Psych study links homophobia and homoerotic arousal; Violet Blue wants Jay Leno to know he's safe

[El Pinko]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/g/a/2008/04/03/violetblue.DTL


Hot gay sex is for homophobes
Psych study links homophobia and homoerotic arousal; Violet Blue wants Jay Leno to know he's safe
Violet Blue, special to SF Gate
Thursday, April 3, 2008


...

On March 20, Leno welcomed as his guest on "The Tonight Show" the actor Ryan Phillippe, who played a gay character early in his career on the daily soap "One Life to Live." During the interview, Leno relentlessly reminded Phillippe about the role and continued with more awkward sexualization, causing Phillipe to remark more than once about leaving the show. At one point, Leno urged him to look into the camera and pretend it was his "gay lover ... Billy Bob," who "has just ridden in shirtless from Wyoming" and give it his "gayest look."

At which point Heath Ledger rose from the grave, and gave Leno his gayest look. Visit the Web site My Gayest Look, and you can see the video, pick up the contact information for NBC and those behind "The Tonight Show" — all homophobes are encouraged to e-mail their hateful support — and join in the fun, where people from all over the world are taking pictures of themselves and posting their "gayest look" just for Leno.

Poor Leno. Like most openly homophobic men, he went far enough to not only piss off half the planet, but to make quite a few of us scratch our heads and go, "Hmmm ..." You see, in the real Castro sometimes you'll notice men with their keys or colored hankies in either left or right (or front or back) pocket, or other non-verbal, non-intrusive specific sexual signifiers. For those into using the old codes, it helps them hook up with the right homo, should one desire to do so. Sadly, homophobes are far less subtle. Ridiculing even the slightest whiff of gayness is far more crass and offensive than a white hanky in a right back pocket.

Or, according to a 1996 study by the Journal of Abnormal Psychology that was unearthed online this week, homophobic behaviors are just the schoolyard bully's more obvious version of a hanky code. As it turns out, homophobes are proving that they are indeed turned on by homoeroticism. Which, we like, totally already knew, but still, as Ed Brayton sums up in his post at ScienceBlogs, the study "found that those who are homophobic are much more likely to be aroused by male homoerotic imagery than those who are not." The abstract of Homophobia and Homosexual Arousal (.PDF download) explains:

[sasquatch]

1. Bubbles is the man!

:thumbsup:

[Perry Logan]

2. The right-wing obsession with gayness is a dead giveaway.

They must have unresolved issues.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3097515

[ColbertWatcher]

3. What the hell is wrong with Leno?

I heard about this just yesterday and can't figure out for the life of me why he continued doing it for so damn long.

Leno is such a tool, I wouldn't be surprised to hear if someone on the GOP payroll faxed the skit to him and he read it verbatim.

[El Pinko]

4. A better question is -what's wrong with America?

Aside from the offensiveness of that "bit", Leno has got to be one of the least-funny, least-imaginative comedians EVER. He doesn't come near filling Carson's shoes, IMO. Carson was a class act.

I can't wait until Conan takes his place. Tina Fey is also a lot funnier and undoubtedly gets a lot less money for 30 Rock. Hell, Alec Baldwin's not even a comedian and HE's funnier.

But I guess Leno's act appeals to a certain middle-American whitebread sensibility that just eats it up.

Like how he always makes these dumb jokes that the bandleader is a pothead? The guy is good-natured about it, but that shit got tiresome after a few times and Len's STILL doing it years later.

His jokes almost always make me yawn or cringe. Never laugh.

[Echo In Light]

5. What's wrong with America?

[Quantess]

11. I like that 1st one.

[ColbertWatcher]

7. True, Leno is a product of his time...

...which is a sad commentary for all of us indeed.

Leno is probably the best and most well-known example of the Peter principle!

[elizfeelinggreat]

9. I agree with you.

I've never watched him long enough to find out much about him. He's boorish and he reminds me of a playground bully.

