Obama’s recent statement that he supports gay marriage has once more opened the floor for political discourse on gay rights in America and in the rest of the world. Minutes after Obama’s announcement, twitter was swarming with supportive tweets using the hash tag: #ISupportSameSexMarriage.
What caught my eye, however, were the select few tweets that seemed to confirm the seemingly growing antagonism towards male-on-male relationships while lesbians continue to be spurred on by even the most homophobic of men. According to some men, lesbians are more than welcome to the acceptance-tea-party.
The lesbian fantasy endorses the objectification of the female body and confirms that its ultimate purpose lies in the pleasure of men. As a result, the intolerance of gay males by heterosexual men does not only condemn homosexuality but it is also degrading to women. Nothing screams sexism like showing high levels of enthusiasm for lesbians but at the same time, preaching against the supposedly “unnatural” and “disgusting” judgements on same-sex relationships between men. Unlike men, women are permitted to sexually “degrade” themselves for men’s pleasure, and men’s pleasure only.
For many of these men (who aren’t immediately concerned with the supposed moral or religious aspects of the case against homosexuality), making derogatory comments about other gay men only serves to confirm their own masculinity, which needs to be protected against the threat of deep-held notions of what it means to be a woman.
You think loving another man is degrading because you think being a woman is degrading. You can’t stand gay men who appreciate dresses, lipstick and fancy shoes, or men who will openly cry every time they watch The Notebook, because they insult your vain sense of manhood cheered on by the little alpha male inside your brain. You dislike gay men because they represent the possibility that your sense of masculinity is no more than perception and never more than conformity to your subjective reality. You need gay men (and all other “feminine” men, for that matter) to show you just how much of a “man” you really are.
So to all the male homophobes on twitter and beyond… your sexism is showing. Please admit that.
Photo Credit: Sara Fasullo via Creative Commons License
