“Some university lecturers wear gay pride t-shirts. Get over it!”: Denials of homophobia and the reproduction of heteronormativity in responses to a gay-themed t-shirt

Clarke, Victoria

Abstract

© 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This article explores an incident involving a gay pride T-shirt, printed with the slogan “Some people are gay. Get over it!,” that I wore during a university lecture, and students’ predominantly negative responses to it. I use the lens of modern prejudice research, particularly discursive psychological approaches to modern prejudice, to interpret the students’ responses to a qualitative survey about their views on the T-shirt. They related strong feelings of upset and anger, particularly because I had—in their view—implicitly accused them of being homophobic. They passionately refused this supposed accusation on the grounds that “everything’s equal now” and “gay people are no different from us.” I argue that the ideological themes of cultural heterosexism and compulsory heterosexuality provide a productive framework for making sense of the students’ responses, as they sanction a rational neoliberal subject who is both non-homophobic and inculcated into heteronormativity.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 23, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Mar 1, 2018
• Publication Date: Apr 16, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jan 12, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 16, 2019
• Journal: Journal of Homosexuality
• Print ISSN: 0091-8369
• Electronic ISSN: 1540-3602
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 66
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 690-714
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2017.1423217
• Keywords: compulsory heterosexuality, discourse analysis, heteronormativity, homosexuality, neoliberalism, neo-liberalism, modern prejudice, psychology students, qualitative surveys, thematic analysis
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/854602
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2017.1423217
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Homosexuality on 16th January 2018, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2017.1423217.
• Contract Date: Jan 12, 2018