Patriarchy and Homophobia

The in class viewing of movie "Fire" gave me a visual understanding of the homophobia and patriarchy discussed in Johnson and Pharr's article. Patriarchy is a system of advantage based on gender, in which the male or the father of the household has the authority in whole family. According to Pharr, the society is "male-dominated, male-identified, and male-centered." I agree with Johnson and it seems to be true when looking at the society. Most of the higher authority jobs are reserved for mens. This idea is socially constructed as well as homophobia, which is fear or negative attitudes towards the homosexuals. Even though these two ideas are not that relevant, the movie fire showed both illustrations.

Relating to the movie, it showed the patriarchy. For example, Sita's husband wanted to control Sita's life while going out and seeing another women. At first, Sita did not have much say to the husband because he still did what he wanted even after getting married. The movie however showed more of homophobia because of two wifes falling in love with each other. After watching and hearing how much disturbance the movie caused in India, it was a perfect example of homophobia. According to Pharr, homophobia is seen as a weapon or a threat, and I feel that in such society where most of things are male-dominated, two women having a relationship seemed unacceptable and almost like a rebellious action towards the society. Although heterosexuality or patriarchy doesn't seem much of a big deal nowadays, but in my opinion, people are just trying to hide it, rather than "it has changed and gotten better".

Hoon