Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Study: It's Homophobes Who Are Turned on by Gay Porn
by Kilian Melloy
Thursday Jun 16, 2011

http://www.edgeboston.com/news/national///120994/study:_it’s_homophobes_who_are_turned_on_by_gay_porn (http://www.edgeboston.com/news/national///120994/study:_it’s_homophobes_who_are_turned_on_by_gay_porn)

It's a stereotype that the most homophobic men are likely to be closet cases themselves, but a longstanding study indicates that there's more than a grain of truth to the belief, which is widespread among the GLBT community.

[...]

Professional psychologists tested the theory a decade and a half ago, and found it holds up: A study done at the University of Georgia in 1996 confirms that that men who describe themselves as homophobic are the same men who are physically aroused by watching gay porn.

Who knew?

BTW most lesbian porn is sold to straight men?  Shocking.

I've said for some time that homophobia is often driven by some kind of insecurity, if not actual homosexual tendencies.  I wouldn't be surprised if these same homophobes also drive sports cars or huge trucks.   ::)

same homophobes also drive sports cars or huge trucks

I don't know, seems like a lot of my gay friends have sports cars, and trucks are not rare either.

Quote from: tekla on June 17, 2011, 09:33:09 AM
I don't know, seems like a lot of my gay friends have sports cars, and trucks are not rare either.

Last time I looked, growing up gay was a pretty good reason to be insecure :(.

Of course I was just making a joke about guys compensating for insecurities in various ways and those are the most obvious.  Not everyone is compensating for a psychological insecurity in that way.  "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."  Haha.

I think that insecurity could be something like having been molested as a child or picked on by bullies or whatever.  Just saying I don't jump to the conclusion they're secretly gay(ish), though that seems to be a common one.

insecure?  Hell it's California, every other person has some sort of 'sports car'.  BMWs are standard issue in Marin.  And pickup trucks are popular too, lots of people have a need for one be it owning a motorcycle, or a business, or working in antiques or construction.  And there is a generation and a half of gay people in the US who are didn't grow up any more insecure because of it then straight people are of their sexuality - which is to say 'a lot' sure, but I don't think it's all that stand out special anymore with anyone under 30.

And that's not the point, which is that people who hate are really hating something inside themselves.  It's not the 'gay movement' they fear.  It's the gay inside them they fear.  And we see that so much - hey there Ted Haggarty, you meth snorting butt banging anti-gay preacher, yeah, I'm looking right at you - that it's become it's own cliche.  The gay movement can't possible threaten a heterosexual person, it changes nothing. 

Maybe they can do a better job of putting this out into the mainstream, especially when we see some homophobe standing on the sidelines with one of those silly signs.

The problem isn't that these guys are turned on by gay porn, the problem is they feel guilty about that.

Quote from: tekla on June 17, 2011, 08:44:59 AM
BTW most lesbian porn is sold to straight men?  Shocking.

I think it's more about imagining being there than it being gay.  Lesbian sandwich!

Yeah, yeah, Tekla - you don't have to be gay to be insecure, you don't have to be insecure to be gay, you don't have to be gay or insecure to own a big vehicle. Is that everything covered? Oh, wait - you don't have to own a big vehicle to be gay/insecure. :) I was just making the point that just because someone's gay doesn't mean they're not insecure too (and some people own muscle vehicles because they're insecure, regardless of orientation) - and in fact, just because someone's gay doesn't mean they're not dealing with internalised homophobia, but that's just making this way too complicated now. The really important question is: do insecure gay truck owners like fruitcake?

Okay, back on topic, this reminds me of The Naked Civil Servant, in which Quentin Crisp says: "All toughs are queer - unfortunately, not all queers are tough."

Quote from: tekla on June 17, 2011, 10:05:53 AM
  The gay movement can't possible threaten a heterosexual person, it changes nothing.

This is what I have been saying for years, but I also don't think that very many people are 100% hetrosexual (or 100% homosexual for that matter) and even a 5% attraction sufficiently suppressed may make someone very insecure, and 5% is still in the plausible denial realm, I couldn't even imagine the logic that goes on to deny the actions of people who are actively living double lives, but I know for sure, that it isn't a good thing, self deception never is.

problem is they feel guilty about that

True that, and for sure that's not my fault, so I don't know what to do about it.

... -.-

Can we please stop citing that study?
It's been discredited!

Penile enlargement sometimes happens during moments of "intense anger".
The measured enlargement in this study can be caused by "intense anger" which means that their homophobia is manifesting physically, not necessarily a byproduct of sexual confusion.

There's no way of determining whether it's "arousal" or "anger" when you measure changes to penis circumference.

Quote from: Miniar on June 17, 2011, 12:22:32 PM
Penile enlargement sometimes happens during moments of "intense anger".

Wow, that's kind of disturbing.  Not arguing it, but... ew.

Quote from: tekla on June 17, 2011, 10:32:20 AM
problem is they feel guilty about that

True that, and for sure that's not my fault, so I don't know what to do about it.

Just pray.

Just pray

That's what got them there isn't it?

Quote from: tekla on June 17, 2011, 01:14:22 PM
Just pray

That's what got them there isn't it?

Kinda like alcohol: "The cause of, and the answer to, all of life's problems" (Homer Simpson)

Quote from: Miniar on June 17, 2011, 12:22:32 PM
... -.-

Can we please stop citing that study?
It's been discredited!

Penile enlargement sometimes happens during moments of "intense anger".
The measured enlargement in this study can be caused by "intense anger" which means that their homophobia is manifesting physically, not necessarily a byproduct of sexual confusion.

Did the study cynics consider that these closeted men are angry with a society that can't allow them to act on their impulses? Or that they are angry with themselves with not being true to their own nature? Heck, they might be angry with their wives for going along with the ruse. 

Quote from: juliekins on June 17, 2011, 05:34:07 PM
Did the study cynics consider that these closeted men are angry with a society that can't allow them to act on their impulses? Or that they are angry with themselves with not being true to their own nature? Heck, they might be angry with their wives for going along with the ruse.

...or that some of them are closeted and angry, and some of them are just angry.

Sure, some homophobes may be homosexual, but I think a lot of them are just homophobic amongst the load of other things they're conditioned to be uncomfortable and angry about - many of them seem to be also racist and sexist, for example, and that doesn't make them secretly a different race and gender. It's never as simple as "all people who do this are that."

Quote from: Padma on June 17, 2011, 05:42:00 PM
... many of them seem to be also racist and sexist, for example, and that doesn't make them secretly a different race and gender.

Good points.  It would be tricky to be secretly Asian, or something.  Although I do believe a lot of homophobia is tied to misogyny.

A phobia is a fear, even though it generally manifests as anger with homophobia. And in my experience, each person's fears have subtly different roots from the next one, so while there are common threads, it's prudent not to assume a blanket reason. The homophobes I've met have seemed to have wildly differing things going on under the surface of their feelings. And people don't have to be gay to get bullied at school for being assumed to be so (or even just seeing it happen to others is enough to make people scared of the label), for example, and that stuff leaves a mess too.

Quote from: Julie Marie on June 17, 2011, 10:09:06 AMThe problem isn't that these guys are turned on by gay porn, the problem is they feel guilty about that.

Yeah, you should probably have a talk with traditional religions about that....

"Well, doc, this is how it happened.  I was watching gay porn, yada, yada, yada, and I got angry.  That's why I became aroused.."

"Can we talk about the 'yada, yada, yada'?"

"NO!"

So telling homophobes they're secretly gay will get them hard? ;D

Oh, and it fascinates me that there doesn't seem to be an equivalent study to see what happens when homophobic women look at gay porn. Because people tend to think homophobe=man, but a lot of us know better :(.

Well it seems to be harder to gauge female response, as the 'DickHard O Meter' doesn't seem to work on them to the same - apparently controversial - degree it works on guys.

Really, who the hell is sitting around some campus thinking "Hey, I'd love to measure how hard guys dicks get when I show them porn?"  Talk about a dream job...

Quote from: tekla on June 18, 2011, 09:10:34 AM
Really, who the hell is sitting around some campus thinking "Hey, I'd love to measure how hard guys dicks get when I show them porn?"  Talk about a dream job...

Someone with a bone to pick, obviously.

Quote from: Miniar on June 17, 2011, 12:22:32 PM
Penile enlargement sometimes happens during moments of "intense anger".
The measured enlargement in this study can be caused by "intense anger" which means that their homophobia is manifesting physically, not necessarily a byproduct of sexual confusion.

So is this saying that these people see the solution for dealing with someone you hate is to rape them? That would tie in with people who rape gay people to try and turn them straight. And, of course, any form of bullying is mental rape. So if these homophobes are not gays, then are they potential rapists?

I don't think arousal is nearly as closely connected to orientation as people imagine.

If you're thinking the penis has a mind of it's own, well lots of women would agree with you.

Quote from: Sarah7 on June 18, 2011, 01:51:14 PM
That a guy gets aroused watching two blokes screw doesn't really say much about his actual sexual preferences.

Sounds like something a Republican would say.

I have to say, men get aroused very easily, even when they don't want to be - there are (for example) countless distressing examples of men believing themselves somehow complicit in being sexually abused as boys, simply because they got an erection while it was happening to them. The male body is built to get a hard-on at the drop of a hat, and that's not an indicator of actual desire.

This doesn't mean that homophobes who get aroused by images of gay erotica are not sometimes closeted homosexuals, it just means that getting aroused in that way isn't necessarily an indication of anything.

That was a shot at the Republicans Sarah, not at you.  Here in the good Ole USA, our Republicans kinda have a name for themselves getting involved in gay trysts, getting caught and then coming up with anything they can think of to deny they are gay.

One guy was toe tapping in a bathroom stall (sliding your foot under the stall wall to see if the guy in the next stall responds) and got caught.  His excuse was, "I have a wide stance."

Quote from: Lisbeth on June 18, 2011, 11:28:52 AM
So is this saying that these people see the solution for dealing with someone you hate is to rape them? That would tie in with people who rape gay people to try and turn them straight. And, of course, any form of bullying is mental rape. So if these homophobes are not gays, then are they potential rapists?

Actually, you're on to something there.

See, rape's rarely, if ever, about sexual attraction.
It's about control, dominance, violence, et cetera.

Just think of all the "gay" group-rapes that apparently take place in the american military and in prisons.
The overwhelming majority of the people involved in these are not gay men.
That's because it's not about "sex".
It's a way to force, violate, hurt, humiliate, etc.

wow i have to say i never heard of a man getting an erection because they are angry!

That's a new one to me! (and I used to have one of those!)

I'm sitting here laughing my butt off just because I have a Brother-In-Law who is very homophobic. It just conjures up this hilarious image of him in his office watching some gay porn flick on his PC late at night. And yes, I will most certainly use this against him should he bring up the issue of my being on HRT.