For Peer ReviewIs homophobia inevitable? Evidence that explores the constructed nature

of homophobia, and the techniques through which men unlearn it.

Journal: Journal of Sociology

Manuscript ID: draft

Manuscript Type: Original Manuscript

Keyword:Gender, Heterosexuality < Sexuality, Homosexuality < Sexuality

Abstract:

This qualitative study into homophobia and Australian masculinity featured 63 men discussing 'acceptable' masculinity. Homophobic slurs were identified as feared epithets in youth, capable of restraining behaviour into a narrow range of acceptable male scripts. Homophobia was shown to be a learnt attitude, inculcated early into male culture.

While some participants held homophobic views into adulthood, the majority described a loosening of restrictive attitudes that they had held regarding sexuality and gender. Exposure to diversity allowed these men to re-evaluate the social world. Significantly, after leaving sex-segregated environments (school, the military) men described sexual diversity as being less threatening. They partook in activities that previously may have initiated labels like 'faggot'; they were more comfortable when encountering other sexualities; they allowed themselves to experience emotions which were previously seen as emasculating. The key finding is that homophobia is thrives in mono-cultural setting, and can be unlearnt by engaging with diversity.

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Title

Is homophobia inevitable? Evidence that explores the constructed nature of homophobia, and

the techniques through which men unlearn it.

Abstract

This qualitative study into homophobia and Australian masculinity featured 63 men

discussing ‘acceptable’ masculinity. Homophobic slurs were identified as feared epithets in

youth, capable of restraining behaviour into a narrow range of acceptable male scripts.

Homophobia was shown to be a learnt attitude, inculcated early into male culture.

While some participants held homophobic views into adulthood, the majority described a

loosening of restrictive attitudes that they had held regarding sexuality and gender. Exposure

to diversity allowed these men to re-evaluate the social world. Significantly, after leaving sex-

segregated environments (school, the military) men described sexual diversity as being less

threatening. They partook in activities that previously may have initiated labels like ‘faggot’;

they were more comfortable when encountering other sexualities; they allowed themselves to

experience emotions which were previously seen as emasculating. The key finding is that

homophobia is thrives in mono-cultural setting, and can be unlearnt by engaging with

diversity.

Submitted to the Journal of Sociology, September 2007.

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Introduction

Since the 1980s, theorists such as Connell (1995), Herek (1987) and Kimmel (1996) have

increasingly moved the discussion of masculinity away from an essentialist view towards a

socially constructed model, with Connell preferring the terms ‘masculinities’. As this plural

form indicates, there are many ways to be a man, and different ways in which boys and men

learn to become one. The drive to become successfully male within the context of any given

culture’s definition of ‘successful’ is therefore a contested effort, done in a social

environment and contingent upon comparing the self to others.

This paper is drawn from data collected to investigate the forces which shape Australian

males into certain roles and behaviours. What emerged in the research was an example of

Goffman’s (1973) ‘other’ which assisted men to develop their own gendered identity by

creating social, emotional and physical distances between themselves and who were

considered ‘failed’ males. When asked who at school they wanted to avoid being associated

with, the answers were overwhelming related to boys who were gay, suspected of being gay,

or who partook in activities those were considered the domains of gay boys. These included

choosing the ‘wrong’ sports, displaying ‘feminised’ emotions, or aspiring to high academic

performance. This group formed the ‘other’ against which ‘successful’ masculinity was

measured, foregrounding the roles of sexuality and homophobia in shaping masculinity. To

avoid the homophobic gaze, examples were cited wherein boys engaged in the most

competitive, physically punishing sports to ‘prove their masculinity. The role of sport – and

the elevated position that team sport has in Australian masculinity has been discussed in other

publications drawn from this data (see McCann 2007).

Despite an understanding of the malleability and contingency of gender, media and cultural

avatars present desirable masculinity in a narrow range of behaviours. What is elevated has

been idealised by Goffman (1973: 153) as ‘a young, married, white, urban, northern, heterosexual Protestant father of college education, fully employed, of good complexion, weight and height and a recent record of sports.’

As gender and sexuality are inextricably interwoven, it is the performance of proper sexuality

that is deeply embedded in what desired masculinity means. Kimmel described distance from

the derided other of the homosexuality as a key to embodying idealised masculinity, with

homophobia as ‘the main organising principle of our cultural definition of manhood’ (1994:

131). He draws a link between the female ‘other’, the feminisation of homosexuality and the

requirement of correct masculinity to distance itself from both of these possibilities. The drive

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to become hegemonically masculine is the ‘relentless repudiation of the feminine […]

homoerotic desire is cast as feminine desire’ (1994: 125; 130).

