Causes Of Homophobia

Superior Essays
Homophobia is when a person has dislikes and has a fear homosexual people. Homosexual is thought to be when one has sexual attraction towards the same gender. No one really understands how sexuality and gender work, and one just makes assumptions based on the words, and opinions passed around. One does not choose their sexual orientation; while its is objected by conservatives, sexual orientation is based on several factors such as availability of partners, moral sense, the desire to have children, biological theories, curiosity, and financial incentives.
Homophobia is discussed more in the book Homophobia by Byrne Fone. He describes homophobia- as a fear, condemnation, loathing, and proscription of homosexual behavior. The word was coined
…show more content…
LeVay discussed some types of attractions in his book Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why. There are several type of attractions like physical and romantic or emotional that play their part in person’s sexual orientation. Physical attraction means to have desire to engage in sexual contact. Romantic or emotional attraction is a desire to engage in a psychological union and not so much into sexual contact. Romantic attraction shades off into forms of close friendship that are not explicitly sexual. (LeVay 3) Back in the day men of the same sex had the freedom to be more intimate with each other since people were not aware of the term homosexual. Sexual arousal is another used by scientists as a criterions for sexual orientation. Sexual arousal is a temporary state of arousal by presence of an attractive partner. Arousal is usually caused by physical attraction to a partner. (LeVay 4) Attraction to opposite sex means heterosexuality, bisexual means attraction to both sexes, and homosexuality is attraction to both sexes. Both male and female can identify themselves as the opposite sex after a psychological process when one establishes a sense of their own sex. Scientists use special terms to emphasize the way of looking at things: gynephilic means woman loving when referring to straight men and gay women, adrophilic means man loving …show more content…
First one is the experiment conducting non human animals which indicates that testosterone levels during a period of time before and around time of birth influence an animal’s preference for male or female sex partners after puberty. (LeVay 131-132) For humans, it would probably be entirely before birth since humans are born when their brain is at the later stages than non human animals. Second observation is that gendered traits are influenced by prenatal hormones. The third observation is that homosexuality is linked to gendered traits from childhood and adulthood. (LeVay 132) There is no strong evidence to prove any of these

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    The authors findings agree with other general findings that illustrate homophobia as a variation of dormant homosexuality, in which the person is either utterly oblivious to or refuses to acknowledge their same-sex urges (Adams, Wright, & Lohr, 1996). Possible limitation is the testing effect in the case of assessing the participant’s aggression led to awareness of their own aggression and the denial of it. Another limitation is they only looked at men, men who were young, and men that were white. They also seemed to only focused on negative homophobic feelings men feel towards gay men as opposed to including hostility that is also faced by lesbians; they didn’t address why this was done; are homophobic men less aggressive towards lesbian women, then they are towards gay men? The study only looks at homophobia through the male lens, eliminating the examination homophobia towards women by women. Do homophobic women experience the same arousal towards same-sex stimuli? If not, is heterosexual male who are homophobic simply more aroused by same-sex stimuli, because its considered more taboo? They are also viewing arousal as the major indicator of an individual’s sexual preference, sexual identity, or future sexual activity; there are…

    • 1356 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Homophobia is a dislike of or prejudice against homosexual people. People who claim to be gay, lesbian or bisexual are still human, they have the same rights as we do, even if they do not follow the “social norms” of liking the opposite sex. Dude, You’re a Fag by C.J. Pascoe presents a variety of examples that show that our society has a problem with people being anything other than straight. Homophobia is more than hate speech in high school but the central concept around which adolescent culture is organized.…

    • 1316 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For sexual orientation, many scientist try to find out what determine our sexual orientation. They found that hypothalamus, which is the part of our brain that control our sexual drive and other function, has an important role of determining whether we are heterosexual or homosexual. Homosexual subject have larger suprachiasmatic nucleus and anterior commissure of the hypothalamus then heterosexual. Our sexual orientation is biological constructed.…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The topics of homophobia and sexism have been discussed multiple times through out the Social Issues course in both class discussions, movies we have watched, and in the readings. In one article by Suzanne Pharr, “Homophobia as a Weapon of Sexism,” she describes the issue of sexism and homophobia as coming down to the ideals of patriarchy. Merriam-Webster defines patriarchy as “a family, group, or government controlled by a man or a group of men.” It has been around since the beginning of humanity. During the times of neanderthals, the men, who were seen as stronger, would go out hunting, while the women, who were seen as weak, stayed home gathering fruits and vegetables. In ancient times, the man was seen as the head…

    • 1258 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Homophobia is something that has existed for a very long time in our country. This can be seen in how the subject is treated in The Warriors. This film was based off of the ancient text Anabasis by Xenophon. Xenophon was an ancient Greek. In Greek culture, it was not uncommon for an older male to take a young male as his lover. The homophobia that can be seen in The Warriors is not something that Xenophon included in his text. The fact that is does appear…

