I’ve just read an article that referred to the word homophobia, in passing, as “a contrived word that makes no etymological sense.”
And I’ve realized it’s true.
Doesn’t homophobia, literally, mean “fear of things that are the same” or “fear of being the same”?
And, likewise, wouldn’t the subconscious fears of difference that some people ascribe to those who espouse anti-gay opinions be better characterized as heterophobia? Logically, shouldn’t a heterophobe be someone who has a fear of difference?
Words are fun.
Etymology is a fine science, but it shouldn’t be used to guide our use of language.
Neither should grammar.
[1]Use and [2]expectation should be our sole instructor on the proper use of language. Indeed, grammar and oft long-ago established standards only act to hobble us and fence-in the need for a language to adapt to the society that uses (and owns) it.
Many of grammar’s current orthodoxy were once our ancestors’ heresy.
Etymology is interesting, and certainly a worthy study, but it is no guide to our self-expression. That guide, alone, should be understanding.
.rob
I was kind of joking.
Far better than homophobe and heterophobe is coulrophobe, the fear of clowns.
Though, of course, after one has seen Capturing the Friedmans, one might have a slightly different perspective on the whole issue.
It’s really true: Words ARE fun.!
I read the dictionary sometimes just to discover new words.
(Call me a geek if you must.)
Joking aside, when I do trainings on lesbian/gay issues for largely heterosexual audiences, I actually focus more on heterosexism than on homophobia. The insistence of the majority on compulsory heterosexuality has much more impact on my day to day life as a lesbian than homophobia/heterophobia.
I always thought this pretty much summed up homophobia:
“So, in the AS (After Stonewall)epoch, ‘homosexuality,’ with its nasty medicinal odour, was now an increasingly redundant term. Instead, ‘homophobia’, a word with a nasty medicinal odor, was coined to explain the origins of the obviously mentally imbalanced idea that gay wasn’t good. While the innocent BS (before stonewall) homosexual was the victim of pathologization and prejudice, the guilty AS homophobe was obviously deserving of pathologization and prejudice. It soon became apparent that since homophobia was an illness produced by ignorance, secrey and aversion to wearing leather harnesses in public, the underlying cause of homophobia was a shortage of proud gays.”
– From “Gay Dream Believer” in Anti-Gay by Mark Simpson