Addressing Homophobia in Sports

This post deals with addressing Homophobia. I think that in order to address Homophobia we need to understand it.  According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, homophobia is defined as “irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality, or homosexuals”.   In this definition there are two negative terms that stick out to me; those terms are “irrational” and “discrimination”.  Another word that sticks out to me is fear.  Why should we fear someone who has a different sexual orientation?  Why do we fear those who are different from ourselves?  Should I fear Jewish people? Should I fear African Americans? The real person that I should fear myself  if these are my views. 

There are many judgments associated with homosexuality.  For example, in the article How to Address Homophobia in Women's Athletics “, they speak on how if a woman wants to play sports she is secretly masculine at heart.  They don’t address the fact that maybe she may have love for the game or that maybe she is forced to play the sport, but the assumptions leak in like rain drops.  This plays into the gender roles that we associate with.  For example the women are in the kitchen, while the men are at work.  These put homophobia into action.  It is my opinion, however, that we are not so against the fact that these couples are the same sex, but however that these couples and individuals are not following the normal gender roles that we as a society create for them.  In order to address homophobia we need to address the gender roles that we are subjected to.

 

Works Cited

Cook, Sarah Gibbard. “How to Address Homophobia in Women’s Athletics” . Women in Higher Education. vol.16 (26-27) 2007. www.genderwatch.com

“Citation.”, Def. 1 Merriam Webster Online. Merriam Webster, n.d.  2 April 2013

-Lauren Tucker