Gay Men Can Be Misogynists Too

Contents:

• DO GAY MALE CULTURE HAVE A MISOGYNY PROBLEM?
• GAY MEN LIKE ME NEED TO START ACKNOWLEDGG OUR MISOGYNY PROBLEM
• THE UNSPOKEN EPIMIC OF MISOGYNY IN THE GAY COMMUNY.
• 'THEY JT WANTED TO SILENCE HER': THE DARK SI OF GAY STAN CULTURE
• THE ‘GAY MEN ARE MISOGYNISTS’ MOVEMENT

DO GAY MALE CULTURE HAVE A MISOGYNY PROBLEM?

Usually portrayed—often simplistilly—as ironclad, the bonds between gay men and straight women have been the foc of much bate lately. Actrs Rose McGowan ed a stir last month when she scribed gay men as “as misogynistic as straight men, if not more so” and blasted gay men for not standg up more for women's rights.

GAY MEN LIKE ME NEED TO START ACKNOWLEDGG OUR MISOGYNY PROBLEM

McGowan is hardly alone her belief that gay men are generally myopic about the rights of other opprsed groups. Dpe the prevalence of straight woman/gay man bt iend clich, 's fair to say that gay men's relatnships wh and attus toward women are often more plex than what's portrayed your typil episo of “Will and Grace. ” Still, plexy is not evince of misogyny, and to claim that gay men are misogynistic pends on how you classify what nstut misogyny.

From the gossipy slut-shamg of Hilton's blog to the mpy bchft that is RuPl's Drag Race, gay men have long been known to engage the kd of polilly rrect, bg repartee that often mak women the butt of the joke. Who among the LGBT muny n claim to not know any of the followg typ of gay men: Men whose social circle nsists almost exclively of other gay men. Men who ll their bt female iends “fag hags” or “u fli” and who put them down routely while draggg them to gay bars or dance clubs?

The gay rights movement has largely succeed nvcg the world that LGBT folk are “normal” but, perhaps as a si effect of the assiatnist tennci, has taken on some of the unfortunate baggage associated wh mastream culture, cludg s misogyny. Gay men are still mocked for their tennci to be histrnic, monstrative, and emotnal—i.

THE UNSPOKEN EPIMIC OF MISOGYNY IN THE GAY COMMUNY.

" Should we be surprised, then, that so many gay men have ternalized the cricisms and, an attempt to monstrate their “masculy, ” mean women the procs? In his documentary, Do I Sound Gay?, to be released next year by IFC/Sundance Selects, David Thorpe ets over his long-standg securi about his voice and speech.

In seekg to fd the root for the speech patterns that many gay men share, he terviews gay celebri, voice ach, and lguists and disvers that his ep aversn for “soundg gay” is shared by many other gay men.

In dog so, however, he soon regniz that the procs of tryg to “expla” the voic of gay men is self a byproduct of a kd of ternalized homophobia as well as gay men really be so unfortable wh the way they sound had they not experienced so much cricism and abe about while growg up? Sedaris stat that when someone tells him that they didn't know he was gay, mak him feel good, and he wonrs why that is, nsirg that he thought himself “beyond all that. A tenncy to fetishize hypermasculy, to exalt “tops” over “bottoms, ” and to disparage men who are effemate persists among gay men until this day, spe the fact that the feelgs no doubt stem part as a rponse to all the ments hurled their way when they were younger.

'THEY JT WANTED TO SILENCE HER': THE DARK SI OF GAY STAN CULTURE

It seems only natural, once you've ternalized feelgs of aquacy and self-loathg, to want to monstrate that you're not what other people say you are, or worse, that you're not as queer as those other gay men over there, pecially if the very tribe you're a part of seems to be as much on board wh the assumptns as the straight culture.

THE ‘GAY MEN ARE MISOGYNISTS’ MOVEMENT

But 's worth rememberg that lns of gay men strongly support women both their actns and beliefs— their polil alignments and votg rerds, for stance—and monstrate a distctly femist worldview.