However, although homophobic language (faggot, and its Australian colloquial equivalent,

poofter) and misogynistic language (sissy, girl) are often drawn up in the same breath, there

is, according to Plummer (2001), another layer to homophobia. The feminist model sees a

continuum from masculinity to femininity being policed, but Plummer argues that this is

overlaid with a related but distinct continuum – that of ordained masculinity to failed

masculinity. There is nothing inherently feminine about choosing French over mathematics

at school or excelling in diving rather than rugby, and yet the former of these paired examples

has less status, and can be seen either as feminising (a girl’s subject or a sissy’s sport) or

failure to perform within the current culture’s definition of ordained masculinity. The

feminist interpretation of homophobia risks forcing gender back into a binary. It is not simply

femininity which is being policed. It is lesser or ‘failed’ forms of masculinity, and gender,

sexuality and homophobia are simultaneously independent, but with profound overlaps

located in their social constructedness (McCann 2004).

The drive to learn masculinity can be seen as an on-going state of anomie, a state which

Durkheim (1952) characterises as normlessness, an environment where previously held

beliefs about the social world do not necessarily apply. An absence of trans-historical, defined

rules of gender leaves all men in a precarious state, continually comparing themselves to

others in a never-ending, unwinnable contest. Indeed, this research found repeated references

by participants, particularly regarding development from boyhood to adulthood, to hierarchies

and pecking orders on which they continually jostled for supremacy.

This depressingly Hobbesian view of masculinity is perhaps too nihilistic, for were it the case,

masculinity would be a series of ongoing social and physical battles for dominance: every

man at war with every other man. Although homophobic violence is a clear enactment of the

tensions contained in this hierarchical jostling, enacting violence is not a feature of all men’s

lives nor constant across the lifespan. While Kimmel may be correct in his assessment that

homophobia is the key to defining American masculinity, the constructed nature of gender is

apparent in homophobia’s temporal location: it is most vocally and vociferously enacted in

late childhood, adolescence and early adulthood, the period in which boys and young men act

out what they believe to be the accepted performances of masculinity in their culture

(Plummer 2006; van der Meer 2003).

This paper examines some of the ways in which men re-learn their ideas about acceptable

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gender and sexuality, and how these impact on their perceptions of people who do not fit with

their previous understandings of these concepts.

Method

This qualitative research was designed to examine the forces which shape Australian

masculinity, particularly the impact that homophobia has in creating how Australian men

develop their ideas of what ‘proper’ gender meant to them. A grounded theory methodology

utilising in-depth interviews and focus groups allowed men to describe the influences on them

as they grew from children to adults. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed and

coded using N-VIVO qualitative data analysis software to identify the discourses of idealised

masculinity.

Discourse analysis allows us to interpret how social and political institutions and individuals

create meaning through their interactions. Through this technique, we can trace the influences

and enactments of power on the phenomena under consideration according to Howarth, who

states that ‘discourses are “incomplete” linguistic systems that are produced by the “play of

differences” and which mediate and organize or experience of the world' (2000: 42). Thus an

analysis of the gender discourses contained within the interview texts, when compared to the

literature on masculinity, illustrated how the participants came to learn what valourised

masculinity meant to them, particularly in regards to ‘acceptable’ or ‘feared’ sexuality.

Differences in the participant’s understandings of gender and sexuality were observed

between youth and adulthood. When ideas about ‘acceptable’ gender and sexuality were

challenged in various situations, new understandings of these men’s attitudes frequently

developed. Discourses of gender were shown to have the ability to change men’s lives and so

we can trace the enactments of power and interpret meaning behind actions as described by

the discourses.

Theoretical sampling was used to create a cohort of different age ranges, classes and socio-

economic backgrounds (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). To gather a sample, in 2005 the first author

(PM) obtained four initial interview contacts using convenience sampling, through colleagues

who had friends who they felt might give interesting insights for various reasons: three men

who had a mix of gay and straight friends, and a retired minister. These men provided some

valuable insights, but none of them exhibited any current homophobic attitudes. This led to

theoretical sampling to find a more diverse range of groups with different attitudes to

sexuality and gender. These were sources through a series of interviews on the Australian

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Broadcasting Corporation’s network of urban, rural and state-wide radio programmes, and

men who were interested in discussing contemporary Australian masculinity made contact if

they wished to participate in the research. This was augmented by snowball sampling within

the group, and some purposive sampling to access men from categories which had not been

accessed through the radio interviews. A total sample (n = 63) was obtained for either

interviews (45 participants) or focus groups (18 participants). Thirty-four men came from

either Sydney, Canberra or Newcastle. Twenty-nine men came from regional centres, small

towns and rural areas across New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Fifty-

four men were born in Australia, one in New Zealand, five in the United Kingdom, one in

Canada, one in Melanesia and one in Egypt, and ages ranged from 19 to 100 with an average

age of 47.8 years. Three men were Aboriginal, one was a Pacific Islander, one was Middle

Eastern and the remainder identified as Caucasian. Eleven men had been in the armed

services or police forces, and three had been in prison. Seven interview participants had been

sexually assaulted as children as had two focus group members (one by a female and eight by

males). This ranged from unwanted advances but no actual sex, to pack rape. Five men had

had consentual sex with other males (a total of twelve reported same-sex sex; the child-sex

and consenting adult-sex categories are not mutually exclusive). Sixty men identified as

heterosexual, one as bisexual and two as gay: the bisexual man is currently married and both

gay men had married and subsequently divorced.

