In conclusion, the study's authors underscored the "important phenomenon" uncovered in their report regarding the differing views of gender norms in the East and the West and how they relate to views on sexuality.
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Male fascination with things Sapphic is usually born out of total indignation that we do not desire the male form. They are genuinely shocked that women can have fun together when we, as one charmer once said to me, "have no genitals". I still laugh at the memory of a lesbian comedian saying during a gig: "It's not that we dislike penises, we just don't like them on men.
I have been told that I am a lesbian because I have yet to find the right man. If finding the right man was a prerequisite of heterosexuality, we would soon be extinct. But things seem to have got out of control lately with mens' obsession with lezzerism. First the blog supposedly written by a lesbian from Damascus was found to have been written by a man living in Scotland , and then it turns out that Paula Brooks, the editor of the lesbian news website LezGetReal, is a retired Ohio military man and construction worker.
What is going on? Do we not have enough lesbian writers without having to make them up? Do I need to churn out more diatribes? Being an out and proud lesbian with a public profile, I often get slated by men who take umbrage that I am not exactly their type for a sexual fantasy the male version is either a woman so butch she could kick-start her own vibrator, or a Katie Price-type with extra large boobs, three-foot-long tongue and additional fingers.
One accused me on his blog of "lezzering on again" after hearing me on Radio 4. I was surprised because the item he was referring to was about the cost of car insurance for women. Another Guardian writer, Cath Elliott , is often assumed to be a lesbian by men who take offence at her dislike of rapists and sex murderers. She once got so tired of comments posted on her blog asking her about her short hair and lack of makeup that she told them we both run a lesbian militia training school in the countryside for straight women.
It is argued that scales assessing attitudes toward lesbians and gay men should restrict their content to items loading highly on the Condemnation-Tolerance factor. An appendix lists items loading on the Condemnation-Tolerance factor. On heterosexual masculinity: Some psychical consequences of the social construction of gender and sexuality.
American Behavioral Scientist, 29 5 , This article considers the proposition that to be "a man" in contemporary American society is to be homophobic -- that is, to be hostile toward homosexual persons in general and gay men in particular. Starting from empirical observation of links between homophobia and gender, heterosexual masculinity is discussed as a culturally constructed gender identity that has been affected by the historically recent emergence of gay identities.
The paper then discusses how heterosexual masculine identity is constructed by individuals, and how expressing hostility toward gay people enhances such an identity. Homophobia serves the psychological function of expressing who one is not i. Furthermore, homophobia reduces the likelihood that heterosexual men will interact with gay men, thereby ruling out opportunities for the attitude change that often occurs through such contact.
Finally, the paper proposes strategies for disentangling homophobia from heterosexual masculinity, and considers prospects for changing both. You can request a reprint of this article via e-mail. The instrumentality of attitudes: Toward a neofunctional theory. Journal of Social Issues, 42 2 , This paper proposes that attitudes should be viewed as strategies for meeting personal needs: They serve psychological functions. After reviewing the early functional attitude theories proposed by Katz and Smith et al , and some of the problems associated with them, a new functional approach is outlined.
This neofunctional approach distinguishes between two principal sources for the benefit related to attitudes: the attitude's object and the attitude's expression. Within these two major categories, specific functions are described based on the author's research and that of earlier functional theorists. The personality, situational, and domain characteristics likely to influence the functional value of attitudes are also discussed. Strategies suggested by this approach for changing attitudes are briefly considered.
The social psychology of homophobia: Toward a practical theory. Review of Law and Social Change, 14 4 , This paper presents a social psychological theory to explain homophobia based on the notion that a broad range of reactions to homosexuality exists among Americans. Based on the idea that attitudes serve psychological functions and are divided according to how they benefit the person holding the attitude, two major categories of homophobia are discussed: 1 homophobia based on personal experiences with homosexuals experiential attitudes , and 2 homophobia based on the consequences of expressing one's opinions about homosexuals expressive attitudes.
Different strategies must be used in dealing with each type of homophobia. For heterosexuals, personal contact with lesbians and gay men represents the most promising strategy for reducing homophobia.
Heterosexuals will be less likely to define the world entirely in heterosexual terms when they are aware of gay significant others. Religious orientation and prejudice: A comparison of racial and sexual attitudes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 13 1 , Past research on the relationship between religious orientation and prejudice against out-groups has focused on racism.
