Homophobic Bullying, A Mirror of Toxic Masculinity
Homophobic bullying has often been described as harassment directed to the people of the gay community but what if there is more to it than we care to admit. Generally, cases of bullying keep increasing as years yet with civilization human understanding is expected to increase but the question remains what exactly could the problem be.
Society paints a picture that the men of our society are expected to live by. Homophobic bullying may be directed to gay people but bullying of boys because they seem weaker is a show of toxic masculinity and a case of homophobic bullying. This means that among teenagers and adults as well some men are not harassed verbally or physically because of their sexual affiliation but because they show some sort of weakness.
Drawing evidence from this article, Pascoe shows how in highschools boys are harassed by being called ‘faggots’ a word meant to rudely refer to gay men, for not being masculine enough. Pascoe quotes a post from twitter from a young man that ‘ faggot’ does not mean gay but refers to a man who acts like a woman. Pascoe further explains that sociologist research indicates that men deal with emotions and their feelings through jokes because society has not made it okay for men to publicly show their emotions as it pursued to be a show of weakness.
It is convincing that bullying is simply a reflection of social structural inequality rather than an issue with specific members of our society and that the only way it can be corrected is by filling specific loopholes in the way we live with each other.
It is most enlightening to learn that bullying, specifically homophobic bullying, has resulted in violent men due to the psychiatric problems bullying leaves victims with and creates unnecessary pressure for our male counterparts.
Conclusively, it is important to let people embrace their weaknesses, sexualities, and personas to avoid putting others in vulnerable positions.