Gender Strategies

In exploring the psyche of a normative heterosexual boy, Ken Corbett reveals the central role that homophobia plays in the construction of masculinities. It’s interesting to see that “real” men feel inclined to reject the feminine or what they perceive to be weak or powerless, and words like “faggot”, not as a sexual insults but as a connotative references indicating the failure to be masculine, provide a skewed sense of “phobic solution”. This hegemonic form of masculinity would support men’s perceived dominance over women and other men in subordinated positions due to race, class, or gender, and by verbally or physically attacking men whom they perceive as not masculine, men can reassert their own manhood. To see the flesh experiences with boys through Corbett’s essay was so eye opening because speaking for myself at least, there seems to be a stronger association of homophobia with men than women, who tend to have more positive attitudes toward homosexuality, perhaps because it resonates with “feminine” ideals of passivity. Given a woman’s traditionally more subordinate position, much of what makes a woman “feminine” is her ability and desire to attract a man by objectifying herself through the subtleties that draw men in through less aggressive tactics, and many of the roles they gain from their identities (as a girlfriend, wife and mother) only emphasize those constituents of a female gender identity. In these gender strategies, it’s interesting to see how the dynamics shift between the homophobia and consequent phallic narcissism of men and women. Whereas men engage in direct, aggressive and open behaviors to associate themselves with “bigness”, homophobia among women seems to emerge in forms of distancing from lesbians in social settings rather than blatant or publicly visual actions (ironically perhaps because they've picked up on social cues that girls should be "nice" or composed?). While I see girls tossing around the phrase "You're so gay", they're rarely prompted to call another girl "fag", although words like loser, slut, and whore are commonly used, as Maddie pointed out. Anyway, while differences are apparent in these gender strategies, heterosexuality continues to act as a means to quell anxieties about sexuality or reinforce feminine or masculine ideals, and thus embody gender.