Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Hetero-centrism or Hetero-sexism is just as bad as homophobia.

A lot of people may not be familiar with the terms hetero-centrism or hetero-sexism, so in order to explain why they are bad I will first need to define them. Hetero-centrism is the implicit belief that everyone is heterosexual, and hetero-sexism is the belief that heterosexual relationships are better than homosexual ones.

The reason these things or just as bad, if not worse than homophobia is that most times the person espousing views that are hetero-centric or hetero-sexist doesn't even realize they are hetero-centric or hetero-sexist. Some examples of this are when a talk show does a story about how to have better romantic relationships and they talk about men and women instead of romantic partners. They may not intend to be leaving homosexuals out, but they are. I know a lot of people at this point are probably saying that I should just get over it, and accept the fact that most people in this world are heterosexual. However, I do accept that fact, but I think that by not including gays in such stories like this you are unintentionally saying that we are not going to talk about homosexual relationships because they are not as legitimate as heterosexual ones. I also think that if more people would make an effort to include gays, more people would start to understand that gays are not really that different from other people, they just love people of the same sex. Another example of this would be when strangers or even co-workers are making small talk and they ask someone if they have a boyfriend or girlfriend depending on what sex that person is rather than asking if they are dating anyone or seeing anyone. By asking a gay guy if they have a girlfriend you are putting them in the awkward situation of having the inner dilemma of answering with a simple no, or coming out to you. I could probably come up with other examples of hetero-centrism and hetero-sexism, but I think you get where I'm coming from.

As always I welcome your comments and/or questions regarding this post. Be sure to tune into the show tomorrow night on www.brandonkinneyshow.com from 9pm to 11pm. We have two great musical acts coming on tomorrow. In the first hour we have Caine Carangi, and in the second hour we have Transistor Tramps.

One more thing. I am going to try my best to post at least once a day on my blog so be sure to check it out every day to see what I'm going to talk about that day.

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