Oh, my homophobia poll.

[13chapters]

One last update on my homophobia among straight men poll. (Hi, waterofthemoon!) It's finally drifted off the front page of the forum, after three pages of discussion, so I think I can safely say that the poll is closed

Comments

[stripedsockscat]

Interesting. Moving to New Orleans completely changed my view of straight men and their level of comfort around gay men. I know several big burly straight guys with drag queen roommates and many more who are openly affectionate with gay men and don't care. Its pretty awesome down here in that respect. But..in New Orleans proper. Once you get outside that changes in a really disappointing way.

[13chapters]

Yeah, I grew up in San Francisco and being gay isn't really a big deal there, so I like to see other perspectives.

IDK if you saw the source that inspired this. It was on a meta that waterofthemoon wrote about Dean being bisexual. A very...dumb...person came in and said that Dean was straight because he has shown discomfort around gay men, like any typical straight man would.

That kind of hijacked the discussion as people defended their straight male friends as being not homophobic. So I thought I would do a poll. I'm not sure what to take away, other than plenty of straight men are uncomfortable around gay guys, but plenty are not also.

I made so many typos writing this. Need more caffeine.

[stripedsockscat]

ahhh yeah. I would argue that Dean hasn't necessarily been uncomfortable around gay men. I discussed this with Roomie and his brother (both gay men) after The Real Ghostbusters. None of us thought it was uncomfortable around gay men so much as they were role playing as brothers and that made it a little weird. heh People need to lay off Dean with that. We've only really seen him around gay men that once!

It is an interesting discussion. How much of the "uncomfortable" comes from thinking they should be uncomfortable? As a sort of defense mechanism perhaps. hmm..

I so am not awake either, hence my lack of total comprehension. Just finished GIANT coffee. Heading to the gym to wake the crap up.

[13chapters]

I would argue that Dean hasn't necessarily been uncomfortable around gay men. I discussed this with Roomie and his brother (both gay men) after The Real Ghostbusters. None of us thought it was uncomfortable around gay men so much as they were role playing as brothers and that made it a little weird

That's what I think, too. The trolly person didn't get it. It was like this:

Troll: But Dean hates being mistaken for gay.
Everyone: Dean hates being mistaken for gay with SAM because Sam is his brother and he thinks it's gross.
Troll: But the other people don't know Sam is his brother.
Everyone: But DEAN knows.
Troll: Dean is uncomfortable around gay people anyway. Like any straight guy would be!

AD FUCKING NAUSEUM.

[non_timebo_mala]

That is a REALLY interesting poll and you're awesome for taking it.

It makes me kinda upset though that so many straight men are uncomfortable around gay men and think it's the majority that feel that way [though from the looks of this poll, it is. :/] Did any of them post comments as to why exactly they feel this way? [From talking with my dad and his past experiences I would guess it's because they feel awkward when they try to hit on them, or think that they will try to hit on them.]

[13chapters]

Most of the men who actually posted did so to say they don't feel uncomfortable around gay men. The few who said they did, said they felt uncomfortable around very femmy gay guys. This started some arguing between them and some gay guys, about what "natural" and "regular" behavior is. So, I don't have any good answers there. I made the poll anonymous on purpose (the software has the option of allowing people to see who voted for what, and I disabled that), so I really don't know why people voted the way they did.

[lattimore]

It's intriguing that men may automatically underestimate their peers' comfort level with homosexuality. Not that I mean the respondents are overly cynical, but it may be that once you've encountered someone homophobic, you're more likely to believe that the typical straight male feels that way?

It's hard for me to know for sure, because living in SoCal and then around NYC means I've always had openly-gay male coworkers and it hasn't been a problem interacting with straight men. But living in such liberal places no doubt skews my perspective.

[13chapters]

I really don't have an explanation for the findings. It makes me REALLY curious, though. I want to apply for funding to do a real study.

(LULZ I'M FAILING STATISTICS HAHAHA I CAN'T DO A STUDY.)