) as if they fear them. Unless we're doing one of those "literally literally means figuratively" things here in which case... meh? Just to be crystal clear here, I'm not saying we don't have groups who are anti-X for whatever value of X. I'm saying that recasting (and often miscasting) that antipathy as (maybe masked) fear is counterproductive.
  - pseudalopex 5y ago
    That's the etymological fallacy. Phobic literally means having an intolerance or aversion for.[1] [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phobic https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phobic
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - taneq 5y ago
      There's still a chasm between "having an intolerance of or aversion for" and "being mean to".

faeriechangling 5y ago

When I've looked into the research they tend to be mostly disgusted by homosexuality. Disgust sensitivity and Homophobia correlate whereas neuroticism and homophobia don't which you would predict if homophobes were literally afraid of gay people. Homophobia is just a nice spin though. For the most part I couldn't care less about who people are dating or boning.

the_only_law 5y ago

And hydrophobic substances do not express the emotion of fear against water.

slipframe 5y ago
Hydrophobic dogs do fear water though. (Hydrophobia is another name for rabies. Rabies often induces a fear of water.)

heavyset_go 5y ago

Many of them are afraid of a spectrum of things between being thought of as gay to actually being gay, to being afraid that their kids are/will be gay. It wasn't that long ago that they were claiming that gay marriage and acceptance would cause society to collapse, and believing that God would punish everyone for it. I had a neighbor who claimed that hurricane devastation is God's doing because gay marriage was legalized.