WOW. Sooooo... its been quite some time since i've blogged. Won't get into all the ways i have been using my energy otherwise... but i came across this gem, and it just made my day, i and i knew i had to post it here!! Science is amazing sometimes. I feel like it affirms what a lot of us knew already.
Heterosexual men with the most anti-gay attitudes, when asked, reported not being sexually aroused by gay male sex videos. But, their penises reported otherwise.
Homophobic men were the most sexually aroused by gay male sex acts.
Amazing. Insightful. Hilarious. And sad at the same time. It's not even a new study (1996). But now its official... Homophobia Is Gay.
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14 comments:
That study has been around for a while but it still surprises me that so many homophobic people deny this type of thing.
wish i could say i that i am surprised that homophobic people deny this.... the homophobes in the study deny it too, even tho they were clearly aroused!
i have heard a definition of homophobia that breaks down like this:
homo = same
phobia = fear
therefore, homophobia = fear that you are the same.
denial is a very strong defense against intolerable realities....
More junk science yawn...
you know, yer probably right Anonymous. the men watching the gay porn and getting erections were probably thinking about women.
of course, you could also always simply google some gay porn and run your own study just so you know for sure....
The study gives another possible reason for the erections.
"Another explanation of these data is found in Barlow, Sakheim,
and Beck's (1983) theory of the role of anxiety and attention
in sexual responding. It is possible that viewing homosexual
stimuli causes negative emotions such as anxiety in homophobic
men but not in nonhomophobic men. Because anxiety
has been shown to enhance arousal and erection, this theory
would predict increases in erection in homophobic men. Furthermore,
it would indicate that a response to homosexual stimuli
is a function of the threat condition rather than sexual
arousal per se. Whereas difficulties of objectively evaluating
psychoanalytic hypotheses are well-documented, these approaches
would predict that sexual arousal is an intrinsic response
to homosexual stimuli, whereas Barlow's (1986) theory
would predict that sexual arousal to homosexual stimuli by homophobic
individuals is a function of anxiety. These competing
notions can and should be evaluated by future research."
https://my.psychologytoday.com/files/u47/Henry_et_al.pdf
hmmm! thanks for this post Anonymous!
i'm kinda baffled by this theory though... i'm no doctor or anything, but i was under the impression that anxiety was actually the main enemy to erections...? eg, performance anxiety? and as a man i've never gotten a hard-on from worrying about paying off my school loans. re: sexual arousal as a response to a threat, i don't remember getting an erection from being roughed up by cops either....
maybe that's because i'm not homophobic? do homophobic men get erections paying massive bills, or getting beaten up?
in the final analysis, this is a *suggested theory* and not a study with clear methodologies of measurement of erections as response to stimuli. i would take this theory a lot more seriously if the study was duplicated, and some valid scientific measurement for anxiety and perception of threat was incorporated into the study.
thanks again though, interesting to hear rebuttals from the scientific community!
The study they cite did conduct a controlled experiment like what you're describing.
"12 21–30 yr old males who were trained to expect tolerance-level electric shocks viewed an erotic film under 3 counterbalanced conditions. In 1 condition, Ss viewed the erotic film in conjunction with a signal light indicating threat of shock. A 2nd light indicated threat of shock if Ss did not achieve an erection of a certain size. A 3rd light indicated no shock. Both anxiety-inducing shock-threat conditions increased penile size response over and above the no-shock-threat condition. Furthermore, shock threat contingent on size of erection produced more arousal than noncontingent-shock threat."
http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/abn/92/1/49/
ok, that study is definitely a more compelling argument than a theory. threat of electric shock tho?? what century was this done??
however, the abstract of this study does not say what kind of erotic films were being shown, nor does it explain why there are tons more articles on how anxiety causes erectile dysfunction (ED), and why we are literally spammed everyday with ads for pharmaceuticals that claim to overcome this anxiety induced ED:
Anxiety plays a major role in the development of the problems associated with erectile dysfunction (ED). Psychological and behavioural responses to ED can lead to a vicious cycle of increased uneasiness, distance and conflicts. This in turn leads to a lower frequency of sexual encounters, less time spent together and lack of communication between partners in a relationship. In this review, methods to decrease sexual anxiety are discussed. Primary care psychosexual counselling including a detailed explanation of ED, reassurance to the patient and proposal of a solution for ED are outlined. A multidisciplinary approach to ED therapy is recommended using psychosexual counselling in conjunction with pharmacotherapy.
http://www.nature.com/ijir/journal/v15/n2s/full/3900994a.html
the more i think about it, the study you cited could actually be used for evidencing (or creating!) a BDSM fetish, much like arousal being gained from being told that one is a naughty boy and being threatened with a spanking. i could see the threat of punishment for watching something that one finds arousing could make it even more arousing. ie, "this turns me on, and i'm such a bad boy for being turned on by this. i deserve a spanking." i could DEFINITELY see homophobic men feeling "naughty" and in need of "punishment" for liking gay porn too.
very interesting.
the factor about the original study cited in this post that saddens and worries me, is the factor of denial. the fact that all the men who got erections from watching gay porn denied getting an erection, indicates very, very, very deep repression to me. it is so unacceptable to some people, who have so much hatred towards homosexuality, that it is absolutely intolerable to imagine oneself being gay. it has always been suspect to me that anyone who professes to be straight devotes sooooo much negative, passionate energy towards gay people. why the obsession? just under the surface self-loathing sadly comes to mind. enter the growing archetype of the raving homophobic republican senator who votes down every gay rights bill, and is then discovered in bed with a male prostitute. very sad.
