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May. 18th, 2010 10:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikToday I'm really being struck by the amount of sexual aggression women are expected to tolerate, ignore, or respond politely to, just as a matter of course.
What's interesting is how strong the societal double standard is. While the gay panic defense isn't generally tolerated in court, even pretty benign expressions of sexual interest from another man were until recently considered an adequate provocation for murder. (And I suspect it isn't tolerated in court precisely because it is logic that to this day is far too likely to sway jurors.) It makes me wonder how many instances of sexual harassment could be explained to many straight men in terms of imagining themselves in that situation, with a bunch of gay men who are bigger, stronger, and greet their statements of disinterest or refusal of advances with amusement or derision - but in no way imply that they will respect their boundaries. ("Aw, when he says he isn't interested isn't it cute?")
Which suggests an interesting model of homophobia among men, in which their fear is that they will be treated by other men in ways that they consider socially acceptable to treat women.
There are problems with that - not the least of which is that it reinforces the cultural idea of sexual predatory gay men, which is one of those stereotypes that certainly doesn't need more reinforcement. (As far as I know, gay men don't usually pull that crap on eachother, or on straight men.) And I'm not sure that equating sexism and homophobia doesn't obscure more than it reveals... though on the flip side, I think it does reveal a lot.
What's interesting is how strong the societal double standard is. While the gay panic defense isn't generally tolerated in court, even pretty benign expressions of sexual interest from another man were until recently considered an adequate provocation for murder. (And I suspect it isn't tolerated in court precisely because it is logic that to this day is far too likely to sway jurors.) It makes me wonder how many instances of sexual harassment could be explained to many straight men in terms of imagining themselves in that situation, with a bunch of gay men who are bigger, stronger, and greet their statements of disinterest or refusal of advances with amusement or derision - but in no way imply that they will respect their boundaries. ("Aw, when he says he isn't interested isn't it cute?")
Which suggests an interesting model of homophobia among men, in which their fear is that they will be treated by other men in ways that they consider socially acceptable to treat women.
There are problems with that - not the least of which is that it reinforces the cultural idea of sexual predatory gay men, which is one of those stereotypes that certainly doesn't need more reinforcement. (As far as I know, gay men don't usually pull that crap on eachother, or on straight men.) And I'm not sure that equating sexism and homophobia doesn't obscure more than it reveals... though on the flip side, I think it does reveal a lot.