While Carson relaxed people at the end of the day, Leno puts them to sleep.

[BlooInBloo]

6. I've been saying... All republicans are gay... :)

[Lex]

14. And I've been saying All dumbasses say that . . . :)

nt

[AP]

8. I saw Leno do standup a long time ago. After the show he was hanging out

with some people in the crowd talking and signing autographs. Leno was with a friend. He said, pointing his thumb at his friend (who was middle-aged, pudgy, bald, and wearing aviator-frame thick glasses), "I went to college with this guy; we're the same age. Can you believe it?" They left together.

I thought, man, that is rude! The friend had to deal with the fact that Leno is richer, more successful, and famous. But did Leno have to insult the way the guy looked in front of a bunch of strangers?

[El Pinko]

10. That is pretty rude. Well, he has an aircraft hangar full of CARS...

...so I doubt that the well-being of others is his TOP concern...

[JackRiddler]

12. The majority of men have at least a latent homosexual drive...

Perhaps it should be described as an enormous, constant and rather penetrative sexual drive that attaches easily to different objects of desire. Of course this doesn't mean all men are secretly gay, which is to have a primary attachment to other men as object of sexual desire (or a minimal attachment to women). There is a continuum, and most men are mostly heterosexual, including many of the most rabid homophobes. Men are conditioned (ironically through the homosocial, macho culture as well as through religious nonsense, ignorance, and other factors) to violently repress, deny and attack these tendencies in themselves and in everyone else. They feel they have to prove to themselves they're not the least bit gay, when invariably (in Allen Ginsberg's words), "everyone is just a little bit gay." I believe this is the main driving force behind homophobia, although obviously hatred of the other can also exist without it being a matter of projection.

[RadiationTherapy]

20. I call it the 'someone else's hand' syndrome.

If it is 'someone else's hand', then it is considered; no matter how briefly.

[JackRiddler]

21. Heh. I get it.

[Stinky The Clown]

13. Leno is a fucking moron. He's beena moron even longer than he's had The Tonight Show

If you want to know how big a moron he is, read "Late Shift".

Not only is he a moron. He is also a creep.

[hulklogan]

15. I don't necessarily trust the conclusions drawn by this one study that is always referred to here.

Basing our understanding of the psychological basis for homophobia on one study that only used caucasian men with a mean age of 20 is foolish at best.

[JackBeck]

18. And that would be point #3 that I forgot to mention.

See post #16.

This was only one study.

[JackBeck]

16. The study has been debunked.

First of all, the sample size is extremely small for the results to be significant. Only 35 "homophobic" men and 25 "non-homophobic" were part of the study.

Secondly, there's no way to determine what images were causing the actual arousal in the homophobic men. No one can prove what was actually going on inside their heads as they watched the material. They could have been thinking about sex with a woman, for all we know.

[hulklogan]

17. Who is to say the penile measuring apparatus wasn't causing the measured response?

This is definitely an area that requires further study.

[JackBeck]

19. That's another point to consider. n/t

[El Pinko]

23. It seems unlikely that the device would "stimulate" homophobes more than non-homophobes.

Personally, I don't think that all homophobes are suppressed homosexuals.

Some are religion-crazed.

Some are just mean.

But I do think that a lot of the ones who are most obsessed with and consumed with hatred for homosexuals are probably battling those feelings themselves.

There are people here who claim that saying so is insulting to gays.

But I personally think it stands as proof of the fact that being out and proud leads to a healthy state of mind, while repressing one's sexuality leads to this kind of negative projecting behavior.

I respect if people disagree, but construing such a viewpoint as anti-gay is inaccurate and dishonest.

[readmoreoften]

24. No but it will stimulate repressed people more than non-repressed people.

What's more likely is that the homophobes were getting off on the dirtiness or forbiddenness of the entire process. It is insulting to say that homophobes are gay.

[ConsAreLiars]

22. Yeah, keep telling yourself that.

Either that or admit that getting turned on by guys is not really a sin and something evil.