Abstract
Intersectionality addresses power structures and systemic oppressions tied to marginalized identities, which qualitatively differentiates marginalized individuals from each other. This study examines the intersection of gender, sexuality, and nationality to understand possible sexist attitudes of gay men in the US and UK. It uses the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory along with five predictor variables: religiosity, political ideology, nationalism, anti-immigration attitudes, and news consumption. The importance of this study is to analyze a potentially overlooked source of sexism. Results show UK participants had significantly higher benevolent sexism, but US participants had significantly higher hostile sexism. Self-identified conservatives in both countries had the highest hostile sexism, but benevolent sexism was not significantly different according to political identity. Religiosity was a significant predictor variable of benevolent sexism in the US and UK. Nationalism and anti-immigration attitudes were significant predictor variables of hostile sexism in the US and UK. Consuming conservative news was a significant predictor variable of hostile sexism in the US only. This study illustrates the importance of intersectionality in order to identify problematic attitudes, even within an already marginalized group.
Highlights
“Gay men are as misogynistic as straight men, if not more so...” quipped actor Rose McGowan during a podcast interview in 2014 (Friess 2014, para. 3)
While this study focuses on ambivalent sexist attitudes of gay men in the US and UK, identifying male privilege under the theoretical lenses of intersectionality and hegemonic masculinity can provide context to why sexism has been found in gay men, and what factors contribute to it
Within the two broad research questions, this study looks at two commonly tested predictor variables: religiosity and political ideology to understand how they manifest in gay men
Summary
“Gay men are as misogynistic as straight men, if not more so...” quipped actor Rose McGowan during a podcast interview in 2014 (Friess 2014, para. 3). The challenge for researchers is to identify potentially harmful negative attitudes towards women by gay men without overgeneralizing, scapegoating, or forgetting the heterosexism gay men face (Simoni and Walters 2001). Further confounding this issue is previous research that shows sexism and homophobic or anti-gay attitudes are often correlated. In Canada, hostile sexism in men and hostile and benevolent sexism in women predicted negative attitudes towards gay and lesbian adoption (Rye and Meaney 2010). In Turkey, a correlation between anti-gay attitudes and hostile sexism was found, especially in men (Sakalli 2002). Men dismiss the severity of sexual harassment more than women, even in the cases of man-to-man sexual harassment (DeSouza and Solberg 2004)
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