Shadow of a man: On the relationship between threats to masculinity and negative attitudes toward homosexuals

• Author / Creator

  Zalkind, Benjamin S.

• A large body of literature suggests that masculinity is a fragile construct. Unlike femininity, which has continued to evolve, modern notions of heteronormative masculinity remain ossified and defined mainly by their opposition to that which is not masculine. Research has shown that challenges to heterosexual men’s masculinity are perceived as accusations of femininity and thereby implicit homosexuality. This study explored whether masculinity threats might tap into this deep-seated fear of being seen as unmasculine by giving men false evaluations on their performance of a prewritten speech and then asking them to evaluate a crime committed against the gay community. We predicted that those men who were given a masculinity threat in their evaluations would be more punitive toward the gay community than those who were given a positive evaluation or a negative evaluation. Results indicated trends in this direction, but yielded no statistically significant findings.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Shadow
  • Homophobia
  • Masculinity

• Graduation date

  Fall 2013

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3SQ4R

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.