Steven Milverton

In englischsprachigen Blogs wird zur Zeit eine ‘neue’ Studie mit dem Titel 

Is Homophobia Associated With Homosexual Arousal 

herumgereicht. Nun ist diese Studie keineswegs neu; sie wurde bereits im Jahr 1996 veröffentlicht. Irgendjemand hat sie offenbar wieder ausgegraben. 

Der hartnäckige Leser weiß, dass ich kaum an einer Männer betreffenden Studie so einfach vorbei gehen kann; schon gar nicht, wenn es um Schwänze geht. 

Was haben also Adams, Wright und Lohr herausgefunden? 

Ausgangspunkt für ihre Studie war die Vermutung, dass Homophobie auf versteckte Homosexualität hindeutet. 

Although the causes of homophobia are unclear, several psychoanalytic explanations have emerged from the idea of homophobia as an anxiety-based phenomenon. One psychoanalytic explanation is that anxiety about the possibility of being or becoming a homosexual may be a major factor in homophobia (West, 1977). For example, de Kuyper (1993) has asserted that homophobia is the result of the remnants of homosexuality in the heterosexual resolution of the Oedipal conflict. Whereas these notions are vague, psychoanalytic theories usually postulate that homophobia is a result of repressed homosexual urges or a form of latent homosexuality. Latent homosexuality can be defined as homosexual arousal which the individual is either unaware of or denies (West, 1977). Psychoanalysts use the concept of repressed or latent homosexuality to explain the emotional malaise and irrational attitudes displayed by some individuals who feel guilty about their erotic interests and struggle to deny and repress homosexual impulses. In fact, West (1977, p. 202) stated, “when placed in a situation that threatens to excite their own unwanted homosexual thoughts, they overreact with panic or anger.” Slaby (1994) contended that anxiety about homosexuality typically does not occur in individuals who are same-sex Oriented, but it usually involves individuals who are ostensibly heterosexual and have ditficulty integrating their homosexual feelings or activity. The relationship between homophobia and latent homosexuality has not been empirically investigated and is one of the purposes of the present study.  

Die Erregungsforscher sind wie folgt vorgegangen: Sie haben (der überwältigenden Zahl von) 29 heterosexuellen Männern, die sich als nicht homophob bezeichneten, und (der ebenso beeindruckenden Zahl von) 35 heterosexuellen Männern, die sich als homophob bezeichneten, drei Pornos gezeigt, in denen in verschiedenen Kombinationen geknutscht und gefickt wurde. 

The stimuli were 4-min segments of explicit erotic videotapes depicting consensual adult heterosexual activity, consensual male homosexual activity, and consensual female homosexual activity. The sexual activity in the videos included sexual foreplay (e.g., kissing and undressing), oral-genital contact ( e.g., fellatio or cunnilingus), and intercourse (i.e., vaginal penetration, anal penetration, or tribadism in the lesbian film). The lesbian videotape was included because it has been shown to be highly sexually arousing to heterosexual men and is a better discriminator between heterosexual and homosexual men than other stimuli (Mavissikalian, Blanchard, Abel, & Baflow, 1975 ). 

Dabei wurde versucht, den Grad der sexuellen Erregung der Männer festzustellen, indem die Veränderung des Penisumfangs gemessen wurde. 

Penileplethysmography. A mercury-in-rubber (MIR) circumferential strain gauge (Bancroft, Jones, & Pullan, 1966) was used to measure erectile responses to the sexual stimuli. When attached, changes in the circumference of the penis caused changes in the electrical resistance of the mercury column, which were detected by a Parks Model 270 Plethysmograph (pre-amplifier; Parks Electronic Laboratory, Beaverton, OR). 

Außerdem sollten die Probanden auf einem Fragebogen ihre sexuelle Erregung selbst einschätzen. 

Herausgekommen ist bei diesem Schwanzvergleich, dass die homophoben heterosexuellen Männer durch den Homo-Porno sexuell deutlich stärker erregt wurden, als die nicht homophobe Vergleichsgruppe. 

Inspection of this figure suggests that the interaction is due to difference between homophobic and nonhomophobic men across time blocks for only the homosexual video. [...] These results indicate that the homophobic men showed a significant increase in penile circum ference to the male homosexual video but that the control men did not. [...] Another way of evaluating these data is to calculate the percentage of men who demonstrated no significant tumescence (i.e., 0-6 mm), modest tumescence (i.e., > 6-12 mm), and definite tumescence (i.e., > 12 mm) based on their mean tumescence score to the homosexual video. In the homophobic group, 20% showed no significant tumescence, 26% showed moderate tumescence, and 54% showed definite tumescence to the homosexual video; the corresponding percentages in the nonhomophobic group were 66%, 10%, and 24%, respectively. 

Außerdem zeigt sich, dass die homophoben Männer nicht wahr haben wollten, wie sehr sie der Homo-Porno erregte. 

This finding indicates that reports of subjective arousal were not consistent with penile responses with the male homosexual video. These data appear to be due to underestimates of arousal, particularly by homophobic men, to the homosexual stimuli. 

Zwei Deutungsversuche werden für diesen Befund geliefert. 

Einerseits soll Homophobie eine Ausdrucksform unterdrückter Homosexualität sein. 

Lang (1994) has noted that the most dramatic response discordance occurs with reports of feeling and physiologic responses. Another possible explanation is found in various psychoanalytic theories, which have generally explained homophobia as a threat to an individual’s own homosexual impulses causing repression, denial, or reaction formation (or all three; West, 1977). Generally, these varied explanations conceive of homophobia as one type of latent homosexuality where persons either are unaware of or deny their homosexual urges. These data are consistent with these notions. 

Andererseits wird angeboten, den steif werdenden Schwanz als Ausdruck eines Angstgefühls zu werten. 

Another explanation of these data is found in Barlow, Sakheim, and Beck’s (1983) theory of the role of anxiety and attention in sexual responding. It is possible that viewing homosexual stimuli causes negative emotions such as anxiety in homophobic men but not in nonhomophobic men. Because anxiety has been shown to enhance arousal and erection, this theory would predict increases in erection in homophobic men. Furthermore, it would indicate that a response to homosexual stimuli is a function of the threat condition rather than sexual arousal per se. Whereas difficulties of objectively evaluating psychoanalytic hypotheses are well-documented, these approaches would predict that sexual arousal is an intrinsic response to homosexual stimuli, whereas Barlow’s (1986) theory would predict that sexual arousal to homosexual stimuli by homophobic individuals is a function of anxiety.  

Wie auch immer: Beide Erklärungsansätze deuten auf ein schwer gestörtes Gefühlsleben der Homophoben hin. Ganz so, wie es auch der Brasilianische Präsident erkennt.