A greater tendency toward racist attitudes has been found among persons with an extrinsic religious orientation, whereas an intrinsic orientation has sometimes been associated with tolerance.
This study examined the influence of religious orientation on attitudes toward an out-group not widely accepted by contemporary religions lesbians and gay men. Using questionnaire data from White, heterosexual students on four university campuses, an extrinsic orientation was found to be positively correlated with racism, whereas an intrinsic orientation was not. Intrinsics, however, tended to be more prejudiced against gay people than were extrinsics.
It is suggested that an intrinsic orientation does not foster unequivocal acceptance of others but instead encourages tolerance toward specific groups that are accepted by contemporary Judeo-Christian teachings. Attitudes toward outgroups may serve different psychological functions for persons with extrinsic and intrinsic orientations. A pre-publication version of the paper in PDF format can be downloaded from this site.
Decision-making during international crises: Is quality of process related to outcome? Journal of Conflict Resolution, 31 2 , This study investigated the hypothesis that high-quality decision-making procedures during crises are associated with better crisis outcomes than are defective decision-making procedures.
Presidential decision making during 19 international crises since World War II was examined for 7 symptoms of defective decision making proposed by Janis and Mann Crisis outcomes were rated by outside experts in terms of their effect on US vital interests and on international conflict.
As hypothesized, results indicated that crisis outcomes tended to have more adverse effects on US interests and were more likely to increase international conflict when the decision-making process was characterized by a large number of symptoms. Alternative explanations are considered and the implications of these results for improving decision makers' procedures are discussed.
Can functions be measured? A new perspective on the functional approach to attitudes. Social Psychology Quarterly, 50 4 , This paper argues for the value of a reformulated and reoperationalized functional approach to attitudes. The development of two new procedures for directly assessing functions is described. First, a content analysis procedure was devised, using essays written by undergraduate students describing their attitudes toward lesbians and gay men.
Patterns of themes were identified in the essays that indicate the presence of three functions: Experiential-Schematic, Defensive, and Self-Expressive. Correlations with theoretically relevant measures indicate that the content analysis procedure effectively assesses attitude functions. In Study 2, an objectively-scored method, the Attitude Functions Inventory AFI , was developed and used to assess the functions served by attitudes toward lesbians and gay men and toward persons with three stigmatizing disabilities: AIDS, mental illness, and cancer.
Preliminary data support the AFI's validity. Theoretical and methodological implications for future research are discussed. Download a detailed explanation of the content analysis coding categories used in this research, in PDF format requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, version 5.
American Psychologist, 43 11 , The AIDS epidemic has been accompanied by intensely negative public reactions to persons presumed to be infected by the human immunodeficiency virus HIV. In this article, we define such reactions as AIDS-related stigma. We discuss two major sources of this stigma: the identification of AIDS as a deadly disease and the association of AIDS in the United States with already stigmatized groups, especially gay men. We describe some of the social and psychological processes that contribute to AIDS-related stigma and offer suggestions for eradicating stigma through public policy and individual education.
Heterosexuals' attitudes toward lesbians and gay men: Correlates and gender differences. The Journal of Sex Research, 25 4 , This paper discusses the basis for differences among heterosexuals in their reactions to gay people, with special emphasis on the issue of gender differences. Three studies conducted with students at 6 different universities revealed a consistent tendency for heterosexual males to express more hostile attitudes than heterosexual females, especially toward gay men.
The same social psychological variables appear to underlie both males' and females' attitudes toward both gay men and lesbians: religiosity, adherence to traditional ideologies of family and gender, perception of friends' agreement with one's own attitudes, and past interactions with lesbians and gay men. The role of these variables in shaping attitudes is discussed and areas for future research are proposed.
Hate crimes against lesbians and gay men: Issues for research and policy. American Psychologist, 44 6 , Antigay hate crimes words or actions that are intended to harm or intimidate individuals because they are lesbian or gay constitute a serious national problem. Assaults may have increased in frequency during the last few years, with many incidents now including spoken references to the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome AIDS by the assailants. Trends cannot be assessed, however, because most antigay hate crimes are never reported and no comprehensive national surveys of antigay victimization have been conducted.
