“Sis, We All Know Why You Don’t Care for It”: The Perpetuation of Covert Homophobia and Heteronormativity in the Digital Age
Society has had a long history of homophobia. Often citing religious texts for the reason for their bigotry, people have frequently listed homosexuality as being abnormal and inherently deviant to the morals of society. In fact, it was only in 1973 that the American Psychological Association removed homosexuality from their list of mental illnesses and only this year has India decriminalized homosexuality. In many developing countries, homosexuality is still considered a criminal act in over 70 countries around the world with some even condemning it by death. However, it should be said that in many liberal countries like South Africa, The United Kingdom and The U.S. have made many strides in the normalization of homosexuality and advances in LGBT rights have been considerable in the past 30 or so years. In many of these countries it has now become a societal taboo to be outwardly homophobic, with many of these countries condemning homophobia as hate crime and a human rights violation. Yet still, homophobia continues to consist in society and exists in many forms such as verbal and sometimes physical abuse as well as through structural and systemic discrimination. Deeply entrenched in the very fabric of society, this post seeks to analyse the ways in which covert homophobia still persists in contemporary liberal societies and the ways in which these forms of homophobia represent the broader structural issues of cis-heterosexism that continues to characterize the world we live in despite the commendable efforts to live in a post-homophobic world.
Homophobia is arguably the result of repressive structures imposed by heterosexism and patriarchy. In a study conducted by Neil Henderson, he looks at how heteronormativity in “traditional” African communities reinforce homophobic behaviour and ideologies. Henderson (2015: 109) argues that in societies characterised by heteronormative ideals brought on by a patriarchal system that see heterosexuality as the norm perpetuate homophobia as being inherently deviant and abnormal. He goes on to argue that this sort of hetero-morality is often held up through religion, culture, and education systems with homophobic language being the key perpetrator in the perpetuation on discrimination based on non-heteronormative identities (Henderson, N., 2015: 109). In his analysis of coming out stories by gay men in Cape Town, Henderson notes that in the cases where these men presented more traditionally feminine traits faced the largest brunt of homophobia by their families and their communities as they were more likely to uphold heterosexuality and traditional gender roles as the norm, and thus condemning those who stray from these ideal, suggesting that there is a causal link between homophobia, heterosexism and traditional patriarchy (Henderson, N., 2015: 111-112).
This seems to be strengthened by Thabo Msibi’s study of the experiences of queer youth in township areas in South Africa. In many township schools, Msibi (2012: 518) notes that teachers are often not only inhibitors of homophobia complicit in their silence, but also perpetuate it themselves through repressive structures that aim to hinder and deviate from the perceived cis-heterosexual norm and thus enforce heteronormativity resulting in the lives of many queer black youth remaining bleak in the face of hegemonic masculinities. This, Msibi (2012: 520) argues that this could be because of the rampant poverty experienced by these communities largely due to the legacy Apartheid which caused heterosexual men to aggressively assert their masculinity, condemning all who deviate from it. Thus, in terms of sexual identities (particularly homosexuality), in societies highly characterized by hetero-centricity and heterosexism, the dominant discourses and cultural practices in these societies almost explicitly promote heterosexuality and traditional gender roles as being compulsory, marginalizing those identities who do not conform to this narrative into highly repressive and discriminatory structures (Msibi, T., 2012: 521).
These repressive structures brought on by heteronormativity still persists in contemporary liberal societies in various ways disguised as covert homophobia which suggest that there is still some level of societal acceptance of certain forms of homophobia. Much like “colour-blind” racism that seeks to reflect a post-racial society, homophobia has been rearticulated in more covert forms as a new form of homophobia disguised in the language of liberalism (Teal, J., Conover-William, M., 2016: 14). Much like covert racism, covert homophobia in liberal societies “fail to dismantle any of the heteronormative structures that privilege heterosexuality and oppress members of queer communities despite what appears to be advances in LGB equality” (Teal, J., Conover-William, M., 2016: 14). This is done in many ways but for the sake of this post we will focus on the “born this way” essentialism and the “some of my friends are gay…” rhetoric, both which present covert homophobia that is perpetuated by so called allies of the LGBT community.
The most apparent of these is the “some of my friends are gay…” rhetoric. Much like the “I have black friends” rhetoric, this positions heterosexuals as not possibly being homophobic because they choose to associate with queer people (Teal, J., Conover-William, M., 2016: 19). This, Teal and Conover-William (2016: 19) argue is a form of ally entitlement where heterosexual identities claim ally status through the association with the queer communities which remains inherently problematic because claiming ally status with the intent of protect yourself against being homophobic does little to eradicate established heterosexist power relations. Furthermore, because the “but some of my friends are gay” rhetoric is often preluded by homophobic comments or slurs (such as calling someone the f-word as an insult), these so-called allies proclaim this ally status to neutralize the effect of their comment which “maintains heterosexism by assuming this neutralization is valid, and sufficient for using anti-queer sentiments,” almost directly implying queer identities should be grateful for their “acceptance” (Teal, J., Conover-William, M., 2016: 19).
