The threat that gay men have long posed to the cultural dominance of straight males has always had a close connection to gender and gender-related behavior. Across most human societies there has historically been social tension arising from the struggle to maintain male dominance. In Western societies, particularly in the U.S. and the U.K., male homosexuality has been seen as a threat to that dominance. It is a failure to conform to expected notions of masculinity. Highly repressive laws and customs forced homosexual men to relate to each other in very secret and clandestine networks. As a result, the general society had very little opportunity to experience the personal diversity of this group of people. The ones who were visible were those who displayed gender-variant behavior, such as cross-dressing. Out of this set of circumstances, there emerged a broadly held stereotype that all homosexual men were effeminate in their taste and behavior.
Yet I can’t help but wonder, does everyone have a preference? Sometimes we as gay men have no choice but to identify with one of the two terms. In the world of online dating, most guys care more about this label than they care about what you do for a living. When guys find out you aren’t a match in this sense, they treat you like you have a vagina. To many, dating someone who identifies with the same label as they do is simply a waste of time.
This Gay and Age
A film which examines the gay stereotypes that bombard LGBT youth and the way these stereotypes impact the way we think about sexuality