Theoretical context for the following results section

Interviews followed the men’s life courses, allowing changing beliefs regarding appropriate

sexual behaviour and gender presentation to be mapped as they grew. In line with Plummer’s

(1999) research, homophobic responses were more likely to be instigated by gender

transgression than sexuality. Homophobic attitudes were most pronounced from late

adolescence through early adulthood, a period which characterised by conformity, peer

pressure and group culture. These results were similar to findings of Plummer (2001) who

identified mid-high school as the most dangerous years, and van der Meer (2003) who found

young men from 15 to 22 years of age to be the most likely to be involved in homophobia

violence.

Following this period, homophobia was seen to have a lesser impact on participants, who

described feeling less in the thrall of hegemonic masculinity and its public performance.

Individuality rather than conformity became valued, pressure to group norms lessened, and

men became more exposed to a broader range of stimuli.

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The data reveals two related themes related to social interactions. These were illustrated by

the ability of men to reconsider their ideas of masculinity once the pressure to perform within

the narrow gender scripts had passed after early adulthood. These themes are:

• Firstly, the role of expanded social interactions beyond the homogeneity of childhood environments, wherein encountering diversity across a range of indices allowed the re-evaluation of participant’s ideas about gender, and in some cases ideas about sexuality (although this was not universal).

• Secondly, what we term ‘extreme situations’. In these examples, men who were

forced into environments of Durkheimian (1952) anomie had to rapidly confront a different social landscape, causing a profound challenge to gender and sexuality norms.

As adults, some men remained within hegemonic masculinity’s boundaries and endorsed

many of its standards, such as perceived differences between genders, but relaxed on others

such as the role of emotions in their adult lives. Some of the younger men had thoroughly re-

evaluated their ideas by their mid-20s, and some held tightly to traditional understandings of

gender. Some of the older men expressed hostile attitudes to homosexuality, while others re-

evaluated in later years. Several men with histories of homophobic violence described an

unlearning of homophobic attitudes as they grew, and a greater tolerance of both gender and

sexual diversity. In short, not all men adapted their understandings of gender and sexuality,

and those who did, did so at different stages and due to a range of influences.

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Results

Contact with other people and ideas: ‘I’ve learned a lot of things that most straight guys

should know’

While school was generally described as an environment made up of homogenous peers,

Rowan provided a counterpoint example which highlighted the impact of socialising with a

diverse range of people. As a child, his family moved countries. While living in Moscow, he

attended a small international school.

Rowan: I think because it was small, it was a mix, everybody was a foreigner in a foreign country, so immediately I think that all of a sudden there was a ground that everybody shared on par. Their parents were diplomats or advanced civil servants of some form within the embassy system there. Had spent their life travelling and were used to ethnic differences. And just learning that you’ve got to fit in. You know you might be here for just two years but it’s going to be a shitty two years if you don’t get along with everybody. […] I always found with everybody, both in my younger life and adulthood, the more somebody travels the more that they become more accepting of different ways of life and culture. And the blinkers are not up and they’re not as prejudiced. (horticulturist, aged 33, regional centre)

Rowan’s school had the effect of exposing all students to diversity, forcing them to confront it

and incorporate people of different cultures into their social world. Most participants did not

encounter such diversity so early in their lives. It was not until these men had moved beyond

environments which featured a gender separation such single-sex schools, socialising with

sports teams, or working in male-dominated careers such as the armed services or trades such

as the building industry that they began to interact with diversity.

As an adolescent, Rick saw homosexuality as something to be joked about, and to avoid too

close an association with. At 21, he was cold-calling shops for work, one of which sold gay

erotica.

Rick: And I said, ‘Have you got any work?’ without having any idea of what kind of place it was. And they said, ‘Do you know we’re a gay shop do you?’ and there was a slight pause. And I said, ‘Oh well I need a job’. (student, aged 27, metropolitan area)

Rick’s ideas about other sexualities in his teens had already relaxed enough for him to

consider working in a gay adult bookstore, and the subsequent close proximity to both a gay

clientele and gay erotica has had the effect of removing any remaining preconceptions. His

initial response to viewing gay erotica was that he found it ‘abhorrent’ but that he no longer

does.

