Alternative uses
The term is also used by some to imply that extending equal rights to LGBT people inherently constitutes discrimination against heterosexuals, or as an intentionally absurd use of language made generally by more conservative position in LGBT debates, to counteract perceived pejorative bias of the term homophobia.
Heterophobia may also be an intentionally subversive use of language made generally by more conservative position in LGBT debates, to counteract perceived pejorative bias of the term homophobia. Critics of LGBT equality measures often see themselves as having rational and morality-based reasons for disagreeing with particular LGBT positions, while the other side may accuse them of taking the 'homophobic' position. They may see the word 'homophobic' as an ad hominem attack and in response, they demonstrate the perceived absurdity and inapplicability of this term by using variations of the term heterophobia or moralityphobia.
Criticism of the term
SUNY professor Dr. Ray Noonan, in his 1999 presentation to The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS) and the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT) Conference said,
The term heterophobia is confusing for some people for several reasons. On the one hand, some look at it as just another of the many me-too social constructions that have arisen in the pseudoscience of victimology in recent decades. (Many of us recall John Money’s 1995 criticism of the ascendancy of victimology and its negative impact on sexual science.) Others look at the parallelism between heterophobia and homophobia, and suggest that the former trivializes the latter. Yet heterophobia may be one of the root contributors in the etiology of homophobia, as Noonan argued in 1998. For others, it is merely a curiosity or parallel-construction word game. But for others still, it is part of both the recognition and politicization of heterosexuals' cultural interests in contrast to those of gays—particularly where those interests are perceived to clash.
Some have argued that the word is etymologically ill-formed, as it appears to have been formed from the Greek elements hetero- "different" and phobia, so that the word in fact means "fear of difference". Such critics have proposed alternative words such as heteroerotophobia or heterosexophobia. However, the word's common usage shows that it is in origin a portmanteau of heterosexual and phobia, coined on the analogy of homophobia (which is likewise an etymologically incorrect portmanteau).
See also
External links
References
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Last updated on Tuesday July 22, 2008 at 14:26:46 PDT (GMT -0700)
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