The Manosphere Strikes Back!
It used to be whispered in the locker rooms of an America once great that homophobes and their ilk were actually insecure about their own masculinity. They hated homosexuals because they, deep down, feared for their own sexuality, probably even hated themselves for the same reason. Maybe why closet gay politicians were some of the most virulent when it came to anti-gay legislation. Tough guy bullies like J. Edgar Hoover were rumored to prance around in women’s clothes after a hard day at the office. All things effeminate were considered a threat to us he-men. Drag queens, especially, were a red flag to us bulls. Might just be a sublimated dream of Dionysian dancing to our hidden drummers.
Or … it might be as simple as folks fearing what they don’t understand. Someone of a different race, a different nationality, strange customs, a divergent sexuality. We live in a herd mentality. Outsiders, well, better to distrust them, possibly even shun them, ostracize them, deport them, worst case, kill them.
But I’m no psychiatrist and really no sociologist either, just a guy grown old who moved a lot as a kid, went to new schools and communities in various states, perennially the Outsider. So maybe I just tend to side with them, the banned, the different, the potential threat, possibly the enemy. We give lip service to the idea of a melting pot in this country, that our strength is our diversity, but the truth is, we’re divided into our various tribes, religions and sexual preferences. Add to the soup a little anxiety about the future, season with economic distress, pretty soon you look for someone to blame. The government, the other political party, the immigrants, the trans or the homosexuals, doesn’t much matter. Albinos, the left-handed, hermaphrodites, Muslims, Jews, gypsies and the autistic. Choose your scapegoat. Sharpen your knives.
Age old stuff. Gang allegiances, monkey warfare, clubs and guns, teeth and fangs. Close the borders, wage economic warfare on the rest of the nations, celebrate the ‘American Identity’, the whitewashed version, rated G, airbrushed and highly edited. Forget the melting pot, stop yammering about inclusion. The City on the Hill, that beacon of fair-mindedness, democracy, foreign aid and all the rest, that’s over, Bro! We’re building a Castle and surrounding it with a moat, filling it with crocodiles. Those huddled masses, yearning to breathe free? They’re trapped inside now. At least until we can deport them. The rich boys in the country club locker room, they’re in charge. And they’ve only just begun.
Tags: Fear of the Different, Homophobes Ho!, Manosphere