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Rick: I just think of it as bodies now. […] I’ve learnt a lot of things that most straight guys should know. (student, aged 27, metropolitan area)

Eddie initially said he found the concept of homosexuality challenging to his ideas of

masculinity, although until his late 30s he did not know any gay men or women closely.

Allport (1954) writes that simple casual contact with an unknown outgroup risks reinforcing

prejudice about that group. What is required is positive contact which has the potential to

challenge stereotypes. For Eddie, this occurred when a colleague approached him with a

business proposal.

Eddie: By that time I knew he was homosexual. We had a meeting and I was very confident on what he could bring. He was bringing in cash but he was also bringing a following and expertise. Sexuality didn’t matter at all. I assessed the situation, and it did not matter. (businessman, aged 49, metropolitan area)

Having already assessed that the man was of good character and successful in business

allowed Eddie to consider him as a business partner. The ongoing contact they had over the

next 20 years lead to a strong personal friendship.

Eddie: It evolved into more than that. He became my [business] partner, [but] because my father was dead, he was a substitute father. His partner was very, very good to me, and for my kids he became a grandfather figure. He retired after 10-15 years and today we’re still best friends. […] I’m not homosexual, never have been, never tried it or whatever. If somebody said something against him, or his preference for sex, especially against him, I would be right against them. (businessman, aged 49, metropolitan area)

Eddie’s pragmatic business-like approach to this man allowed him to see more than his

sexuality, made him reassess his other ideas of masculinity, and created a flow-on effect on

how he considered homosexuality generally. This was evident when I asked Eddie how he

would feel if his son was gay.

PM: If your son was gay, do you think your current open-minded attitude would have been the same if it had been five years before you met your gay business partner? Eddie: No. PM: What’s changed? Eddie: Because I have a relationship and an ongoing relationship, and beyond our business relationship … yeah, no I wouldn’t have had that openness to that sort of situation because, OK, I didn’t know about it until I came here. I didn’t really know about gayness until I lived in Sydney, I suppose. It’s not something that’s talked about. But having [deleted names] in my life for the last 20 odd years, I don’t look at their sexuality as an issue because they’re people. [He has] taught me a lot, and I’ve taught him a lot. (businessman, aged 49, metropolitan area)

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Brett described how when he was younger he was very homophobic.

Brett: I used to absolutely hate homosexuals. But today I’ve changed my attitude and I’ve thought, there’s some beautiful, beautiful people out there that choose partners of their own [gender], whether it be female or male. I know some, I’ve met people. I’ve got some good friends that are gay and good friends that are lesbians. And I thought, ‘Ah, that’s cool’. (businessman, aged 50, rural area)

Before his attitudes changed, he had an aggressive response to a man making a pass at him in

a bar when he was:

… 21, yeah. [I felt] absolutely fucking repulsed. Because it’s not an area that I believe I needed to go. I wasn’t like that, I don’t want to know about it. If I was talking to someone and they said, ‘Hi I’m gay,’ well I’d say, ‘Well fuck off then’. Or I’d fuck off. But today, hell, one of my solicitors is gay. PM: What would happen now you were in a bar chatting to someone and he made a move on you? Brett: [I would say] ‘Listen mate. I’m not interested at all. I’m straight.’ PM: That sounds like a much calmer response than 21. Brett: Oh, fuck yeah. PM: What’s changed? Brett: At the time I said to my mates, I said, ‘Get this bloke and get him out of here,’ because I was getting really enraged. And then my mates had got hold of him and took him outside and told him to fuck off, which he did. But Pol, when we grow older and we grow wiser, and we become more mellow. (businessman, aged 50, rural area)

As well as mellowing, Brett’s relaxed attitudes are also a response to increased positive social

contact. His initial repulsion at a pass in a bar is indicative of Allport’s (1954) caution against

casual contact reinforcing stereotypes, as well as members of a minority group needing to be

of equal or better standing to challenge negative preconceptions. Brett’s deeper social and

business contacts with a diverse group of people have allowed his attitudes to shift over the

years, part of his ‘mellowing’ process.

Although the New South Wales Police service now actively recruits within the gay and

lesbian community, and has gay and lesbian liaison officers, when Dennis worked as a police

officer in the early 1980s, the culture was almost exclusively heterosexual, monocultural,

largely male and rigid in its ideas about gender. He described how once he left the service, he

was exposed to diversity which allowed a re-evaluation of his beliefs about sexuality and

gender. Dennis’ attitudes from childhood had been conservative and this was reinforced

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working in a male-dominated industry, an atmosphere he described as ‘strongly male […]

macho’.

