Monday, January 12, 2009
Response to "How Homophobia Hurts Everyone"
This is isn't to say that I disagreed with every idea presented in this essay, but there were a couple main points that stuck out to me the most though. One of which, that I strongly disagreed with was the statement that 'Homophobia inhibits the ability of heterosexuals to form close, intimate relationships with members of their own sex.' This paragraph elaborated that when adolescents hit puberty, their elders encourage them to stop spending as much time together, so as not to give off the idea that they are homosexual or "more than just friends" per say. Maybe this is just an older idea, but I completely disagree with this statement. It's been my experience, if anything, to have the opposite occur, so as not to give the idea that you are 'sexually active' or even 'promiscuous' but never have I been discouraged to stop spending time with someone of the same sex as me. Has anyone actually ever had this happen to them? I'd be really interested to hear about their experience if they were interested in sharing.
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You shift to the idea of spending less "time" together, whereas the more interesting question (in my mind at least)has more to do with forming "close, intimate relationships." So forgetting 'time together,' does it make sense to talk about ways that homophobia restricts relationships among heterosexuals? I think it does - and I know for sure that homophobia and internalized homophobia inhibit and intrude upon many relationships among non-heterosexuals.
ReplyDeleteThat's true... looking at it from that perspective does change my mind.
ReplyDeleteI really like this class because it forces me to consider things in a different way and look through a different perspective that I definitely would not normally be considering. It makes life all that more complicated to challenge what you would normally think of something and try to understand it and then change your own way of thinking.