Another more controversial form of covert homophobia lies in the “born this way” essentialism. Put briefly, this rhetoric relies on the dichotomy between the discourses on whether you are born queer or is it a choice. Many queer allies, and even queer individuals themselves, argue that people are born queer and that it is not a choice (Teal, J., Conover-William, M., 2016: 16). This sort of essentialism is used to justify that homosexuality is normal and presents queer people with the struggle of having to constantly have to prove something that is simply not possible (Teal, J., Conover-William, M., 2016: 16). Because of this impossibility, many homophobes use this doubt to justify their bigotry arguing that if it can be proven without a doubt that homosexuality is inborn, that they will perhaps change their positions on homosexuality (Teal, J., Conover-William, M., 2016: 16). As daunting as this may be, this has a second layer to it because by essentializing sexuality as being inborn, many people ignore the social construction of sexuality. In doing so, queer allies (and some queer individuals) use essentialism to argue that homosexuality simply could not be a choice any sane individual would make. Thus, allies make use of covert homophobia to invalidate the possibility that queerness could be an actual, valid choice to make and by “simplifying sexuality into genetic versus choice argument ignores that sexuality is a social construction and devalues queer sexualities by framing them as inherently bad or negative” (Teal, J., Conover-William, M., 2016: 17).
One key example of cover homophobia in action is Kim Kardashian’s brief ‘beef’ with model Tyson Beckford. Herein, Tyson Beckford made a comment on a popular Instagram page The Shade Room where he said he did not like Kim’s body, calling her apparent surgery as being a botched job. Shortly after, Kim took to Instagram to defend her body by shaming a sexuality he does not even identify with, boldly stating “sis we all know why you don't care for it” (EOnline, 2018). This is very problematic for a number of ways. Most notably, Kim centres her rebuttal solely on the fact that the only possible reason he doesn’t like her body is because he must be gay. Furthermore, by framing her rebuttal with the gendered noun “sis,” Kim is acting in a way that reinforces heteronormative ideals of what a straight man should be, attempting to shame his sexuality and his masculinity by reducing it to the “diminutive” femininity. Unsurprisingly enough, Kim defended her comments by saying “for anyone to say that I am homophobic for the comment of saying 'sis' like, I'm sorry, I'm the least...all my best friends are gay, I support the community, I love the community, they love me” (EOnline, 2018). This echoes the “but my friends are gay…” ally entitlement that Kim uses to justify her covertly homophobic remarks. Kim thinks that just because she is an “ally” who “loves and supports” the community, that she immediate gets a backstage pass to using any homophobic sentiment that she pleases. Kim is entitled. Kim is homophobic. Kim is reinforcing heteronormativity. Kim is far from being the ally she so boldly claims to be.
From the above discussions it can clearly be seen that homophobia is alive and well. By people positioning themselves as liberal who do not care if you “gay, straight, black, white or blue,” liberal allies act in ways that reenforce their heteronormativity onto a community desperate to be accepted, and disguise their homophobia by common sentiments such as jokes or essentialism. By the mere fact that a celebrity as prominent as Kim Kardashian can use covertly homophobic sentiments and leave from it virtually unscathed, this shows that society, though hiding under the veil of liberal ideals, is still unashamedly homophobic. Until this is addressed, repercussions are felt, and healthy discussions are had about contemporary forms of homophobia, covert homophobia will continue to repress the lives of queer individuals even in the most progressive societies.
References:
Cohen, J. 2018. Kim defends dissing Tyson Beckford over body shaming comments. Accessed on 10 September 2018 from the World Wide Web: https://www.eonline.com/au/news/959088/kim-kardashian-defends-dissing-tyson-beckford-over-body-shaming-comments
Henderson, N. 2015. The persistence of homophobic discourses: Narratives of a group of gay men in Cape Town, South Africa, Agenda, 29:1
Msibi, T. 2012. ‘I'm used to it now’: experiences of homophobia among queer youth in South African township schools, Gender and Education, 24:5
Teal, J. & Conover-Williams, M. 2016. Homophobia without homophobes: Deconstructing the public discourses of 21st century queer sexualities in the United States. Humboldt Journal of Social Relations. 38.