Dennis: My background has always been that homosexuality is not normal. As I’ve got older and I’ve seen the world change, and I know homosexuals. You just have to be think ‘Well they’re just like everybody else’. PM: What changed in your thinking over time and what do you think caused those changes? Dennis: I got out of the police force. […] Having got married, got my children, and being involved more with the community, I see a lot more of it. (former police officer, stay-at-home dad, aged 49 regional centre)

Interacting with a broader section of the community brought Dennis into contact with

diversity, including gay and lesbian neighbours. Herek (2002) also notes the utility of having

at least one gay or lesbian friend in the reporting of more positive attitudes to other

sexualities. These personal connections, as well as being less rigidly monitored by a

restrictive atmosphere in the police service, allowed a reformation of Dennis’ understandings

about sexuality. In a related technique, once Eddie assessed a his gay business partner as

being reputable, his positive assessment was eventually taken on by other men in the building

industry. Eddie described how builders who worked for him initially made gay jokes about

his new partner.

Eddie: I had these builders come up – because a lot of my customers are builders – ‘Keep your back to the wall.’ They only saw the mechanics of sex. (businessman, aged 49, metropolitan area)

In Stigma: Notes on the management of a spoiled identity, Goffman (1961: 30) writes: ‘the tendency for a stigma to spread from a stigmatised individual to his [sic] close connections provides a reason why such relations tend to be either avoided or terminated.’

Thus, when builders make jokes about Eddie’s business partner, they are broadcasting their

adherence to the culture’s standards of desired masculinity by creating social distance

between themselves and the nadir of masculinity – the faggot. However, this stigma was seen

to ultimately pass: once the builders also recognised that there was more to this man than a

different sexuality, and that he had Eddie’s respect as businessmen, the other builder’s

attitudes also relaxed. Eddie was asked how his business partner and his male lover fitted

into the community now.

Eddie: They didn’t at the beginning, but now they do and they are respected for what they’ve done. Whatever they go into, because they do it so well. (businessman, aged 49, metropolitan area)

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Sam described a long journey of learning about diversity. During his time in the military, he

tried to strangle his best friend who made a pass at him after a drunken night out. This violent

reaction was required for Sam to rectify any damage that his masculine reputation may have

suffered through close proximity to a potentially sexual situation with another male. In his

youth, his attitudes to gender were very conservative, as evidenced by this event and his

support of rigid gender roles which eventually lead to the dissolution of his marriage. In his

60s, Sam began to read more broadly than his previous narrow interest in military history,

branching out into philosophy, poetry, religion, alternative medicine and spirituality. His

broader reading interests challenged many of his preconceptions about the social world, and

as he began to enrol in personal development courses, he was brought into contact with

people with similarly questioning minds. During one workshop, he was paired up with a

young man and over several weeks they worked together discussing aspects of their lives. In

one discussion, it suddenly became apparent to Sam that the ‘partner’ to whom this man

referred was not his wife, but a male lover.

Straight away this big door came down. Bang! Then almost at the same instant I thought, ‘I really liked this guy before he said that, so what’s changed? Nothing.’ And this happened almost in a split second. (retired engineer; alternative health practioner, aged 72, regional area)

While Eddie’s experience was based on building up a positive assessment of his potential

business partner over a period of time, Sam expressed two influences converging: the first

was a change in his ideas about a range of topics, inspired by reading outside of his military-

based interests and meeting open-minded people; and secondly being forced to quickly re-

evaluate his impressions of a man who he had previously viewed favourably, once he realised

that the other man was gay. This was in effect an epiphany, grounded in an awakening of new

ideas, but precipitated by having his preconceptions of gay men challenged by having already

evaluated the man as being a good person prior to disclosure of his sexuality.

A similar occurrence happened to Justin. Over many years he challenged his upbringing,

allowing his personal and professional development room to grow in time for what was a

major reassessment of ideas about gender. The next section examines Justin’s growth in

detail, looking at where gender norms were taught, he challenged them in various areas of his

life, and a similarly dramatic reassessment of sexuality when he was in his 60s.

Diverse learning: ‘You took the risk of feeling uneasy.’

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During World War II, Justin joined the navy. Strict social controls on how men interacted

were enforced, both through policy and the behaviour of his peers. Justin related three

examples of how homosexuality was seen as something to be avoided and feared in the armed

services.

Justin: I never met any homosexuals in the navy, although it was about the very first day we were there in the navy, the chaplains came and gave us a talk, and they said ‘Beware… beware’. And he described how a man had been murdered on the [deleted ship] because of a relationship. (retired minister, aged 77, metropolitan area)

The conflation of homosexuality and failed masculinity was highlighted when Justin’s

masculinity was challenged by two of the ship’s bullies.

