Very seldom do I read an article that grabs me the way this one did. It’s an article interviewing Mark McCormack, a sociologist from the UK, about his book, “The Declining Significance of Homophobia: How Teenage Boys Are Redefining Masculinity and Heterosexuality,” When I saw the title of the article, my first thought was that someone was delusional, or misrepresenting the significance of a tiny act of subsection of the population. To be fair, that is, in a sense true, because his sample is just three high schools in the UK. That doesn’t mean it isn’t significant…groundbreaking…exciting! His goal was to explore masculinity in British high schools, and what he found is so unbelievable that I’ll cut and paste and let you judge for yourself.
Teenage boys sitting on each other’s laps, exchanging back rubs and dolling out hugs: This was the sight that researcher Mark McCormack found when he went to a British high school to research masculinity.
These were STRAIGHT boys! What’s more, in a year of research in these three schools, he was only aware of homophobic language twice by two different students (even the ubiquitous’That’s so gay!” was gone). Can you imagine what would happen if that were the scene in our schools in the US? There would be soccer mom riots…evangelicals storming the gates…Republicans tarring and feathering! It’s actually kind of titillating to think of all of them getting their panties in a wad! :-) And, as I write this, it occurs to me that perhaps it’s the ADULTS that have maintained the homophobia in our society and in our kids. For you, reader, that might be a no brainer, but it isn’t something I really put together until just now. It just makes sense, really. Kids get their values and beliefs from the adults they come in contact with, at least younger ones. You can see it in videos of evangelicals and hate groups, where the kid confidently states things that are far beyond their understanding and are surely just parroting things their parents have said numerous times.
Continue reading →
Like this:
Like Loading...
Russian wrestling coach Vladimir Uruimagov has blamed gay activists for the IOC’s decision to drop wrestling from the 2020 Games. Because we hate masculinity. He told Russian magazine R-Sport that the fate of humanity depends on his sport making it back into the Olympics. No, really. Continue reading 