Suggestions are offered for research and policy. Gay people and government security clearances: A social science perspective. American Psychologist, 45 9 , Lesbian and gay male applicants routinely are denied government security clearances or are subjected to unusually lengthy and intensive investigation. This article reviews social science data relevant to the principal justifications that have been offered for this policy and presents the following conclusions: a Lesbians and gay men are no more likely than heterosexuals to suffer from a personality disorder or emotional stress, or to be psychologically unstable; b lesbians and gay men are no more likely than heterosexuals to be unduly sensitive to coercion, blackmail, or duress; and c lesbians and gay men are no more likely than heterosexuals to be unwilling to respect or uphold laws or regulations, or to be unreliable or untrustworthy.
Three major flaws are discussed that underlie current government policies toward gay applicants for security clearances: a Groups rather than individuals are screened for undesirable characteristics; b applicants are rejected on the basis of problems created by government policies themselves; and c homosexual applicants are scrutinized according to criteria that are not applied similarly to heterosexual applicants.
An alternative hypothesis, that experience with stigma actually may increase a gay applicant's ability to maintain secrecy, is discussed. Some consequences of current policies are noted. The context of anti-gay violence: Notes on cultural and psychological heterosexism.
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 5 3 , Hate crimes against lesbians and gay men occur within a broader cultural context that is permeated by heterosexism. Heterosexism is defined here as an ideological system that denies, denigrates, and stigmatizes any nonheterosexual form of behavior, identity, relationship, or community. It operates principally by rendering homosexuality invisible and, when this fails, by trivializing, repressing, or stigmatizing it.
This article focuses on the nexus between cultural heterosexism and individual prejudice against lesbians and gay men.
Key components of the ideologies of sex and gender from which heterosexism derives are identified: a the personal-public dichotomy, b the stigmatization of particular forms of sexuality, and c the linkage of heterosexuality to gender-role conformity. Supported by these ideological underpinnings, cultural heterosexism fosters anti-gay attitudes by providing a ready-made system of values and stereotypical beliefs that just such prejudice as "natural.
Furthermore, by discouraging lesbians and gay men from coming out to others, heterosexism perpetuates itself. Recent social trends that may affect the ideology of heterosexism are identified, and their potential for reducing anti-gay prejudice is discussed. Documenting the victimization of lesbians and gay men: Methodological issues. Documenting the extent of anti-gay hate crimes is of critical importance in responding effectively to them and preventing them.
The task of documentation is difficult and time-consuming, but is tremendously valuable if done correctly. Recognizing that the bulk of information about hate crimes currently comes from small-scale community surveys, this article describes some of the major methodological issues involved in conducting such surveys. Issues of sampling, instrument design, data collection, and data analysis are discussed.
Guidelines are offered for reporting the survey results. A sample victimization questionnaire is presented. Using the guidelines and resources provided in this article may yield survey results that will be more useful for researchers, service providers, policymakers, and the lesbian and gay community Back to bibliography.
Anti-gay violence and mental health: Setting an agenda for research. Empirical studies are urgently needed of the scope and prevalence of anti-gay violence, its mental health consequences, its prevention, and institutional response to it.
Researchers should seek data from a variety of sources, use representative samples whenever possible, use reliable and valid measures and methods, and design studies that are longitudinal and prospective. Each of these components of a research agenda for studying anti-gay violence and hate crimes is described.
Garnets, L. Violence and victimization of lesbians and gay men: Mental health consequences. This article describes some of the major psychosocial challenges faced by lesbian and gay male survivors of hate crimes, their significant others, and the gay community as a whole. When an individual is attacked because she or he is perceived to be gay, the negative mental health consequences of victimization converge with those resulting from societal heterosexism to create a unique set of problems.
Such victimization represents a crisis for the individual, creating opportunities for growth as well as risks for impairment. The principal risk associated with anti-gay victimization is that the survivor's homosexuality becomes directly linked to her or his newly heightened sense of vulnerability.
The problems faced by lesbian and gay male victims of sexual assault, and the psychological impact of verbal abuse also are discussed. Suggestions are offered to assist practitioners in helping the survivors of anti-gay hate crimes. Berrill, K. Primary and secondary victimization in anti-gay hate crimes: Official response and public policy. Lesbian and gay male targets of hate crimes face multiple levels of victimization. In addition to suffering the effects of being a crime victim, they also face secondary victimization i.
Examples of secondary victimization include losing one's job, being evicted from housing, or being denied public services or accommodations once one's sexual orientation is disclosed as the result of an anti-gay attack. The inadequacies of government response to anti-gay hate crimes are discussed, and the secondary victimization perpetrated by the criminal justice system is described. A broad-based governmental response to anti-gay hate crimes is advocated.
Specific policy recommendations are offered for formulating appropriate legislation, reforming the criminal justice system, and developing widespread community education programs. Illness, stigma, and AIDS. VandenBos Eds. This paper describes some of the general cultural, social, and psychological processes through which an illness becomes stigmatized, and the consequences of these processes for individuals with the disease. It applies these concepts to AIDS-related stigma , which refers to all unfavorable attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and policies directed at persons perceived to be infected with HIV, whether or not they actually are infected and regardless of whether or not they manifest symptoms of AIDS.
Individuals' hostility toward people with AIDS can best be understood through psychological and sociological perspectives on stigma, prejudice, and attitudes. Individual manifestations of AIDS-related stigma represent the intersection of psychological processes with the cultural construction of the illness.
Five areas of analysis are considered: the biomedical manifestations of AIDS, the cultural construction of AIDS, attitudes of the nonstigmatized, experiences of the stigmatized, and social interactions between the two groups.
The Journal of Sex Research, 28 1 , This paper offers a preliminary conceptualization of the psychological structure of AIDS-related attitudes among American adults, and describes some of the social and psychological factors that affect those attitudes. Data were collected first from participants in focus groups in five U. Two major psychological dimensions of attitudes were observed consistently.
It also includes attributions of blame to people with AIDS. The two attitude dimensions are not highly correlated. Regression analyses suggest that the two dimensions have different social and psychological antecedents, and that these antecedents differ between White and Black Americans. Using the two factors, a tentative typology of responses to the AIDS epidemic is presented. Implications for AIDS education and policy are discussed. Avoiding heterosexist bias in psychological research. American Psychologist, 46 9 , This article describes various ways that heterosexist bias can occur in scientific research and suggests ways that social and behavioral scientists can avoid it.
Heterosexist bias is defined as conceptualizing human experience in strictly heterosexual terms and consequently ignoring, invalidating, or derogating homosexual behaviors and sexual orientation, and lesbian, gay male, and bisexual relationships and lifestyles.
The deleterious scientific, social, and ethical consequences of such bias are discussed. Questions are provided for researchers to use in evaluating how heterosexist bias might affect their own selection of research questions, sampling, operationalization of variables, data collection, protection of participants, and dissemination of results.
Suggestions also are offered for reducing heterosexist bias in academic journals, textbooks, and in colleges and universities.
You can also request a reprint via e-mail. Myths about sexual orientation: A lawyer's guide to social science research. Law and Sexuality, 1 , This article provides an overview of social science theory and empirical research concerning sexual orientation. The paper begins with a brief discussion of terminology, basic concepts of internal validity and generalizability, the application of data to individuals and groups, and the burden of proof in scientific research on homosexuality.
The bulk of the article is devoted to a discussion of current data relevant to eight common, inaccurate characterizations of lesbians, gay men, and homosexuality. These myths concern: 1 the relationship of homosexuality to mental illness; 2 the psychological effects of stigma on gay men and women; 3 the origins of sexual orientation and possibilities for changing it; 4 homosexuality and child molestation; 5 the effects of gay parents and role models on children; 6 gay male and lesbian intimate relationships; 7 gay people as a minority group; and 8 the effects of gay people on organizational efficiency and morale.
The social science research reviewed here consistently indicates that lesbians and gay men, as a group, do not differ in significant ways from heterosexuals except in terms of their sexual orientation. Stigma, prejudice, and violence against lesbians and gay men. Weinrich Eds. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Although they show increasing willingness to extend basic civil liberties to gay men and lesbians, most heterosexual Americans continue to condemn homosexuality on moral grounds and to reject or feel uncomfortable about gay people personally.