ED is more a type of performance anxiety that occurs in an otherwise pleasant situation. The electric shocks and gay porn used in the two studies place subjects in a situation that's very unpleasant for them and would therefore induce panic or even terror. So it's different levels of anxiety with apparently different physical effects.
Denial of arousal doesn't necessarily indicate repression. The homophobic subject could legitimately feel no arousal, and be certain of that in his mind, but not aware of the anxiety explanation. So unable to explain his unexpected erection, and knowing that people will (falsely) assume he's gay, he would inevitably try to deny it.
As for the "obsession", that's not too hard to account for. Why do racists devote so much negative passionate energy toward blacks and Jews? Why do communists and anarchists devote so much negative passionate energy toward capitalism? It's just the nature of bigotry and ideology.
hey Anonymous. Though we disagree, i really appreciate your cool-headedness on this whole thing. People usually get very emotional and attacking. I also appreciate your persistence :)
I wonder if we know each other... hmmm....
i think notions of what is considered pleasant and unpleasant where sexual arousal is concerned, is a complex subject. fetishes can be born when something physically or psychologically painful/invasive is introduced into the sexual arena, whether it is consensual or not. someone may have been held in a chokehold nonconsensually during a sex act, and later ask someone to choke them, for an assortment of motives including regaining agency, engaging a healing process, and that it is now a highly charged erotic act for them (to be clear however, rape is not an erotic act, it is violence). i would like to see a follow up study to see how many of these men are now turned on by (whatever genre they were watching) porn and the threat of electric shock, or sex with someone wielding a electric cattle prod or something.
since we have different notions of how anxiety manifests in these studies, i'll just move on from that subject.
but i'm not so sure about your explanation that men with erections can legitimately feel no arousal. even if i wake up in the morning with a woody for no reason, i am aroused. are you a cisgendered/non-trans man?
there is another subject that we have both not touched on, (which you may appreciate) and that is the fact that one can watch any kind of sex act and be aroused, just because it is *sex*. i have lesbian friends who really enjoy watching gay male porn. ie, i would say that arousal from watching any kind of porn may not be an indicator of sexual preference. HOWEVER i am still fascinated that these homophobic men are MOST aroused by gay male porn. to quote a gay male comedian talking to a straight male friend... this one had me think twice: "so, when you watch straight porn, do you prefer for the men to have little puny penises, or thick, throbbing cocks?"
we do agree that the nature of bigotry includes obsessive behavior. it gets more suspect when say, you are a dancehall artist that needs to have several songs on their album denouncing gays, that includes graphic pictoral descriptions of homo-erotic acts one "should not do", or if you are one of these Ugandan ministers showing their church congregation gay porn to also demonstrate "what not to do." i mean... cmon.
thanks for the thoughtful debate, its been awhile since anyone who disagrees with me engages me with a respectful, intelligent conversation. hmm... you may even possibly be the first...
aaaaaand a little bit of satire to close out the night.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/why-do-all-these-homosexuals-keep-sucking-my-cock,10861/
Your example of "morning wood" is interesting because I don't feel any arousal associated with it at all, and in fact it's thought to be a spontaneous mechanism for oxygenating penile tissue that's unrelated to dream content (and therefore sexual arousal).
http://goaskalice.columbia.edu/whats-morning-erections
I can imagine something similarly non-sexual happening during certain types of anxiety.
wow. it's official, not only do our minds disagree, so do our bodies!
the biological mechanizations of "nocturnal tumescence" are fascinating. they don't actually discuss arousal and erotic charge, but the technical aspect of why it happens is very interesting. for me, if i have an erection, even if i have not been thinking/dreaming about erotic material... then i am also aroused. i'm not a "morning person" when it comes to sex, but if i wake up with an erection, then i'm totally down to have sex, and not just from a technical perspective, i feel erotically charged and very much into the idea of having sex.
in somatic/body centered therapy, (can't find any links that illustrate this specific exercise/theory, not sure how to even search for it, gotta keep it moving) it is known that doing things like forcing yourself to smile widely will trigger some happy feelings, as much as putting on a deep frown and stomping your feet will evoke some aggressive feelings, even though it seems purely performative... the body has deep wired associations with these physical expressions, and will respond as such. method actors know this, and utilize this to make their acting even more real feeling. and those are conscious manipulations, morning wood is involuntary, and for me, definitely triggers the associated feelings that comes with an erection.
so, in my experience, an erection is not separate from arousal.
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