Sexism and the Queer Movement

I’m reading the Feminine Mystique right now. One of the things I’m attempting to do – go through some classic feminist texts. For one, I don’t trust the way society reinterprets the texts, but also because I believe for me to ever fully develop as a feminist legal theorists, which is a goal that I have, I need to have the solid foundation. One of the things about the Feminine Mystique that is standing out for me is the vitriolic reaction to women trying to establish themselves as full human beings.
Clergy, politicians, and average males violently fought against women owning property, voting, existing in the public sphere. Women died for this struggle. One of the thoughts that I want to figure out how to develop is the idea that struggle against gay marriage and gay existence is based in sexism. As a movement, our favorite comparison is to that of anti-miscegenation efforts. There is a distinctive similarity in the legal struggle and the logic employed by those upholding the discriminatory laws, namely that that because everyone is treated equally in the ban, it isn’t discriminatory (i.e., because all blacks can only marry all black, but the same is true that whites can only marry whites OR since all men can only marry women, but the same is true that all women can only marry men).
Nevertheless, this comparison is shortsighted and forgets to ask, “Why is there such resistance?” In the case, of anti-miscegenation laws, the basis was racism, a belief in the need to use the law to protect the purity of the races. As with the anti-gay marriage movement, there was a willful desire to ignore the fact that regardless of the laws, people fall in love and the passion involved in that feeling made many people ignore the law and live their lives dangerously, knowing full-well that they could be beat on the street or sometimes prosecuted for their relationships. But the reason is not the same.
The reasoning cited in the anti-gay movement engages in sexist rhetoric. There are discussions of disrupting the traditional family. The cornerstone argument against women’s equality. Much of the language about the detriment of same-sex marriage mirrors the resistance to women’s equality. I believe that the LGBT movement does itself and the movement a disservice by not exploring the overlap of sexism embodied in the movement that has so much to do with sex.
Is part of the struggle against homosexuality embodied in the desire to have women’s sexuality constantly available, the fear of heterosexual men losing their importance? Is the fear of gay men on the part of straight men based in the idea of how little respect males are trained to have for their sexual objects in our society? Several studies have showed that more than 1/3 of college-aged men would rape a woman if they could get away with it, and 1 out of 2 would force themselves upon a woman (i.e., rape by another name) if they knew they could get away with it. Is the idea of being viewed by men in the way that they view women the basis of fear of the homosexual male? There seems to be some sort of truth in this idea, especially in light of the collective acceptance of the idea that the heterosexual male is justified in using force to respond to even the suggestion of attraction on the part of a homo/bisexual male.