..I would oppress, supress, prejudice against and physically abuse any balloon that ever came into my space...

One of my workmates has a balloon phobia, so another blew one up and stuffed it in the safe one night knowing that the poor guy was going to be there, on his own, the next morning and would need to remove the offending balloon to get the money out. Hahaha.

Though that scenario would be quite worrying if the guy had hetero phobia instead...

I love this! Good wording, I agree. :)

..oh harsh..:laugh:..that would be quite an interesting experiment as well though with human against human phobias...homophobia/racist/heterophobia etc..rooms with one on one communication and for a length of time together/no escape...would they still come out with their phobias and prejudices..?.. would there be understanding so it all dissolved or would there be blood../not exactly that way but you know what I mean...

No I don't, I'm not aware of it must be a new thing.

This is ringing bells... I'm pretty sure there was an ITV or Ch4 gameshow about facing phobias?

So true!

Winner!

Of course it isn't a phobia it's fear and/or anger.

Phobias are also irrational, sufferers want to be cured of them, they don't relish in them and advocate having a phobia to others do they?

They don't call racists colourphobic do they, because that would be silly.

No but there is a related phobia (xenophobia) and it's different to racism. Racism tends to be based in believing that ones own race is somehow superior. There ARE people who are genuinely (and irrationally) scared of foreigners or anyone "different" to themselves.

I just don't see that as a phobia per se... people with a phobia know it's irrational and they don't want it, xenophobes do, and they wish others felt as they do.

Like Reverse Racism, it's just a silly term made up by people who want to be oppressed.

How you can compare those sorts of fears, it's ridiculous, homophobia is based on a system of oppression because being straight is seen as the norm. Comparing it to a fear of banana's is retarded

Homophobia and Heterosexism go hand in hand there isnt one without the other, Heterosexism is the belief that superiority of heterosexuality and, therefore, it’s right to dominance.

If you are homophobic you are heterosexist, you believe in the dominance of heterosexuals and therefore are oppressing any other person with a different sexual preference.

:clap1:

I find it quite offensive tbh. Are straight people killed for being straight?? Do straight people have to lie about your sexuality for a while and worry about how your family might react? no. Do straight people have to limit their holidays so that they don't have to worry about being arrested or attacked?? no.

Nobody is claiming any of this, and none of these have to happen for heterophobia to exist.

If heterophobia was a wide spread thing then perhaps but obviously it's not. That doesn't mean it doesn't or can't exist.

Yes but these are all things that happen to gay people which contribute to the concept of 'homophobia' within society and the world. To suggest heterophobia, is to suggest these things also exist.

Homophobia isn't just "omg they called me straight hoe i hate that girl", it's a huge range of oppression and disadvantage that is widespread just as racism was, and in ways continues to be.

I thought I had commented on this thread already but whatever, yes it can exist :hee:

On what do you base this though? Where are straight people oppressed?

I posted this earlier. Do you disagree? Or did you miss it?


Of course it exists. The argument that it does not, is really just semantics. If one solitary human contracted a new previously unknown disease, that disease would have a scientific name within minutes which would forever classify any future victims who show the same symptoms and ill-effects.

Numbers are unimportant, if just one person hates straight people, then 'Heterophobia' - if that is its name - exists. How can it not?

It does not have to be endemic or pandemic, it just has to 'be'.

Exactly Samuel.

False equivalency. I don't see how you can try to use your logic of disease-naming the same way for sexuality and oppression, it's just a blanket logic that really is not the same thing at all.

It absolutely has zero to do with what homosexuals have faced from homophobes. Nobody is saying it is on that level, it's quite clearly not. That doesn't discount it from simply existing though.

I agree with JoshBB's points.

But i'll comment more later. Very interesting questions you've raised here, Caitlin.

Haha, thank you. I think a few people would have changed their minds after some of the comments that were posted here before everything got deleted.

I in absolutely no way, think the heterophobia is ANYWHERE near the scale or as common as homophobia. But I absolutely and 100% believe that there are people out there who hate on straight people for whatever reason. And I don't think that's right. If you hated on a person who was black, or gay or female, you'd be labelled with something 'phobic' or 'ist' or whatever. Just because that person you're hating on, hasn't faced something awful in their past, doesn't make it any less awful.

It's not just about oppression, anyone can be prejudice against anybody, if you take the history of certain demographics away from the equation, which I understand is hard to do, then you'll see that not just the gays can be discriminated against.

Like I said in another thread recently, it's definitely not common and it's definitely not shown in mainstream media, but I do believe that there are certain situations where a person who isn't gay can be discriminated against because of their sexuality, imo to believe otherwise is a bit ignorant, especially coming from a 'community' which apparently stands for everyone to be equal.