doi: 10.1037//0021-843x.105.3.440
IIRC, this hasn’t been debunked per se, but it was a very small, very limited study, and doesn’t really do a great job of explaining homophobia in a broader population. (I mean, you’re talking about 64 people in total; depending on your inclusion criteria, that could be a meaningless sample size.) Penile plethysmography is a proxy for sexual arousal; it’s useful in some instances–like predicting whether or not someone will commit more sexual offenses in the future–but isn’t even that great in those instances. If I remember correctly, there’s strong evidence that disgust is a trait strongly associated with conservatism, and homophobia is a an extreme disgust reaction.
FWIW, I was casually–but quite virulently–homophobic when I was younger. I’d been raised in a very conservative, evangelical religious group, and I believed all the bullshit that I’d heard about gay people. That changed once I lost religion, and actually met people that were gay. That, of course, is only anecdotal evidence, and does assume that I’m neither gay nor bisexual (and I don’t believe that I am), but it fits with what I’ve seen from conservative thought.
watch out, you’re going to get a couple of frothing leftists saying it is homophobic to portray any homophobe as gay
Maybe this explains that odd “prayer” group hug of Republicans in the Capitol that was posted these days ;-)
So everyone who calls me the F word wants to fuck me? Gross.
they mad cuz they cant
A sex worker friend told me that he had some homophobic (male) clients who didn’t seem to be gay, but frequented male sex workers. This confused me, but he explained that it seems to be part of a convoluted humiliation kink thing, rather than attraction.
For example, I know a subby guy whose domme makes him kiss her feet. She does this because he finds feet gross, and thus ordering him thus is a humiliating and submissive act that he ultimately finds hot. This association has become strong enough that even outside of the specific context of scenes with his domme, he finds the prospect of footplay arousing, whilst simultaneously still being grossed out by feet. He finds the paradoxical vibes of this hilarious, and indeed, reports that it’s one of the things he finds fulfilling about kink play.
In the case of homophobic straight men who have gay sex, it’s far more psychosexually complex. However, one plausible angle of it is that some men may actually just want to be pegged, but conservative attitudes may mean that being fucked by a woman with a strap-on is perceived as more taboo and transgressive than being fucked by another man.
Another bizarre example my friend relayed to me was an instance of a man who engaged in gay sex as a form of self-harm that was felt to be deserved due to being insufficiently masculine. In this scenario, the homophobic client was topping. The guy apparently seemed to believe in a sort of “conservation of masculinity” in penetrative sex. For example, let’s say that any act of penetrative sex (anal or vaginal, it matters not) contains a total of 10 arbitrary units of masculinity. In this guy’s ideal of How Sex Should Be, the penetrative partner would contain all 10 units of masculinity, and his partner, with 0 units of masculinity, would be the mostly womanly woman to ever woman. However, this dude was pretty insecure in his masculinity, and he would probably rate himself as having only 6 units of masculinity. This is sufficient for him to feel comfortable being the one who penetrates his partner, but by the principle of conservation of masculinity, this would mean that “balanced” sex would involve a partner with 4 units of masculinity.
I don’t intend to kink shame anyone, but frankly I find this bizarre, because it sounds like this guy is genuinely quite disgusted by having sex with another man (and likely not attracted to men either), but feels even more disgusted by the prospect of feeling insufficiently masculine and having sex with a woman. It’s like the gay sex is a punishment for not attaining the impossible ideal of hegemonic masculinity. I asked my friend if it wasn’t more likely that the dude is just gay and has a heckton of internalised homophobia to work through, but he was pretty sure of his assessment. I’m told that the job involves a surprising amount of “I’m not a therapist, but I’m the closest thing you have to one, so let’s talk”.
Boy am I glad I’m asexual for all practical purposes. This sounds frankly exhausting.
I think for that last paragraph it’s a thing where sex and processing emotions are equally taboo to a lot of men who are as fucked up as you described. Except sex and even utilizing a sex worker’s services fit within a script they have the mental space to comprehend. You sneak off, have sex, pay, shut up about it. Whereas asking a friend if they can help you process some stuff over a beer or going to therapy are public in the sense that they aren’t hidden. They’re awkward, they involve potential accountability and may demand change. They’re hard and seeing a sex worker in such a way is cathartic and exciting in all the ways that telling a friend you’re worried you aren’t masculine enough isn’t.
But also yeah, sexuality does also seem to just be where misc mental issues wind up dumped. I’m certainly not one to judge about any of that shit. I just suspect some people only go to sex to deal with it instead of also working to become mentally healthy. Like you can still be freaky once you are, in fact you often get better at it.
Homophobes: resist those evil urges, don’t give it to the gay sex, you can do it just say no…
The rest of us: uh, who’s gonna tell them
If you’re scared enough, even wiping your ass is gay.
Has this man never eaten a sandwich? Pizza? French Fries? Tacos? What is this nonsense?
This is fake right. Please tell me this is fake
Personally I think he should have to explain for once.
Eating food with your hands is unsanitary?
That’s outright disgusting.
If you need to regularly scratch your anus, go see a doctor.
Also, even if you do need to scratch your anus, why wouldn’t you be able to eat with your hands? SURELY you sanitize them properly RIGHT? RIGHT?!
People who think like this don’t wash their hands after going to the toilet, so of course it’s disgusting for them.
If you need to regularly scratch your anus get a bidet and some ivermectin
Oh I didn’t realise COVID made your anus itchy! Is it a new variant? 😂 Edits for spelling cos I can’t apparently.
If you need to regularly scratch your anus, you probably have parasites. That’s one of the prime ways for some species of parasites (roundworms, I think?, probably tapeworms too?) to spread.
If you have a tenia, you are never alone.
Eat with the right, touch anus with the left and always wash hands before you eat. Developed cultures have done this for ages. And they have clean bumholes because they wash instead of only smearing with toilet paper. That shit is disgusting.
Washing can also help against the itchiness. As well as non-synthetic underwear. If those don’t help, do indeed see a doctor.
He really posted about his itchy anus on twitter?
Homophobes: “We can’t legalize gay marriage! The birth rate would collapse! If men could marry men, then what reasonable man would ever choose to marry a disgusting, weak, woman over a strong, virile, muscular, sweaty, musky, oily, maaaannnnnn…”
The rest of us: Dude. Bro. Dude.
Is this why Republican senators keep getting caught kissin’ with other men in public restrooms?
I mean grindr always reports an increase in traffic around the republican conventions.
This sounds like it would be something that’s an interesting anecdote and a “GOTCHA”. Has there ever been any confirmation of this from Grindr? As amusing of a story it is, it’s only really useful information if it’s provable.
The world would be so much better if they stopped being so concerned with what other consenting adults are doing in private.
This is going to get the fundamentalists to hate science even more. Heh.
35 people makes it a useless study.
I agree
it was 64 people. edit: and also, even 29 or something like this is a lot, assuming that they are selected kind of randomly and not all belong to the same social group etc. If only 3 showed a reaction like described, sure. We need more data. but with a hitrate of 100%, what do you expect to happen if you 10x the number?
“You fear and reject what you are”
Typical of these evil, woke scientists to try to make good upstanding citizens gay with their evil sciencing. Good thing President Trump is putting an end to all this.
I need some gay chemicals for a water supply. Trust me it will be really funny. The stuff I borrowed from wright laboratories didn’t work
Not sure what is up with this screenshot. Looks like someone erased something from the sides? I dunno, but the quality is not great. Here’s a new one:
deleted by creator
Removed by mod
I think the more complete question is: Is sexual repression common among conservatives the root of their infantile lashing out against LGBTQ+?
