Sociologist Mark McCormack has written on boys, gays, bullying and homophobia for The Good Men Project before. When he began researching 16 to 18 year-old male students, he had expected to find the boys would use homophobia to “prove” their heterosexuality. But not only did he not see that, what he found was that most of the boys treated each other with respect, were inclusive of differences, and displayed physical affection with each other un-selfconsciously.
Mark was interviewed for Salon for who asked him what he saw as trends, particularly in the U.K., and how that reconciled with the reports here in the U.S. which has seen a “spate of horrifying stories stateside of bullied gay teens committing suicide.” McCormack believes the U.S. is “a decade behind the U.K.” He further believes that the focus on the suicides doesn’t accurately reflect the progress that has been made: “We need to look beyond the worst-case examples to see what is happening in the majority of schools,” McCormack writes. “We do no-one any favors if we only fight prejudice that is, for some, yesterday’s battle.”
Here is an excerpt from Salon:
Salon spoke to McCormack by phone from his office at Brunel University in West London about the disappearance of the insult “that’s so gay” — across the pond, at least — and why the U.S. still lags behind.
How has homophobia changed over the past couple decades in the U.K.?
In the past, homophobia has been hugely significant. Being gay was criminalized up until 1967, so it’s only in the past 45 years where it’s been possible to be openly gay. In the ’80s and ’90s, when I was growing up, there was Section 28, which prevented teachers from talking about homosexuality; they didn’t feel able to combat homophobia in schools.
Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad freeIt used to be in the ’80s that there was “homohysteria,” which is the fear of being socially perceived as gay. What boys needed to do was to make sure they weren’t seen as gay. It was kind of this game of tag where boys would deploy homophobia competitively because the person perceived as gay would be the person who was bullied and marginalized. What better way to prove that you’re not gay than by being homophobic yourself?
But you’ve found that that’s changed dramatically.
Only in one of the three schools I studied did I hear of any form of homophobic language, and that was heard twice by two different kids. Apart from that, homophobic language wasn’t used.
***
In the U.S., we’ve had a terrible spate of stories about gay teens committing suicides. Is the situation that different in the U.K.?
There are two different issues here. The first is that the spate of suicides has become the media narrative; maybe it was guilt from not covering it 20 years ago. While [these stories are] terrible, and they show that homophobia is still out there, they aren’t evidence of increased homophobia.
The other thing I would say is that America is a country of polarities. The U.S. is further behind but things are changing; homophobia isn’t socially acceptable in the way that it used to be.
I think what Mccormack fails to do is even try and explain WHY homophobia has declined.
Someone who has tried to explain it is Mark Simpson, who says that with the rise of metrosexual masculinity, aided and abetted by consumer culture, men don’t mind being perceived as gay because in many ways they are ‘well gay’ themselves. i.e. narcissistic, self-loving, body-conscious, fashionable etc.
So we’ve replaced homophobia with negative stereotyping? Step in the right direction I guess…
I’d love to think its because of normalisation and education, but I rarely leave dublin and I’ve never been the victim of a homophobic attack myself so I don’t know.
This article is so gay.
lol
But seriously. I have friends who prefer partnering with someone of the same sex, and they to know what “that’s so gay” means. In fact, they say it too. I refuse to stop saying “gay” or “faggish” or “niggardly” or whathaveyou. All those words have changed meaning drastically over the past 100 years. It’s time we reclaim our language from the pc police.
There is no such thing as a bad word. Only bad messages.
As a teen in the 80’s, I certainly got very used to hearing people using the term “That’s/You’re so gay” in the pejorative sense to disparage anyone or anything they didn’t like. At that time, it was so pervasive that it was used even in cases where something was specifically NOT gay. “I’m going to ask Susan to the dance.” “Dude, that’s so gay.” I’m sure I said it at least once, though it certainly wasn’t my go to put down. Flash Forward 25 years. Now, I would never consider using it as an insult, and on the rare occasion… Read more »
Personally…it’s one of those things where it all depends on who I’m talking to. If I’m with a bunch of friends or co-workers and we all know that we’re all not homophobic in any way…then it doesn’t really bug me if someone says “that’s so gay,” or something like that. It’s like, awhile back I was talking about eggs (for some reason I do not remember) and I made the comment that the yolk is “colored.” Was I being racist? Nope, I was being descriptive…the yolk has color. One of the people with us got all pissed off, and it… Read more »
Except that those words haven’t completely changed meaning. There are still plenty of people who use those words pejoratively. Words don’t have just one meaning…they have layers of meaning…and the most important meaning isn’t necessarily that of the speaker, but that of the people listening. It’s not about being politically correct…it’s about recognizing that your words can hurt people. So…if I’m in a group of people I know, then I’m a lot looser with my language. I know that no one will be hurt by it, because we all know each other and what each other means. But that’s not… Read more »
Exactly.
Nigger Yes there very much are some bad words. I accept that faggot and gay have a history beyond meaning homosexual. But the trouble is that in recent history (or at least my lifetime) thats been their primary meaning. If you use a word (which may or not refer to LGBT people) in a perjorative sense, its hardly the point whether you, in your head, were referring to gay people. That may very well be the message you’re sending. How is your closeted friend, who’s listening and trying to laugh along in case someone realises he’s the butt of the… Read more »
Based purely off of my own experiences in the UK and the US, I’d totally have to agree with this. Not that personal experience is comparable to an actual study…but yeah. I don’t know if maybe it has to do with the fact that civil partners over here pretty much are like marriages, and the religious right seems to have less of a hand in politics. Plus…the U.K. seems like it’s more homosocial than the U.S. anyway. (Again, this is all based on my own personal observations…nothing scientific). It just seems like I’ll see groups of men hanging out together,… Read more »