A recent study om Brazil shows how gay and bisexual men’s attus toward masculy and femy affect their mental health.
Contents:
- THERE ARE SOME BEAUTIFUL FEME GAY MEN OUT THERE.
- GAY STEREOTYP: ARE THEY TE?
- WHY DO GAY MEN HAVE TO BE SO FEME?
- IS BEG GAY FEME?
- IS FEMMEPHOBIA GAY CULTURE CONTRIBUTG TO LONELS?
- THE GAY VOICE
- IT’S A MAN’S WORLD: A QUALATIVE STUDY OF GENR AND SEXUALY AMONGST ATRALIAN GAY MEN
- ‘GAY GLASS CEILG’: WHY MORE FEME MEN GET PASSED OVER FOR LEARSHIP ROL
THERE ARE SOME BEAUTIFUL FEME GAY MEN OUT THERE.
LGBT Foundatn is a natnal chary liverg advice, support and rmatn servic to lbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) muni. * gay femininity *
Problematic statements like “no fems, ” “no queens” or “masc4masc” equently ed on datg apps only foreground the need to challenge the prejudice faced by mp, feme gay men om members of their own muny.
In an overwrought attempt to pe such negative nnotatns of femy appears that, many gay men (and ed men general) have ventured too far the oppose directn, supprsg the feme sis of their nature the procs.
GAY STEREOTYP: ARE THEY TE?
* gay femininity *
Once we realise that femy and mpns aren’t flaws or weakns, that homosexualy is not e for shame, that masculy isn’t exclive to straight men and femy isn’t exclive to straight women, that genr is more fluid than rigid bary norms lead to thk, we will stop discrimatg agast those we should be showg solidary towards stead.
From there, they were spl to three subgroups: those who sired to be more feme, those who wanted to be ls feme, and those who were happy the way they the participants, 80% were gay, 17% were bisexual, and 2. ”The survey asssed negative attus towards effemacy, ternalized homophobia, and outns and found that negative attus toward effemacy n e shame, self-hatred, and hostily towards others, while ternalized homophobia n e mental health issu like anxiety, prsn, and low self teem. Internalized homophobia also wh “elements of sexism, prejudice agast women and femy, ” acrdg to sum, the men who sired to be more mascule had the most negative attus toward effemacy, srg over 10 pots higher than their effemate peers.
“Those who are not fortable wh how effemate they are and would like to be or appear more mascule (even if they publicly intify themselv as non-effemate) also tend to have higher rat of ternalized homophobia, ” Ramos told them. ”Rearchers are fdg that racism, petn, and a fixatn on sex wh the gay and bi muny are drivg anxiety and thors note that the study ntaed some bld spots, sce looked only at Brazilian men, and attus around genr n vary between cultur and ethnici. In Lat Ameri and particularly Brazil, “ is very mon that, om the pot of view of those who exprs prejudice, social norms related to genr overlap norms related to sexualy, ” said Costa claimed the LGBTQ+ muny has done a “great job” at rcg prejudice around sexualy, has yet to grapple wh genr “hierarchi” that overvalue mascule exprsn and value those that are seen as feme, he explaed, addg that the stereotyp are often “reified” through media everyone, not jt queer people, needs to play a role rcg ternalized homophobia, acrdg to Ramos.
WHY DO GAY MEN HAVE TO BE SO FEME?
I want alphas but I've met three gay guys and they are so betiful but why aren't they more valued this piece of sh muny? So they aren't mcular ripped wh pecs and abs - they've got ... * gay femininity *
That means a person of any genr n be attracted to someone who intifi as female or who exprs feme sexual orientatn terms such as “homosexualy” or “heterosexualy, ” gynosexualy do not specify the person’s own genr relatn to their sexual orientatn. I only began to feel a sense of acceptance or belongg when I started to py what everyone else did, lghg when others lghed at a homophobic joke, or only wearg certa lours that ma me look more rried to adulthood; my ternalized homophobia me om my fear of beg different, and I looked down on anyone who tried to be different. Havg a culture of acceptance all year is greater than the sum of rabow products you sell a culture of acceptance all year is greater than the sum of rabow products you sell universy Vanuver and returng to Wnipeg I uld see my ternalized homophobia narrative beg perpetuated the lol muny - I believe the number of Asian folks who are closeted the cy is a direct rrelatn to the lack of reprentatn of 2SLGBTQ+ folks the cy.