    • 379 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Similarly, ‘heterophobia’ has been used a propaganda slur by homophobes, who level the charge at any homosexual individual who stands up for their rights, justifying it often with sentiments such as “there is a gay pride, but no straight pride.” The fact of the matter is, disgust with homosexuality and the idea that it is unnatural, or unhealthy, or can somehow be ‘cured’ is in no way mimicked in society to make a case of heterophobia,…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Homophobia In America

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages

    For many years now, people have been discriminated against in stores, in restaurants, and in different public places because of their sexual orientation. According to Lumen, “Prejudice is a negative attitude and feeling towards an individual based solely on one’s membership in a particular social group” (Learning). They are being subject to such discrimination because of homophobia. Homophobia has been around in the United States for a while because Christianity has been the most accepted religion in the US. Certain racial groups have also been subject to discrimination in the past and in the present. For example, black people have been subject to racism in America since the beginning of the US. Racial groups and gay people have a history…

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Homophobia Pharr Summary

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This article by Pharr discusses how homophobia is simply only in existence because of the existence of sexism within our society. Homophobia is defined as the irrational fear and hatred of those who love and sexually desire those of the same sex. Because of homophobia, it is enough to keep 20% of people to hide or live in fear of their sexual identity. Even while growing up, children learn to fear people who are not heterosexual. Once children hit puberty, they learn to use taunting labels such as queer and fag, using these terms to ostracize those around them that are gay. When people perceive gay men, they are viewed as betrayers and traitors who must be punished and eliminated. They are then not even viewed as being real men. When people…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Homophobia, with phobia being at the end you would think that it meant they were scared of homosexuals.However, people who are homophobic are just ignorant boors, contaminating the world with their ugly words. I kind of pity them though, what kind of thoughts was drilled in their heads to hate something like love. Did their…

    • 270 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    People are made fun of on a daily basis for being themselves. People in the L.G.B.T. community are especially made fun of, laughed at and treated like lesser people, just for being themselves. People think that just because you learned something as a part of their religion, that it is the complete truth. People say that just because someone found true love in someone that happens to be the same sexuality as them, that they are not like other people and will not be able to enjoy life like it was meant to. Homophobia is destroying this country because when people are feared/against homosexuality, they are not only insulting that one person, they are insulting an entire lifestyle.…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Homophobia has been around for many years, and at times, dominated decisions that were made in regards to the LGBT community. Exactly what is homophobia? Homophobia is the negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors an individual has in response to others who are perceived to be gay or lesbian. This concept has plagued many among the LGBT community in regards to equal rights, fair employment, and most shocking of all, personal safety. This paper highlights some studies which have been conducted in order to test different levels of homophobia, and whether societal pressures and lack of exposure to the LGBT community play a role in a person’s homophobic attitude towards the LGBT community. The main focus will be on the current situation of many…

    • 2183 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Malcom Turnbull

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages

    There are two reasons for someone to be homophobic. Either you’re gay yourself and you’re trying to conceal it, or maintain christian/catholic and/or other religious values. For example, say having blue eyes was a sin. You’re born like that and you can’t help it, you can try and cover it up by always wearing sunglasses, but underneath they will still always be blue. You are constantly being discriminated for something you can’t change - though they were born the same as you, but didn’t get your trait.…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Oppression and discrimination go hand and hand, they both have to do with people treated more poorly than others because of who they are (Dictionary). People today are discriminated based upon their sexuality all the time and that should not be the case. “They are discriminated against in the labor market, in schools and in hospitals, mistreated and disowned by their own families. They are singled out for physical attack – beaten, sexually assaulted, tortured and killed” (United Nations Human Rights). These oppressions usually start out with people that would be considered homophobic, transphobic, and biphobic. These are people who have a phobia of gay, transgender, and bisexual people. Many stereotypes that apply to these categories of people…

    • 232 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hate speech is a part of Queer teens daily routine and life, it can happen to anyone in the queer community which can force people to tiptoe through life. Our society is inadvertently homophobic due to how we are raised as well as the influence of “wholesome” family values. The family values we have learnt and society has reinforced has imposed on us has create an era of homophobia and aggressive behaviour to those who are different. The term “That’s so gay” is dropped into a sentence almost as much as the joining word between. This term is used as a way to describe any situation that is considered boring or undesirable. So why is being “gay” such a bad thing that society would use it as a synonym for undesirable? Perhaps it is because LGBTQI+…

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A small amount of American citizens refuse to respect a homosexual individual because of religiosity and prejudice. Therefore, homosexual citizens are discriminated against and they cannot participate in certain events due to their sexual orientation. Homophobia is a common condition that affects ignorant and closed minded individuals. Everyone has right to their own opinions and beliefs. However, it is wrong to mistreat another human being because of their lifestyle. All human beings deserve to be treated with love and…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays