Study: It’s Homophobes Who Are Turned on by Gay Porn

[Shana A]

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 🔗 [Link: 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.

[tekla]

Who knew?

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

[dalebert]

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.   

[tekla]

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.

[Padma]

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 .

[dalebert]

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.

[tekla]

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. 

[Julie Marie]

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.

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!

[Padma]

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."

[Hikari]

  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.

[tekla]

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.

[Miniar]

... -.-

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.

[dalebert]

Penile enlargement sometimes happens during moments of "intense anger".

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

[Julie Marie]

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.

[tekla]

Just pray

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

[Julie Marie]

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)

[juliekins]

... -.-

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. 

[Padma]

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."

[dalebert]

... 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.

[Padma]

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.