Does anyone not like the term homophobia?

Hatred and fear are closely connected so I don't think that the term is "wrong" with regards to the actual meaning of it.

 

Not really. I've found a lot of homophobia to be fear; the fear of having one's status as a heterosexual diminished, and the feeling of emasculation a lot of men feel at the idea of breaking gender roles. It goes for women, of course, but I've found men have a more panicky sort of homophobia; the existence of the phrase "no homo" is a mild but extremely pervasive example of how insecurity plays its part.

Defining it as a fear is not exactly inaccurate, especially when we get onto the subject of internalised homophobia. It may not be entirely complete, but I feel it covers a lot of what it is.

 

Either way it's the rejection of homosexuality. I hate it.

 

Part of dislike of homosexuals lies straight guys fear of being mistaken for one. This is why they try to stay away from gay guys. Then again it is fear not phobia... if my memory is correct phobia is used to describe deepest, uncontrolable kind of fear that cause strong reaction or no reaction (i.e. frozen from fear).

I dislike cockroaches but that never effected me like my afraid of heights... later one makes me act panicky and irrational.

However, even if English isn't my native language, homophobia feels wrong in many occasions for me.

 

I think homophobia is a reasonable, over-arching term for the negative and hostile feelings some people hold towards homosexuals.

Queerist could be objectionable to some people too. Personally, I'm not a fan of the term "queer".

 

I dislike the term as well.
It's not a phobia. It's just plain ignorance.

 

I don't agree it is a phobia for most people. Many people do not like homosexuality, some people are scared of it, but others simply do not like it.

It would be difficult to try and change such a widely used word though to be honest.

 

I hate the term. We should start calling it sexism.

 

no I don't have a problem with the term homophobia because the cultural language game has decided when used it means hatred ignorance and occasionally fear of non-heteronormative orientations or behaviors

 

The only time it gets annoying is the whole "I'm not afraid of gays" rebuttal.

---------- Post added 30th Sep 2014 at 11:08 AM ----------

Queerist wouldn't make sense because with "racist" and "sexist" in terms like that use "-ist" to indicate the belief in supremacy. So "heterosexualism" would make more sense.

 

I know what you mean but is there another term for it

 

I'm not a huge fan of it, but I acknowledge we don't really have a better word at this point. One reason I don't like it is because homophobes often try to deflect the term away from them by saying things like "I'm not afraid of homosexuals, I just think they're disgusting and going to ruin society!" Another reason I don't like it is that like "racist" and "sexist", it's a word that can be thrown around too easily to silence people with differing opinions. Introducing a new term this late in the game is also problematic.

Here are some facts about the word, however:

1. It was coined by a psychologist who theorized that bigotry against homosexuals was rooted in fear. So while he was making a link to fear, it was always meant to describe the bigotry.
2. The suffix -phobic does not always mean "irrational fear of". Certain materials can be "hydrophobic", but it doesn't mean they have an irrational fear of water, it means they have an aversion to it, they repel it.
3. "Phobia" is also used with terms like "Islamophobia" and "Sinophobia" to describe paranoia, fear, discrimination, and bigotry. So the idea that it only has to be fear is false.

 

I've always thought that -phobia either meant fear or aversion, so I think the term is correct.

 

Phobias are mostly irrational fears. Then, the word phobia is appended to a gazillion concepts and things. Therefore, the word homophobia does not bother me. For that matter, the word heterophobia now also exists, though the spell check here doesn't seem to like it. I wonder why!

 

I mean, I think it's just a fear or aversion towards anything involving two of the same-sex, so it's probably most apt that we can do right now.

 

I agree. A lot of hatred is just fear turned into outward aggression. People feel threatened by something and act out because of it. This is not to say their behavior is justified, but I feel if there were less fear of difference and how to handle that difference there would be less people who hated it. For some reason a lot of homophobics feel that homosexuality threatens their lifestyle and how they view the world to be. It's irrational, and it's a fear.

Additionally, "xenophobia" is a similar term, used to describe fear or hatred of people from other countries.

 

trying to offer a percise definition is a waste of time. In the use, the meaning of homophobia is fine.

"Your questions refer to words; so I have to talk about words.
You say : The point isn't the word, but its meaning, and you think of the meaning as a thing of the same kind as the word, though also different from the word. Here the word, there the meaning." Ludwig Wittgenstein Philosophical Investigations

 

i used to be real technical about its use, i also used to be a loser