I want to talk a little bit about Richard Mohr’s article “Anti-Gay Stereotypes.” We mentioned the term “queer-bashing” and I wanted to say a few things about it. First and foremost I think acts like these are disgusting and there is no place in society for them. However, as is the case with so many of the issues we have discussed this semester, issues I believe are holding this society hostage because of their presence, “queer-bashing” does exist and people will continue displaying acts of violence against others simply because they have a different opinion and mindset of what they perceive to be socially acceptable. Mohr makes a valid point about stereotypes and how they are culturally rooted; as individuals we have grown up in a culture that preaches what is and what isn’t acceptable behavior, and clearly being a homosexual isn’t an acceptable lifestyle choice. Personally, I don’t have a problem with homosexuals because they don’t impact my life in a way that is threatening or harmful. On the flip side, for a homosexual, specifically a male, to come out and announce he is gay knowing that the repercussions for this could in fact result in violent acts directed towards him is scary. Then again fear is the overall goal of people who partake in these vicious acts, because it keeps people’s true identities concealed. Mohr even says, “lots of people suppose they do not know a gay person and partly through their willful ignorance of society’s workings, people are largely unaware of the many ways in which gays are subject to discrimination in consequence of widespread fear and hatred” (581). Resorting back to the claim I made about people concealing their true identities, does it really matter if someone else still perceives you to be gay? The answer, I believe, is no. People will react on a hunch if they have to in order to prove a point and “protect” the social norm. We mentioned before that this article correlates well with Pharr’s article in the sense that homophobia is a threat to the system of male-dominance, because if a male isn’t with a woman they aren’t fulfilling their duty to society. Basically, people believe their masculinity is in jeopardy if homosexuals are free to walk the streets, which is why “queer-bashing” occurs.
One final issue I want to touch on with regards to the Mohr article, which is something I think is ridiculous and astonishing at the same time if it is indeed true, is his claim that two out of five men one passes on the street have had orgasmic sex with men (577). We talked a little bit about this in class and I failed to throw in my two cents, but I think that claim is ludicrous, and somewhat offensive to me. I’m not anti-gay or anything like that, but at the same time that statement made me very uncomfortable. I’ll relate the feelings I had when I read this to how homosexuals and other stereotyped groups feel whenever someone makes a claim they find offensive to them. The difference is that homosexuals and others cannot come out and challenge a statement like this because as I’ve mentioned, the fear is too great. I personally believe that the country and society we live in today is solely based on stereotypes. We are, by fault, a stereotypical society because it has been beaten into us since the beginning of time. We have continued to make false generalizations and believe only what we want to and see fit. Yet again, society as a whole is at fault and not one, but everyone is to blame for the misfortunes associated with stereotyping.
Brian Pullyblank
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