Rearch regardg parentg by gay upl have been gog on and till now have found no signifint difference physil as well as psycho-social velopment of children beg raised by gay upl om those raised by heterosexual parents. The emergence of ‘Femmephobia’ is one such rultant effect of the stereotypil rrelatn of beg gay to feme behavr and has been seen even among heterosexual mal; mak the people velop hatred for anythg that is nsired feme.. Experimentg wh femy the safety of the home — even somethg as mcule as selectg girl characters vio gam and livg virly through her abily to kick ass — seems to be a shared gay experience for many of .
IS BEG GAY FEME?
“Why do gay men have to e out? Why do gay men have to be so feme? Why do they have a para? There is no straight para. Straight people don’t have to e out. * gay femininity *
It feels remiscent of the adoratn that gay fans hold toward old Hollywood beti like Joan Crawford and Judy Garland, or the pageant-style exaggeratns of femy that unrpned so much of early drag culture.
Part of Barbie’s gay appeal might be that, spe beg plastic and unmalleable, she n transform herself to anythg: doctor, lawyer, judge, journalist, and vet, or whatever Mattel thks will sell the most dolls. Yet, stead, we have a growg culture the gay muy that there is a divi between men who are ‘mascule (henceforth: ‘masc’) and those who are feme (henceforth: ‘fem’) gay muny at surface- glance appears to have veloped a divisn along neo-genrs. Femy: ‘the qualy of beg female; womanls; posssn of quali tradnally associated wh women’Y there are those of (like myself) that don’t view the difference as that substantive, we are all gay after all, but when the some the muny adopt the ‘no fems, masc4masc’ approach, you do wonr if the divis are begng to nflict between ‘masc’ and ‘fem’ gays is one of the few issu of nflict between gay men.
It seems no one n scroll through the social media app Grdr whout seeg the ‘NO FEMs’ guy wh his ravg b about how he is the opomy of masculy, csadg agast the feme gays on the anti-fem-gay agenda n really only be lked wh the anti-woman movement that occurs heterosexual and heteronormative society. It appears that the adoptn of LGBT+ society to the ‘mastream’ and to heteronormativy has led to the gay muny to adopt the same le as anti- woman heterosexual growth the ‘no fem’ and pure masc gay man has seen the adoptn of a neo-misogynistic unrtone to what is to be both ‘mascule’ and gay. It has taken the gay muny to a parative society wh that of heterosexual male/ female relatnships, where men (mascule) are the domant on and women (feme) are the submissive, passive extends beyond a submissive/ domant relatnship.
IS FEMMEPHOBIA GAY CULTURE CONTRIBUTG TO LONELS?
Barbiemania htg s peak summer 2023 helped one 30-year-old wrer release the childhood shame he felt when playg wh Barbie dolls as a young gay child. * gay femininity *
The adoptn of this masc-fem ntrast gay society means that patriachy no longer ris wh ‘men’; ris wh all those who em themselv domant and those the domant em to be below this suatn appear to be creatg a ‘toxicy’ around beg ‘mascule’ and gay, though?
Rearchers found the issue to be not wh dividual tast or preferenc, but rather, the societal nstcts surroundg femy and prented the ia of how the rejectn of femy is tied to the rejectn of the gay or queer inti. Yet, at the same time, numero rearchers have also been explorg the ncept of lonels among gay men through the juxtaposn of "datg" apps that predomantly foc on short-term hook-ups while nyg the sir of gay men to fd lastg relatnships. Recent rearch has explored the experienc of gay men on datg apps and found that many report the need to hi or supprs their emotnal needs or sir an effort to appear more mascule and, nsequently, more sirable.
THE GAY VOICE
What do mean to be mascule wh gay society? Well, let’s look at the dictnary fn of ‘masculy’ and femy’. The sole premise behd both fns is that you are… * gay femininity *
The genred nature of secure attachment styl uld ntribute to gay men wh anx attachment styl beg perceived as more feme and therefore, ls sirable while creasg the apparent sirabily of those wh more avoidant attachment styl.
Analyzg the dynamics wh gay men’s muni through the lens of femmephobia is important for unrstandg how gay men’s experienc of beg shunned or bullied for feme tras may ph them towards more avoidant attachment styl. If men are teased as children for beg emotnally sensive and vulnerable and then experience femmephobia due to openly seekg emotnal timacy and/or romantic relatnships gay men’s muni as adults, such experienc uld rerce the predomance of avoidant attachment dynamics.
