AP nixes 'homophobia', 'ethnic cleansing'

[redstar826]

By DYLAN BYERS

Comments

[ahria]

I've always thought "homophobia" was a bullshit term. You're not afraid, you're just a biggot.

[redstar826]

does 'phobic' always mean fear though? I mean, when we say that a substance is hydrophobic, we don't mean that it is afraid of water.

[the_physicist]

That's actually what it literally means. The material is afraid of water... Phobos is ancient Greek for fear.

[redstar826]

ahhh, okay. although I think that kind of shows that we don't always mean literal meanings when we use certain words. I think people use 'homophobia' to mean other things beyond just a fear of gay people.

[kitanabychoice]

I'm pretty on board with the nixing of homophobia, it's a misnomer.

[toxic_glory]

The ethnic cleansing thing makes sense

but I don't understand why homophobia and Islamophobia shouldn't be used simply because they aren't "phobias" in the traditional sense; language changes and words are created, and since we already have these two concise words that are used frequently to describe two types of prejudiced thinking, it doesn't make much sense to just stop using them because of a little technical thing like this. The words are already in our vocabularies, you know?

although I would argue that people who hate Muslims and people who hate queer people are often doing it because of an irrational fear (ex: they think all Muslims are terrorists, they think gay marriage will ~destroy American society~)

well, actually, I guess I see why those words could be problematic, because "phobia" tends to imply an involuntary fear, so perhaps calling someone's hatred for other people a "phobia" could imply that they are not responsible for their prejudices. I'm kind of all over the place with this comment, I apologize.

[redstar826]

It seems to me that when people discuss homophobia, they aren't really discussing fear so much as they are discussing a strong dislike of gay people. Personally, I don't have any issues with the term 'homophobia' and most of the objections I have personally seen to it have come from anti-gay people. "I'm not homophobic! I'm not afraid of gay people! I think it is wrong because blahblahblah"

[the_physicist]

The only people I have heard passionately, with all their heart argue against the term have been cis straight white dudes.

[sfrlz]

I am a queer woman and I personally wish there was another term. I think implying that homophobes have a "fear" and not "hatred" or "bigotry" is not harsh enough.

(although I do understand where you're coming from, not trying to argue as much as discuss)

[art_house_queen]

I actually agree with this.

[maynardsong]

I hope they'll quit saying "sex" when they mean "rape". When will that happen?

[sfrlz]

God, I so wish. Sick of hearing about older men "having sex" with underage girls or whatever.

[13chapters]

Remember Dominique Strauss-Kahn's "sex scandal".

SMH.