Portfolio Item #7 Make Room For Daddy: Anxious Masculinity and Emergent Homophobias in Neopatriarchal Politics http://www.jstor.org.proxy.ufv.ca:2048/stable/27640831

This academic journal conducts analysis on the nature of homophobia in patriarchal structures. It’s main point is that men seem to be on the whole more against homosexual acceptance than their female counterparts. The writer suggests that this could be due to psychological reasons rather than social, that on some level men who are anxious about their own masculinity project their anxiousness and hatred onto the minority group in an effort to assert their own masculinity. While having a psychological basis, this too can reflect social theory and understanding, as Foucault wrote extensively about the “other” and how the process of “othering” is based on power relations, which is what heterosexual males are attempting to accomplish in this situation by keeping hold of their hegemonic masculinity.

Homophobia is sadly still present and a prominent aspect of masculine culture. The homosexual male, who might be seen to possess a number of feminine traits, is in some ways seen as a threat to the concept of traditional masculinity, that it is still possible to express oneself in this way and yet still be a “man”. The homophobia then may come from the heterosexual males need to assert themselves and reaffirm their masculinity so as not to be falsely labelled, and in such case be potentially emasculated.