This chapter uses social science theory and empirical research to describe and explain these negative attitudes, with special emphasis on research findings relevant to policymakers. The chapter begins with a discussion of gay people as a stigmatized minority group. Next, it reviews social psychological data on antigay prejudice and stereotypes, including an extended discussion of the stereotype that gay people molest children.
Next, consequences of prejudice are described. Finally, after a brief discussion of the linkage between antigay attitudes and public reactions to AIDS, suggestions are offered for eradicating antigay prejudice. A pre-publication version of the chapter in PDF format can be downloaded from this site.
American Journal of Public Health, 83 4 , This study measured the pervasiveness of stigmatizing attitudes and beliefs concerning AIDS among the American public. Telephone interviews were conducted with a general sample of U. Only African Americans were more likely than Whites to overestimate the risk of infection through casual contact, but were less likely to hold negative personal feelings toward PWAs.
Overall, females were less likely than males to stigmatize PWAs on measures pertaining to punitive policies and avoidant behaviors. Stigma among African Americans appears to focus on AIDS as a disease that threatens the Black community, whereas stigma among Whites appears to reflect attitudes toward the social groups principally affected by the epidemic. The results indicate that stigma reduction should be a central goal of AIDS educational efforts.
An extended summary of this study is available. Sexual orientation and military service: A social science perspective. American Psychologist, 48 5 , Since , the policy of the U. Department of Defense has been that homosexuality is incompatible with military service. In January of , however, President Clinton announced his intention to reverse the military's ban and called for discussion about how best to implement a new, nondiscriminatory policy.
This article reviews the social science literature relevant to such a discussion. Empirical data suggest that lesbians and gay men are not inherently less capable of military service than are heterosexual women and men; that prejudice in the military can be overcome; that heterosexual personnel can adapt to living and working in close quarters with lesbian and gay male personnel; and that public opinion will be influenced by the way this issue is framed.
Any change in policy should be accompanied by strong measures to prevent harassment and violence against lesbians and gay men, educate heterosexual personnel, and enforce uniform policies regarding all forms of sexual harassment.
Considerations relevant to a new policy that does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation are discussed. You can request a reprint via e-mail. Interpersonal contact and heterosexuals' attitudes toward gay men: Results from a national survey. The Journal of Sex Research, 30 3 , When asked whether any friends or relatives had "let you know that they were homosexual," approximately one-third of the respondents gave an affirmative answer.
Regression analyses indicated that interpersonal contact predicted attitudes toward gay men better than did any other demographic or social psychological variable included in the equation. Interpersonal contact was more likely to be reported by respondents who were highly educated, politically liberal, young, and female. The data indicate that interpersonal contact is strongly associated with positive attitudes toward gay men and that heterosexuals with characteristics commonly associated with positive attitudes are more likely than others to be the recipients of disclosure from gay friends and relatives.
Journal of Homosexuality , 25 4 , College and university communities recently have begun to confront the problems of harassment, discrimination, and violence against lesbians, gay men, and bisexual people on campus. A first step in responding to attacks against gay and bisexual people is to document their frequency and the forms that they take.
The present article reports the methodology and results of a survey conducted at Yale University in , which subsequently has been replicated on several other campuses. The Yale survey revealed that lesbians, gay men, and bisexual people on campus lived in a world of secretiveness and fear.
Although experiences of physical assault on campus were relatively infrequent, many respondents reported other forms of discrimination and harassment. A majority reported that they feared antigay violence and harassment on campus, and that such fears affected their behavior. Replications on other campuses have yielded similar results. Suggestions are offered for researchers who wish to conduct such a survey on their own campus. A copy of the report on which this paper is based in PDF format can be downloaded from this site.
Reeder Eds. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Special attention is paid to the stigma that so closely accompanies HIV disease in the United States. Among the questions considered are whether AIDS attitudes are unidimensional or consist of multiple domains; whether AIDS attitudes in different domains have the same social psychological antecedents; whether these relationships are similar among different demographic groups; what psychological functions are served by AIDS attitudes; and how antigay prejudice combines with other factors to affect public reactions to AIDS.
Data are presented from focus groups conducted in different cities and towns in the United States, as well as a national telephone survey. AIDS educational programs can be effective only to the extent that they are perceived as credible by their target audiences.
In this study, public trust associated with AIDS was assessed in a national telephone survey.
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