I suppose I see that. I guess my reaction is more that people use their "fear" as an excuse (in this case, I mean) to be an asshole. Like the "gay panic" defense.
The 'fear as an excuse' thing does seem to be cropping up an awful lot -- I'm reminded of that sickening article about the shooting that was posted here. Just because you're afraid doesn't mean you're actually threatened, FFS.
Separating out the idea of 'fear' and 'phobia' could be really helpful, there -- true phobia gets you the true panic response (and also therapy -- if someone's actually to the phobic level, don't they usually want to DO something about it?); fear-based bad behavior is just bad behavior.
Really, the fear part comes in at the analysis stage, rather than the 'what did they do' stage. And, I suppose, at the 'what the heck does one do about these people' stage, but no one's really figured that one out, sadly.
I've never really liked it. While fear is definitely part of the equation, it doesn't seem to encapsulate the whole concept. I think "heterosexism" generally works better.
I think the word doesn't really mean what it does but it's become commonly used and it's useful. Plus "homo-hatred" hasn't caught on, mainly because I just made that up, and "heterosexism" hasn't caught on either and doesn't sound very forceful.
hate "ethnic cleansing" though, it has the Orwellian euphemism thing going for it.
I tried not using "homophobic" for a while for that very reason. Every alternative I could come up with was too wordy and/or pretentious sounding, so I just went back to "homophobic". It's like "begs the question": being used wrong 99% of the time, but so what?
Reply
Reply
The 'fear as an excuse' thing does seem to be cropping up an awful lot -- I'm reminded of that sickening article about the shooting that was posted here. Just because you're afraid doesn't mean you're actually threatened, FFS.
Separating out the idea of 'fear' and 'phobia' could be really helpful, there -- true phobia gets you the true panic response (and also therapy -- if someone's actually to the phobic level, don't they usually want to DO something about it?); fear-based bad behavior is just bad behavior.
Really, the fear part comes in at the analysis stage, rather than the 'what did they do' stage. And, I suppose, at the 'what the heck does one do about these people' stage, but no one's really figured that one out, sadly.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
hate "ethnic cleansing" though, it has the Orwellian euphemism thing going for it.
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment