churchill, you don’t get it. Macho-oriented cultures are afraid of gays. A big, tough, gay Marine would be their worst nightmare. You know, like when the Scots barbarians would not only wear kilts, but would tear them off in battle rage as they charged. Imagine someone so fearless that they expose themselves to attack in battle - there’s a reason they were so tough!
Okay, let’s break it down. You are implying (whether you intended to or not) that visibly gay American soldiers should be afraid because they would be targeted by Muslim fanatics – though it’s not as if any American soldier is well liked by Muslim fanatics. My point is that in macho cultures, the emphasis on “male” and anti-gay behavior often has an underpinning of fear; they are defending their masculinity because they are particularly threatened by gay men. (Note the bizarre comments made by DADT opponents, including the implication by the Commandant of Marines that gay men would be “distracted” in battle, presumably because of their inability to control their sexuality under fire.)
So what’s the scariest thing to an undersexed, macho Muslim fanatic – many of whom are surplus young men with no hope of meeting a woman, let alone having sex with one? How about a soldier who is proudly gay, that they falsely fear would not only defeat them, but force them into unspeakable acts? Let’s take advantage of their fears!
Apologies, I misunderstood. But as to your second paragraph, it’s pretty well established that defense of “male norms” is a real predictor of homophobia, because men who “act like women” are threatening their beliefs around masculinity. Here’s a recent example from a paper in the Journal of Personality(Parrott, 2009):
“Data indicated that antifemininity exerted a significant and positive indirect effect, primarily through sexual prejudice, on anger in response to gay men and aggression toward gay men. These findings are important because they suggest that adherence to the antifemininity norm was demonstrated by heterosexual men’s endorsement of sexual prejudice and, in turn, their expression of anger and aggression toward gay men. To a lesser extent, these data suggest that adherence to the antifemininity norm elicits anger and aggression toward gay men among men high in masculine gender role stress. Indeed, among these men, male homosexuality represents a challenge to their view that heterosexuality is a necessary component of masculinity. In sum, these data support the view that adherence to the antifemininity norm is central to men’s enforcement of traditional gender norms (Franklin, 1998). Results also showed that adherence to the status norm indirectly facilitated aggression toward gay men. As with findings for antifemininity, these data suggest that this indirect effect is mediated primarily by sexual prejudice.”
In other words, sexism and reinforcement of differences between genders, especially “masculinity” norms, leads towards aggression against gay men, when put under “gender stress,” by which they mean questioning those norms.
So let’s form an all-gay Rainbow Troop!
Meaning, churchill, you didn’t understand it? Happy to explain it to you.
And you missed the point. Sexist men, who don’t like women or men violating what they consider to be acceptable gender categories. Like, say, fundamentalist Islamics or evangelical Christians.
Gypsy8 over 13 years ago
Progress to feed the war machine.
myming over 13 years ago
what progress ?
Bluejayz over 13 years ago
Would a rainbow be worse than the US flag?
Motivemagus over 13 years ago
churchill, you don’t get it. Macho-oriented cultures are afraid of gays. A big, tough, gay Marine would be their worst nightmare. You know, like when the Scots barbarians would not only wear kilts, but would tear them off in battle rage as they charged. Imagine someone so fearless that they expose themselves to attack in battle - there’s a reason they were so tough!
Motivemagus over 13 years ago
Okay, let’s break it down. You are implying (whether you intended to or not) that visibly gay American soldiers should be afraid because they would be targeted by Muslim fanatics – though it’s not as if any American soldier is well liked by Muslim fanatics. My point is that in macho cultures, the emphasis on “male” and anti-gay behavior often has an underpinning of fear; they are defending their masculinity because they are particularly threatened by gay men. (Note the bizarre comments made by DADT opponents, including the implication by the Commandant of Marines that gay men would be “distracted” in battle, presumably because of their inability to control their sexuality under fire.) So what’s the scariest thing to an undersexed, macho Muslim fanatic – many of whom are surplus young men with no hope of meeting a woman, let alone having sex with one? How about a soldier who is proudly gay, that they falsely fear would not only defeat them, but force them into unspeakable acts? Let’s take advantage of their fears!
Motivemagus over 13 years ago
Apologies, I misunderstood. But as to your second paragraph, it’s pretty well established that defense of “male norms” is a real predictor of homophobia, because men who “act like women” are threatening their beliefs around masculinity. Here’s a recent example from a paper in the Journal of Personality(Parrott, 2009): “Data indicated that antifemininity exerted a significant and positive indirect effect, primarily through sexual prejudice, on anger in response to gay men and aggression toward gay men. These findings are important because they suggest that adherence to the antifemininity norm was demonstrated by heterosexual men’s endorsement of sexual prejudice and, in turn, their expression of anger and aggression toward gay men. To a lesser extent, these data suggest that adherence to the antifemininity norm elicits anger and aggression toward gay men among men high in masculine gender role stress. Indeed, among these men, male homosexuality represents a challenge to their view that heterosexuality is a necessary component of masculinity. In sum, these data support the view that adherence to the antifemininity norm is central to men’s enforcement of traditional gender norms (Franklin, 1998). Results also showed that adherence to the status norm indirectly facilitated aggression toward gay men. As with findings for antifemininity, these data suggest that this indirect effect is mediated primarily by sexual prejudice.” In other words, sexism and reinforcement of differences between genders, especially “masculinity” norms, leads towards aggression against gay men, when put under “gender stress,” by which they mean questioning those norms. So let’s form an all-gay Rainbow Troop!
WarBush over 13 years ago
Actually straight men don’t care about gay men. We care about getting laid with women.
pirate227 over 13 years ago
^ Hear hear.
Motivemagus over 13 years ago
Meaning, churchill, you didn’t understand it? Happy to explain it to you. And you missed the point. Sexist men, who don’t like women or men violating what they consider to be acceptable gender categories. Like, say, fundamentalist Islamics or evangelical Christians.