why does homophobia exist?
like, I get that maybe there's like, some sort of a religious thing or something but for real, like... what are the fears driving heteronormativity?
Theory: men instinctually test each other, recruiting allies, purging weaklings, establishing a hierarchy, and this is foundational to their social reality. Homosexuality seems to short-circuit that social fabric, which feels threatening. Masculine culture reinforces the pattern.
I’m curious, particularly bc my OP was inspired by a homophobic woman, do you think that women learn homophobia from men or do you think different genders have different social motivations behind their fear of the LGBTQ+ community?
My perception is that homophobia is a very masculine response and I assume that homophobic women are adopting that position from the historically masculine culture around them. It doesn’t seem like something instinctively threatening to women (probably the opposite).
I can still see conservative women fearing the LGBT community as a bad influence because of their sex positivity or ‘edginess’ or something. But I don’t see this as homophobia as much as a fear of the ‘other’ or the ‘unknown’ or the ‘new’.