IT’S A MAN’S WORLD: A QUALATIVE STUDY OF GENR AND SEXUALY AMONGST ATRALIAN GAY MEN
Abstract. Gay male femy is a touchy topic. The mere mentn of evok hoary medil notns datg back to the Victorian era, acrdg to which same-s * gay femininity *
Mª Angel Rodríguez-Arenas, Amic Edor and Belén Sanz-Barbero, Amic EdorAbstractCurrently, rearch explicly examg masculy and ternalized homonegativy is sparse, and even sparser studi are those g qualative methods.
Masculy and Homosexualy: Lerature ReviewThe current lerature matas that heteronormative masculi pict gay men as beg more feme than their heterosexual unterparts and affect perceptns of their genr and sexual inty [7, 8, 9].
‘GAY GLASS CEILG’: WHY MORE FEME MEN GET PASSED OVER FOR LEARSHIP ROL
Genr stereotype theory suggts that men are generally perceived as more mascule than women, whereas women are generally perceived as more feme than men. Several sl have been veloped to measure fundamental aspects of genr stereotyp (e.g., agency and munn, petence and warmth, or stmentaly and exprsivy). Although omted later versn, Bem's origal Sex Role Inventory clud the ems “mascule” and “feme” addn to more specific genr-stereotypil attribut. We argue that is eful to be able to measure the two re ncepts a reliable, valid, and parsimon way. We troduce a new and brief sle, the Tradnal Masculy-Femy (TMF) sle, signed to asss central facets of self-ascribed masculy-femy. Studi 1–2 ed known-groups approach (participants differg genr and sexual orientatn) to validate the sle and provi evince of s nvergent validy. As expected the TMF reliably measured a one-dimensnal masculy-femy nstct. Moreover, the TMF rrelated morately wh other genr-related measur. Demonstratg cremental validy, the TMF predicted genr and sexual orientatn a superr way than tablished adjective-based measur. Furthermore, the TMF was nnected to crern characteristics, such as judgments as straight by laypersons for the whole sample, voice pch characteristics for the female subsample, and ntact to gay men for the mal... * gay femininity *
Internalized homonegativy has been noted to relate to prsn, poor wellbeg, sexual discrimatn, shame, body dissatisfactn, eatg disorrs, and suicidal iatn, and rults more extreme and unbearable stat of md men than women [12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17]. As such, is imperative that the role of genr norms (specifilly, masculy) on non-heteronormative dividuals’ experienc of genr and sexual inty be addrsed to alleviate mory strs, improve mental health, wellbeg, and qualy of life, and rce heteronormative gay men, homosexual masculy is often referred to as “straight-actg” masculy and is argued to be an emulatn of heteronormative masculy—and, arguably, heterosexualy [21, 22].
HWhile heterosexual masculy is perceived as an thentic and natural genr performance, whereas homosexual masculy is perceived as a stumed drama [23]; “homosexual men are more like women…Even the most mascule gay man is a b sissy” [24]. The social nstctn of masculy, therefore, generat a reified oxymoron out of the phras “homosexual male” and “gay man”, whereby both terms are perceived as direct opposns of each stra gay men may experience their efforts to be as heteronormatively mascule as possible, spe their homosexualy, is perpetuated by prejudice and discrimatn all areas of life that serve to ern socially acceptable exprsns of masculy. As a rult, gay men who have ternalized heteronormative masculy and the strict l there participate policg other gay men, as well as themselv through pensatory behavr, as a means of mimizg gay men’s effemacy stereotyp [19].
Furthermore, was only wh the last five years—December 2017—that Atralia passed the Marriage Amendment (Defn and Relig Freedoms) Act 2017, which legalized marriage between same-sex upl [36] to this, discrimatn agast genr and sexualy diverse groups was mon, wh arguments of gay and lbian relatnships beg unnatural [36]. Begng om the macro level of a gay man’s social elogy, heteronormative masculy permeat the psychology of how they perceive themselv, others, and the world and extends to the micro- and mo-systems that enforce heteronormative genr and sexual inti through teractns wh iends and fay members (microsystem), as well as strangers and lleagu (mosystem) [7, 19, 25, 29, 30, 31, 42].