Justin: He said ‘Put ‘em up now!’ I didn’t think I had upset him in any way. […] And ah, so this other fellow who was with him said, ‘Oh what is it? Is, is he, is he a pervert? Is he homosexual?’ And this other fellow said ‘No he’s not a homosexual, but he is a sissy!’ And I was thinking ‘Oh well this is almost as bad as being a homosexual.’ I wasn’t happy at all. (retired minister, aged 77, metropolitan area)

In this exchange, the overlaps between perversion, homosexuality and a lack of masculinity

are illustrated. If he is a ‘real’ man, he will accept the challenge to his masculinity by proving

himself in an extreme display: public violence. By not accepting the challenge, his status as a

sissy and potential homosexual becomes entrenched. Sixty years after the event, the pain was

present in his softly spoken understatement, ‘I wasn’t happy at all.’

After leaving the navy, Justin attended a conservative theological college in preparation for

the ministry during the 1940s. He described how his thinking was shaped within the

discourses of a rigid theology until he began to experiment with his own ideas.

Justin: Well I read a very good book on the varieties of religious experience and came to terms with some sort of relationship between theology and psychology, and I’m still working on that. […] Well there were all these authors who I was never encouraged to read at [deleted college]. They somehow gave me some sort of liberation. [long pause] Well I really got out, branched out by myself in a sort of way. There was no-one else in the college who wanted to discuss those things. PM: So your academic development, even in an academic institution, was somewhat held back? Justin: Oh yes, I was being brainwashed. I wasn’t able to think outside. […] And I’ve done a heck of a lot of reading, and I had to go through was I going to give all Christian faith away and sort of become [agnostic]. See I read extensively the works of Freud and Jung. And I’ve got books on that. And you take the risk of feeling uneasy. PM: That’s an interesting phrase. What does that mean? Justin: It means that… feeling half guilty, sort of turning the back on the fundamentalists, a struggle to get away from that which has sort of kept you in narrow confines and just

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living, that sense of guilt, not doing what’s expected of you. (retired minister, aged 77, metropolitan area)

Justin described a sense of enlightenment when he began to read authors whose ideas

although anathematic to his conservative Church, resonated deeply with his own sense of

God. This development of ideas continued when he had the opportunity to interact with other

religions. The second Vatican Council (1962-1965) liberalised the Catholic Church’s

positions on scripture, the liturgy and the clergy. In the mid-1980s, Justin worked as pastor in

a Catholic hospital. His interactions with the nuns, who had so recently reviewed their roles

as workers for the Church, allowed an exchange of ideas and a sense of shared experiences.

Justin: Well, I felt they accepted me. I had a contribution to give. They invited me to have the Sunday midday meal with them in the refectory with the priests too. The Vatican Council had finished in the ‘60s, so by the ‘70s, Catholics had changed their thoughts on many subjects and the nuns were coming out of their black cloaks and mixing with people. So they were given that sense of freedom and I suppose that was helpful for me to meet people like that. (retired minister, aged 77, metropolitan area)

Justin’s questioning nature, his reading of authors who were not approved by the Church

during his training, his interactions with men and women of different faiths and being

prepared to take the ‘risk of feeling uneasy’ allowed him to become more accepting of

systems of belief beyond the rigidity with which he was trained.

These challenges to his training eventually prepared him for a complete re-evaluation of his

ideas on the contentious topic – for a clergyman – of homosexuality. He was assigned to be

pastor on an AIDS ward in the mid-late 1980s, the peak period of HIV/AIDS impact of gay

men in Sydney.

Justin: Yes I sat with these people who were dying of AIDS, covered in terrible sores, in terrible pain, and I was able to relate to them. I saw that they were general people. And their boyfriends, sitting with them. And I just came to accept that that’s what they needed, and the important thing was to have compassion. (retired minister, aged 77, metropolitan area)

Rethinking his ideas about Christianity beyond the orthodoxy in which he had been trained

allowed him to review his ideas about sexuality, sin and redemption, and he was able to

minister to this group of men who he had previously viewed askance. This re-evaluation

began early in Justin’s training. It continued as he was exposed to new ideas of different

religions, and culminated in contact with gay men who he was able to now see as individuals,

not a categorised sexuality.

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Extreme situations: ‘…does this mean I’m a poof?’

Durkheim described anomie as a sudden upheaval of a person's life, wherein individuals

become detached from society and its structural supports. These individuals struggle to

survive ‘disturbances of the collective order’ (1952: 246) where the pre-existing rules of

behaviour no longer apply. Without the moral structure that has supported one through life, a

crisis of anomie ensues, and in this state new beliefs about norms and socially acceptable

behaviour can be acculturated.

The experiences of Damien and Jordan were those of men in anomie. Both men described the

upheaval of their lives and the new norms they encountered when forced into the total

institutions of prison, and both showed the degree to which learnt understandings of gender

norms can be re-learnt.

