DOES FEAR OF SEXUAL ADVANCES CAUSE HOMOPHOBIA?
New research has suggested that prejudice against gays and lesbians could be linked to the fear by straight people of becoming the subjects of sexual advances by members of these groups.
Researchers found, in a thee part study, that heterosexual men generally believe that bisexual and gay men may direct unwanted sexual interest towards them.
Heterosexual women, on the other hand, generally believe bisexual men, bisexual women, and lesbians may direct unwanted sexual interest towards them.
The research, published by Social Psychological and Personality Science, was also able to link these beliefs with patterns of negativity toward the different sexual orientation groups.
“In all, our paper demonstrated robustly that perceptions of unwanted sexual interest by certain sexual orientation groups predict sexual prejudice quite well among college students, and that other alternative explanations (e.g., that non-heterosexuals violate gender norms or threaten one’s sexual identity) cannot explain patterns of sexual prejudice,” Angela G. Pirlott of University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, the lead author of the study, told PsyPost.
The study, which was co-authored by Steven L. Neuberg from Arizona State University, was conducted among a sample group of 533 heterosexual university students.
The research does not directly prove a causal link between fear of unwanted sexual advances and sexual orientation prejudice but suggests that this could well be one of the factors behind homophobia.
I tend to agree that this is just plain common sense. What does worry me though is that it is being used as a defense in a number of cases where gay people have been murdered and I find that very disturbing. I believe that that cannot be used as a defense on the following grounds. If a gay person approaches a stright person and makes sexual advances, all the straight pereason needs to do is say ” Im flattered (optional) but no thanks. Im straight” When the roles have been reversed, gay guys would simply tell the woman no thanks. It is certainly no ground to defend murder
Mmmm… My first thought a bout the was “DUH!!!” Are we still on this… straight men pat themselves on the back too often. Sure some of them are hot but seriously… why wud any gay man in their right mind waste thier energy on a guy whose sole intrest is vagina… YUCK!!!! You don’t need science to prove classic hetero-ignorance. Just because u catch me eying ur crotch don’t mean Im gonna hold a gun to your head and suck you off!! The real problem is that straight don’t have to work to be secure about thier sexuality like we do (which builds character by the way)… making them the most insecure bunch in the whole spectrum, now gay people gotta deal with the backlash of thier bullshit.