Explain and critique masculinity as homophobia. Homophobia: -noun irrational fear of, aversion to, hatred of, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals.
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It is this failure that men grow to fear, and in turn hate more and more. Hate stems from fear and "our fear is the fear of humiliation." Masculinity is a man's only barrier against humiliation since masculinity is a social construct that we evaluate a man through. "Our efforts to maintain a manly front cover everything we do. Every moment contains a coded gendered language." (Kimmel CP pp. …show more content…
This is the source of discrimination in the form of not only homophobia, but sexism as well. Jokes about homosexuals and women are made by men at the water cooler at work and every man listening HAS to laugh at it, there really is no other choice. If a man objected to the discriminatory nature of the joke, he would almost certainly be questioned in effect to his masculinity, and would be suspected of perhaps being gay or effeminate. This would lead to humiliation which is the primary fear or men. Even a coworker jokingly saying "what, are you gay or something?" can cause anxiety in the most masculine of men. The accused would question himself in his head, worry that perhaps his guard of masculinity had been let down, even at the slightest of jokes or suspicions by someone. By hating homosexuals and berating women, this gap between the heterosexual and "being sissy" is widened, and the wider it is for a man, the more secure he feels. As stated in the text, "one way to protect one's heterosexual credentials and privilege is to put down lesbians and gay men at every turn, to make as large a gulf as possible between "we" and "they."' (Smith, CP pp.
It is this failure that men grow to fear, and in turn hate more and more. Hate stems from fear and "our fear is the fear of humiliation." Masculinity is a man's only barrier against humiliation since masculinity is a social construct that we evaluate a man through. "Our efforts to maintain a manly front cover everything we do. Every moment contains a coded gendered language." (Kimmel CP pp. …show more content…
This is the source of discrimination in the form of not only homophobia, but sexism as well. Jokes about homosexuals and women are made by men at the water cooler at work and every man listening HAS to laugh at it, there really is no other choice. If a man objected to the discriminatory nature of the joke, he would almost certainly be questioned in effect to his masculinity, and would be suspected of perhaps being gay or effeminate. This would lead to humiliation which is the primary fear or men. Even a coworker jokingly saying "what, are you gay or something?" can cause anxiety in the most masculine of men. The accused would question himself in his head, worry that perhaps his guard of masculinity had been let down, even at the slightest of jokes or suspicions by someone. By hating homosexuals and berating women, this gap between the heterosexual and "being sissy" is widened, and the wider it is for a man, the more secure he feels. As stated in the text, "one way to protect one's heterosexual credentials and privilege is to put down lesbians and gay men at every turn, to make as large a gulf as possible between "we" and "they."' (Smith, CP pp.