[The study] asked heterosexal men how comfortable and anxious they are around gay men. Based on these scores, they then divided these men into two groups: men that are homophobic, and men who are not. These men were then shown three, four-minute videos. One video depicted straight sex, one depicted lesbian sex and one depicted gay male sex. While this was happening, a device was attached to each participant’s penis. This device has been found to be triggered by sexual arousal, but not other types of arousal (such as nervousness, or fear – arousal often has a very different meaning in psychology than in popular usage). When viewing lesbian sex and straight sex, both the homophobic and the non-homophobic men showed increased penis circumference. For gay male sex, however, only the homophobic men showed heightened penis arousal. Heterosexual men with the most anti-gay attitudes, when asked, reported not being sexually aroused by gay male sex videos. But, their penises reported otherwise. Homophobic men were the most sexually aroused by gay male sex acts.
[See here]
I wrote about this phenomenon a few years ago. Whenever I hear a rabid homophobe, the first thing I think is that that person is gay him/herself!
Sigmund Freud called this phenomenon "Reaction Formation." Reaction formation occurs when one has an internal conflict and seeks to resolve that conflict by vociferously asserting the very opposite of what he/she actually feels.
So, whenever you hear a rabid homophobe, realize that that person may very well likely be gay!
2 comments:
It's not always true, of course, that anti-Gay hatemongers are LesBiGay themselves, but it's an interesting phenomenon, isn't it? Kind of like the homeless men I hear, jawboning all the time about how the homeless are mostly lazy, shiftless and immoral, but somehow, they themselves are DIFFERENT . . . identifying with the oppressor, Grandfather: That behavior runs rampant in our society! It's relevant to much more than just the sexual orientation issue.
You''re absolutely right, Stuff! The desire of many to view themselves as better than others is further perverted into the Stockholm Syndrome that further exploits them by those others with whom they falsely identify. Self loathing is horrible and treacherous! Best wishes, Jerry.
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