rjd@linus.UUCP (Robert DeBenedictis) (04/17/85)
What do people think about the word "homophobe"? We all know that it comes from "homo-" and "-phobe". "-Phobe" is pretty straightforward, it means "fear of". But "homo-" is less clear. This is not just a semantic, grammar, vocabulary thing. I would prefer it if homophobes were people with a fear of gays, rather than people with a fear of homos. I consider myself (though not primarily) a gay, I do not consider myself a "homo". "Homo" is, to me, on par with "fag" and "nigger". Is there a better word? Robert DeBenedictis
rob@ptsfa.UUCP (Rob Bernardo) (04/22/85)
In article <318@linus.UUCP> rjd@linus.UUCP (Robert DeBenedictis) writes: >What do people think about the word "homophobe"? >We all know that it comes from "homo-" and "-phobe". >"-Phobe" is pretty straightforward, it means "fear of". >But "homo-" is less clear. This is not just a semantic, >grammar, vocabulary thing. I would prefer it if homophobes >were people with a fear of gays, rather than people with a >fear of homos. I consider myself (though not primarily) >a gay, I do not consider myself a "homo". "Homo" is, to >me, on par with "fag" and "nigger". Is there a better word? > >Robert DeBenedictis I believe the word "homophobia" was coined by Dr. George Weinberg in his book "Society and the Healthy Homosexual" (1973), in which he argues that the fear homosexuality exhibited by many individuals in our culture has all the earmarks of a psychological phobia, and therefor it is those who hate/fear/etc. homosexuals/homosexuality who have a psychological illness, not the persons who are homosexual. He argues that it is prevalent among males to fear other males, in other than purely sexual ways. He uses "homophobia" to refer to this phobia (i.e. irrational fear) towards people of the same sex, and therefore towards homosexuality and homosexuals. By backformation, we have created the word "homophobe" to refer to someone who suffers from homophobia. I have always thought of "homophobe" as parallel in formation to "homosexual". The "homo-" is the Greek prefix for "same", hence "homosexual" refers to "sex" with someone of the "same [gender]", and "homophobe" refers to "phobia" towards someone of the "same [gender]". It never occurred to me that one might think of the "homo" part as not being a prefix, but of being slang shortening of "homosexual", as if to say "queerphobe". -- Rob Bernardo, Pacific Bell, San Francisco, California {ihnp4,ucbvax,cbosgd,decwrl,amd70,fortune,zehntel}!dual!ptsfa!rob _^__ ~/ \_.\ _ ~/ \_\ ~/ \_________~/ ~/ /\ /\ _/ \ / \ _/ \ _/ \ \ /