quarta-feira, 11 de novembro de 2009
Contemporary society and the homophobia
By Fernanda Winter -
The aversion to homosexuality is a historical problem and is still around in the XXI century. In 1971 the American psychologist George Weinberg created the word homophobia (homo=same, phobia=fear, hatred) in the book The Society and the Healthy Homosexual. Since then the term has been used to designate attitudes of discrimination and oppression against homosexuals.
But has the world always been homophobic? In ancient Rome and Greece, for example, homosexuality was a common and legitimate practice, viewed as something natural. Over time and with the introduction of Christianity, the sexual practices with the same sex began to be condemned and characterized as sinful.
In the nineteenth century, the century of scientism, in which people tried to provide a scientific explanation of everything, the heterosexual sexual behavior was considered a "natural" and "normal" behavior, particularly because of the reproduction, and the homosexual behavior was considered a deviation, a disease.
In the twentieth century, several studies on human sexuality such as the report of the American sexologist Alfred Kinsey, challenged the idea of making natural sexual behaviors. The attraction to the same-sex people began to be viewed differently and the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of pathologies.
But in contrast with the advances and the liberalization of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, there is a range of violent and oppressive actions perpetrated by individuals and organized groups that show how the contemporary society retains PHOBIA from time immemorial. While we insist on making natural and standardizing the behavior, consuming information that tackles the issue with debauchery and prejudice, listening to and passing on discriminatory jokes ,and perpetuating other discriminatory attitudes such as these, racism, misogyny, homophobia, and many other forms of oppression will continue to exist and, with them ,their myths and taboos.
That’s why it is important that the countries that claim to be defenders of human rights be coherent in ensuring that sexual racial, gender and other diversities are really respected. Respected not only in their laws, but also ensuring a quality sex education where there is discussion of all the taboo issues of human sexuality. Topics that have generated so many personal and interpersonal conflicts, which is an unprecedented step back in such an "advanced" society of the twenty-first century.
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