I was hesitating to write about this topic after a rather heated conversation yesterday with an intellectual colleague about gay men and masculinity, he believes that all gay men are less masculine. I find that when individuals begin to discuss Masculinity and Femininity they eagerly associate these terms with genders, but fail to realize that these are concepts that are culturally and socially constructed. We think that women own femininity, and men own masculinity. This results from constructed ideals that have indoctrinated individuals to believe that they are either masculine or feminine.
Because of these erroneous concepts, it leaves individuals believing that being gay is a sign of emasculation. In addition, if a man does not participate in socially constructed “manly” behaviors then his peers ostracize him by calling him gay to demeans as if being gay is a symbol of being less then a man. As a result, this effort to brand men as masculine and women as feminine leaves both the gay man and the man who does not ascribe to classically shaped masculine behavior searching for identity as a man.
Therefore, to understand the prevailing relationship between gay men and masculinity, it is imperative that I address three fundamental elements: biological sex, gender, and sexual orientation
When children are born, they are assigned a biological sex that is decided by their external genitalia. In addition to the external genitalia, there are also internal reproductive structures, chromosome makeup, and hormone levels along with an assortment of secondary sex characteristics that assist in selecting an individual’s biological sex. Although traditionally we only think of this as male and female, we must understand that not everyone is born a male or female, but in an effort to not overwhelm you with the continuum of various biological sexes, I will analyze only the sex of male and female within the essay.
When a child is born a male, they are expected to adhere to the gender role that has been socially constructed. Gender roles can be defined as how society expects an individual to behave based on their sex. The problem with this is that sex is biological, and gender is socially learned behaviors and attitudes such as how you dress, the activity you participate in, and how you behave.
Within our society, we have perceived expectations of how men are to behave and this is defined as masculinity. Masculinity is the cultural standard of manhood, it is shaped by behaviors that encourage men to behavior aggressively, show little emotion, and dominate over anything that is feminine. This is rooted in a concept that masculinity is superior to femininity.
Femininity is the cultural standard of womanhood and since the earliest interpretations of genders roles were develop by theologians, it is no surprise that masculinity is superior to femininity because the bible has been a source of oppression to women. What is important to understand, is that neither masculinity nor femininity are biological influenced but culturally constructed by social interaction.
The social interaction between the sexes leads to some behaviors being socially tolerant for men and intolerable for women. This has lead to the construction of what is masculine and what is feminine. The behaviors that are considered manly easily fit into the box of masculine and the behaviors deemed womanly are placed in the box of feminine. This causes both sexes to be placed in a gender straightjacket, not allowing them to express their self, as they feel comfortable.
In addition, what we sometime interpret as testosterone such as boys playing rough is nothing more then a socially accepted behavior coined “Boys Being Boys”. What the hormone of testosterone does produce is the masculine traits of a man, not the behavior. Men have deeper voices and a more muscular structure then women, because men produce testosterone forty to sixty percent more then women. When a boy prefers to read rather then play football, it is not because he is effeminate; the young boy may enjoy reading because it is positively reinforced within his household.
The problem is that we have consciously and subconsciously labeled certain behaviors as masculine and feminine, we must understand t as Dr. William Pollack suggest “there is no correct pathway to masculinity”. A young man’s interests in so-called effeminate behaviors has nothing to do with them being gay, but with what their interests are.
Therefore are gay men a challenge to masculinity, is being gay less masculine? Within the gay community, there are diverse individuals whose expression of masculinity varies but to make an assertion that gay men lack masculinity is an oversimplification. Being gay is not less manly. Being gay like, being straight is natural.
The problem is that society attempts to stereotype what being gay actually looks like and how gay men behave. The problem with this is that anything that is perceived effeminate is cautioned with the “THATS GAY” label or if men exchange affection towards each other, it has to be followed with the idiotic statement of “NO HOMO”.
It is sad that men have to go to such extremes to demonstrate perceived masculinity. The TRUTH MUSIC is, that the attempt to emasculate gay men can really be summed up in one word Homophobia.
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