Our society depicts the homosexual man as completely lacking masculine characteristics, however in my experiences gay men can be some of the most masculine. However ubiquitous stereotypes about gay men portray masculinity and homosexuality as entirely dichotomous, leading to entirely misconstrued views of homosexuals in our society – an issue which is detrimental to the acceptance of homosexuals in society.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tmuElqFvZ-o
This video shows 20 stereotypes of Gay men, including a few which are particularly relevant to the discussion of masculinity:
- Gay men think sports are boring
- Gay men are obsessed with fashion
- Gay men love to dance
- Gay men are incompetent running machinery
- Gay men always have a trust girl-pal by side
- Gay are whinny bitches
- Gay men are catty
- Gay men are drama queens
- Gay men pepper their lives with Pop culture references
These stereotypes are largely untrue, as no gay man I have ever met has encapsulated more than a handful of these characteristics. There is also the fact that many of these traits may also just as easily be applied to straight men as they may to gay men, showing that if masculinity were to be determined by the adherence of men to every single stereotype of masculinity, true masculinity would be unequivocally rare.
Gay stereotypes portray homosexual men as being incapable of masculinity; however these stereotypes are drastically exaggerated in popular culture although they apply only marginally more to homosexual men than they do to straight men.
Curtis Eisen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tmuElqFvZ-o
This video shows 20 stereotypes of Gay men, including a few which are particularly relevant to the discussion of masculinity:
- Gay men think sports are boring
- Gay men are obsessed with fashion
- Gay men love to dance
- Gay men are incompetent running machinery
- Gay men always have a trust girl-pal by side
- Gay are whinny bitches
- Gay men are catty
- Gay men are drama queens
- Gay men pepper their lives with Pop culture references
These stereotypes are largely untrue, as no gay man I have ever met has encapsulated more than a handful of these characteristics. There is also the fact that many of these traits may also just as easily be applied to straight men as they may to gay men, showing that if masculinity were to be determined by the adherence of men to every single stereotype of masculinity, true masculinity would be unequivocally rare.
Gay stereotypes portray homosexual men as being incapable of masculinity; however these stereotypes are drastically exaggerated in popular culture although they apply only marginally more to homosexual men than they do to straight men.
Curtis Eisen
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