Jordan had a long history of being violently sexually abused as a child. The shame entailed in

his abuse stopped him from discussing what had occurred, and he covered his emotional pain

through substance mis-use. From his teens until his late 20s, his relationship with alcohol and

other drugs became increasingly problematic, leading him to conduct armed robberies to pay

for drugs. This lead to several periods in prison. As part of one prison sentence’s parole

conditions, Jordan was sent to a drug rehabilitation centre, another total institution. He found

himself sharing a room with a gay man and a bisexual man.

Jordan: [It was] the only time I ever talked about sexuality with other men. (at-home dad/youthworker, aged 47, rural area)

In the close confines of a rehabilitation centre, which like the prisons he had spent years in,

was an anomic environment, the normal social rules were suspended and new social mores

could be entertained. This allowed preconceptions of other sexualities to be suspended, and

all of the men to begin talking about their lives in depth.

Jordan: It felt like that burden had been taken off me where I could openly [talk about being raped]. And what it did, that was a big part of me becoming comfortable. (at-home dad/youthworker, aged 47, rural area)

Damien’s early life was characterised by proving he was man enough. He articulated this in

his descriptions of maintaining distance from any boys at school considered to be ‘failed’,

eschewing learning, and being one of the ‘tough’ boys, and actively homophobic towards

boys who were gay or insufficiently tough. Following school he became a mechanic, and

discussed the strict hierarchy in this workplace. Ritualised teasing was a feature of his

apprenticeship, but once he proved himself by being able to take the bullying, he began to be

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invited to social events with the other staff. This largely involved drinking, and he drank large

quantities to prove that he was as much of a man as his peers.

The same motivation occurred when his workmates offered him amphetamines. He did not

want to be seen as scared to try drugs, but his interest in drug soon spiralled into heroin

addiction. One night in a drug-fuelled psychosis, he beat a man to death while trying to rob

him. He was sentenced to a maximum-security prison for 13 years, and he was interviewed

near the end of this sentence while on weekend release. The disruption that incarceration

created in his social and sexual life created the need to re-evaluate his ideas of acceptable

sexual activities. The constructedness (and de-constructability) of homophobia is present in

his story.

Damien: I myself spent the first couple of years satisfied just with masturbation. As time wore on, I guess I craved the touch, softness. I had nothing tender in my life in prison. […] I looked at the homosexuals and I thought, ‘Nah, it’s not really what I’m looking for.’ Looked at some of the trannies, and thought I must have been in jail too long, ‘cause some of them are starting to look good. So if you wanted a blowjob off a trannie, you got a blow job off a trannie. […] First time round, I was pretty hesitant about it, because ‘does this mean I’m a poof?’, sort of thing. I had to battle that through my head, but fuck it felt good, so I soon got over that thought. […] So in my community, there was the option of masturbation or sex with another male. So sexual contact with another male became an option and it was an option that I chose to take. (incarcerated mechanic, aged 37, metropolitan area)

This account represents a major repositioning for Damien. He had described a social

separation as an adolescent between himself and any other boy who was perceived as gay,

and yet he totally re-evaluated his ideas of sexual behaviour when the opportunity for female

sexual company was removed. While he was still not prepared to have sex with an inmate

who identified as a man (which other heterosexual peers in prison were doing), he could

accept sex with transgendered inmates, who presented less of a compromise to his masculine

identity by being feminine in appearance. His transgender partners were seen as erotically

pleasing, but he still acknowledged that he was having ‘sex with another male’.

Conclusion

For those who either found themselves outside of the narrow confines of hegemonic

masculinity, or who questioned it, challenging ideas about the stability of gender and

sexuality were thrown up. Those men who had to negotiate what masculinity meant were

describing journeys of learning. In some cases, like Justin’s, it was a life-long journey to set

aside his uncertainty about his relationship with God, and the people to whom he ministered.

For Sam it was desire to have a nuanced view of the world.

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Some participants also cited extreme examples of re-learning when they were removed from

their normal environment and placed in situations of total anomie such as prison. Opening up

to men of different sexualities allowed Jordan to discuss a history of abuse and challenge his

rigid ideas about boing stoic. Without reconsidering his ideas to sexuality and gender, the

entirety of Damien’s prison term would have been devoid of physical human contact and the

social benefits that he described.

When exposure to difference occurred, be it through the lenses provided by books, the

experience of travel or moving from the protected environments of the school to the

workplace, it created a possibility to engage with new ways of behaving and feeling, once the

previous ideas of the social world were no longer seen as all-encompassing. Men who

experienced difference, saw that it added colour, not challenge, to their existence.

Encountering diversity showed men that other life patterns have legitimacy. It required men

to set aside their ethnocentricity, but the benefit of this action meant that these men saw their

lives fitting into a broader context, and from which they could draw ideas and inspiration.

