Are You Homophobic Or Just Scared Of How Gay You Are?

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_eexvree_
Mar 28, 2019   •  8 views

In the twenty-first century, while the society has gone through a lot of changes in favour of homosexuality, including several amendments in several nations, homophobia remains prominent social evil. Living in a society in which members belonging to several generation, religions, ethnicities, and so n coexist, it is a common experience to find people whose views are a sharp contrast to ours. While nobody can be forced to change their opinion about or attitude towards something like homophobia, violation of the rights of others is intolerable. So why are people homophobic? Many reasons of that have been proposed. In this article, I would like to talk about one of the most controversial reasons of all: reaction formation.

What is reaction formation?

Reaction formation is a Freudian defence mechanism. Adefence mechanism can be defined as anunconsciouspsychological mechanism that reduces anxiety arising from unacceptable or potentially harmful stimuli. We use a lot of defence mechanisms in our day to day life. While some of them can be maladaptive, some of them, like regression (temporary or long-term reversion of theegoto an earlier stage of development rather than handling unacceptable impulses in a moreadaptiveway) can be quite productive in many ways including creativity.

Reaction formation can be defined as adefense mechanismin which emotions and impulses which areanxiety-producing or perceived to be unacceptable are mastered by exaggeration of the directly opposing tendency. Let me be clearer using an example: a person who was brought up to believe that sex is evil and “dirty” may be painfully anxious every time sexual feelings surge to the surface. The person may defend against the anxiety by dressing and behaving in a very puritanical way and perhaps even by joining organized crusades against sex in the media.

Homophobia as reaction formation

So what does reaction formation have to do with homosexuality? To understand that, in the above example, simply replace sex with homosexuality. Let me explain. A person who has been brought directly or indirectly to believe that homosexuality is ‘’dirty”, “unnatural” or “a sin” may experience a slight welling up of homosexual feelings or tendencies, which is quite natural. This may cause a lot of anxiety in the person. In order to deal with this anxiety, the person may convert the emotion or impulse into its opposite. He or she may be strongly and prominently against homosexuality and might even openly oppose it by making fun of it, criticising it sharply, treating homosexuals in a very negative way, or even by making homophobic memes. Thus the person deals with the anxiety provoking impulse by converting it into its opposite.

While it is debatable whether reaction formation is maladaptive or not, I would like to point out the several harms that it causes. The people against whom the actions a directed suffer greatly, the person who undertakes the actions are not unharmed either. They go through a lot of negative feelings and although the anxiety is reduced, it is not completely curbed. The best way to free oneself from such anxiety is to accept the unacceptable emotions and impulses and free oneself.

Conclusion

While all instances of homophobia cannot be explained on the basis of reaction formation as there are many social, cultural, religious and political reasons behind it (which i chose not to touch upon in this article), it must be acknowledged that it does exist and applies to many cases of homophobia.

Since delving into the depths of one’s own personality and discovering certain truths about oneself can be painful and discomforting, it is also highly liberating. To end my words, all I would like to say is be true to you, live and let live.

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