Implications for further research

This paper restates the view that masculinity is an ephemeral state, re-interpreted by each

generation, and absorbed by each individual. As such, masculinity itself is a continual state

of Durkheimian anomie: a lack of identifiable norms which each man is to embody even

though none can fully articulate it as a stable identity. Homophobia is not the sine qua non of

masculinity, but it is profound part of the equation. It shapes and constrains many aspects of

modern manhood, and shucking it off, even partially, opens up a broader range of ways of

being.

Evidence presented in the current research indicates that homophobia is not an essential

aspect of masculinity: it is a learnt attribute concerned with policing the boundaries of our

modern concept of masculinity. It is the constructed, contested nature of masculinity,

particularly during the competitive years of adolescence and early adulthood where becoming

a man is a process of comparison to desired and derided forms of masculinity, that

homophobia is most dynamically performed. One this period ends, participants in this study

described a process of unlearning homophobia. Thus, homophobia is seen to be a socially-

constructed form of prejudice, one that has been effectively challenged in the accounts of this

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research, and one that should be challenged in our culture for the benefit of all men – not just

gay men – and the women in their lives.

The current research builds on the literature on the social construction of gender, specifically

that of homophobia’s impact has on the lives of men of all sexualities. It adds several new

perspectives. Firstly, this research adds an Australian context to international research in this

field. This simultaneously shows how culturally contextual gender is, with local variances

influencing how sexuality and gender interact; and yet despite these variations, there are also

shared dynamics that impact on gender in Western democracies. Secondly it shows through

the lives of the participants the variety of ways in which homophobia can be challenged –

sometimes overtly through positive contract with gay men and lesbians, sometimes indirectly

through exposure to other forms of diversity. Finally, it displays how positive interaction with

diversity, and engagement beyond mono-cultural environments has flow-on effects when

diversity in other spheres is encountered.

This final point leads on to some exciting potential further areas of research. Beyond the

gender focus of this research are broader research areas which can incorporate the analysis of

difference and how to overcome distrust of the ‘other’. Further research into difference and

gender relations can benefit from analysing the techniques described by these participants in

overcoming fear of difference, and allowing distrust of the ‘other’ – be that a gendered,

sexual, religious or ethnic other – to dissipate.

Therefore, a fuller examination of the role of difference and the techniques that this paper has

shown can minimise difference’s negative impacts between disparate social groups can be of

benefit to sociologists.

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Bibliography

Allport, G. W. (1954) The Nature of Prejudice. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Connell, R. W. (1995) Masculinities. St Leonards, Sydney: Allen & Unwin. Durkheim, E. (1952) Suicide; London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. Glaser, B. G. & Strauss, A. L. (1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London. Goffman, E. (1961) Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books. Goffman, E. (1973) Stigma: notes on the management of a spoiled identity. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books. Herek, G. M. (1987) ‘On Heterosexual Masculinity: Some Psychical Consequences on the Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality’, pp.68-82 in M.S. Kimmel (ed.) Changing Men: New Directions in Research on Men and Masculinity. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Herek, G. M. (2002) ‘Heterosexuals’ attitudes toward bisexual men and women in the United States’, The Journal of Sex Research 39: 264-274. Howarth, D. (2000) Discourse, Open University Press, Buckinghamshire. Kimmel, M. S. (1987) ‘The Contemporary “Crisis” of Masculinity in Historical Perspective’, pp 121-153 in H. Brod (ed.) The Making of Masculinities: The New Men’s Studies. Boston: Allen and Unwin. Kimmel, M. S. (1994) ‘Masculinity as Homophobia’, 119-141 in H. Brod & M. Kaufman (eds.) Theorizing Masculinities. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Kimmel, M. S. (1996) Manhood in America: A Cultural History. New York, NY: The Free Press. McCann, P. D. (2004) ‘Gender, sexuality and homophobia: Using social constructionism to examine overlaps in these fields’, International Journal of the Humanities 2 (2): 1373-1379. McCann P.D. (2007) Homophobia, Sport and the Group Socialisation of Australian Men, Bridging the Gap between Ideas and Research - Published Proceedings of the Annual Postgraduate Research Conference of Faculty of Education, Health, and Professional Services, The University of New England, Armidale. pp 235-239. Plummer, D. C. (1999) One of the Boys: Masculinity, Homophobia and Modern Manhood. New York, NY: Harrington Park Press. Plummer, D. C. (2001) ‘The quest for modern manhood: masculine stereotypes, peer culture and the social significance of homophobia’, Journal of Adolescence 24, 15-23. Plummer, D. C. (2006)’Sportophobia: Why Do Some Men Avoid Sport’, Journal of Sport and Social Issues 30 (2): 1-16 van der Meer, T. (2003) ‘Gay bashing - a rite of passage?’, Culture, Health and Sexuality 5 (2): 153-165.

Acknowledgments Data for this paper was drawn from an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant project (number DP0211490) entitled ‘The Pressures of Modern Manhood’.

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