Is male gayness characterized by misogyny?

When State Senator Hiram Monserrate was accused of assaulting his girlfriend with a broken glass bottle and dragging her out an apartment building, his friend, and openly gay State Senator, Tom Duane, had the following to say in a town hall meeting on or around September 9 2009:

Of course, everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and I also think that—from what I’ve read in the papers, from what I know of the case—it seems to me like a classic case of domestic violence where the victim changes their story after the fact...While everyone is innocent until proven guilty, I would be surprised if there wasn’t a plea to something, and hopefully a felony, but maybe not.¹

Four weeks later, after the trial, during which the surveillance video of the incident was shown, Duane changed his story considerably. In his own press release, he claimed:

From the time Hiram Monserrate was arrested on domestic violence charges last December, I have been outspoken in my disgust and horror at his actions, and at the sad but true fact that he continued to serve in the New York State Senate...I remain as angry, sad and outraged today as I was the day Mr. Monserrate was arrested. Not a day has gone by that I haven’t dwelled on the terror and pain that Ms. Giraldo must have felt on the early morning of December 19, 2008.²

Duane's initial reaction is hardly disgust and horror. The idea that the "classic case of domestic violence" is one in which the "victim changes their [sic] story after the fact" is clearly rhetoric that serves to dismiss and trivialize assault. It's hard to understand this reaction as anything more than standing in solidarity with Monserrate as men, despite his incredibly offensive "after the fact" attempt to suggest he had always been sympathetic to Giraldo's feelings.

Duane works in the Senate as gay man - one who clearly shares with some straight men patriarchal ideas about women and an investment in male access to power. Gay men, as men, have a stake in maintaining a patriarchal culture that excludes women.

I think part of this occurs in the context of the somewhat casual misogyny of some gay men which devalues women and women's bodies as uninteresting, unattractive, expendable or less satisfying, or as objects of scorn or ridicule.

Consider the porn titled: "ditch the bitch, make the switch" released in 2006, which, according to an online review presents gay sex as the solution to girlfriends who resist unquestioned access to their bodies (I'm not even going to touch the weird feature that allows a viewer to watch the sex "with or without condoms":

The premise of the film is that straight guys are not getting what they want from their girlfriends and so show up at a bar where the friendly bartender...suggests the solutions to their needs...Young David Santini comes in to the bar and tells Ashley that he has a thing for long hair, but his girlfriend keeps hers short...Attractive and slender George Plozen tells Ashley that his girlfriend will not let him fuck her in the ass...Milan Breeze’s complaint about his girlfriend is that she doesn’t take [c]are of her body...Skip Baxter complains to the bartender that because his dick is so big no one will let him have sex with them⁰

"Ditch the Bitch, Make the Switch" even made it into an advertisement for the gay porn site, Amateur Straight Guys:

Gay and straight media both sometime even report male misogyny as evidence of gayness. Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame (who really, I don't care about), for example, had the following to say recently:

"I really hate vaginas. I’m allergic to vagina."³

This has nothing to do with attraction to men and everything to do with disgust and hatred for women's bodies. Consider however, the way it was reported in the gay and straight press (emphasis mine):

Sparking gay rumor, 'Twilight' star 'allergic to vagina'¹

and

Robert Pattinson has reportedly spoken of his disdain for vaginas, according to reports...The Twilight actor, who took part in a naked photo shoot with other women this week for Details magazine, has sparked rumours that he might be homosexual.³

and from MTV Australia:

Is R-Patz Gay?...It’s the news that could break millions of young girls’ hearts across the world – Robert Pattinson has hinted he may be gay. The ‘Twilight’ actor, who’s been linked to his stunning co-star Kristen Stewart, has sparked rumours about his sexuality after he slated women’s private parts following a raunchy shoot for Details magazine.⁴

In gay as well as straight media, Pattinson's misogyny is presented as potential evidence of his gayness - a disturbing idea only reinforced by the misogyny of some gay men or by advertisements tailored to that misogyny.

Finally, consider this Svedka advertisement, which reads "Gay Men Still Prefer Svedka Over Sex With Women."⁵ I think the ad works on a couple levels. First, in relation to the gay male viewer, it is a joke which conflates the "natural" gay male aversion to sex with women with the preference for Svedka. Again - gayness as misogny - this time a particular misogyny that is also consumer desire (Marx's commodity fetish, anyone?).

The woman's (in another ad in the series she is described as a "fem bot") 3/4 pose, her lack of clothing, and her body proportions - what Laura Mulvey calls "to-be-looked-at-ness" -  however, also positions the ad as one which speaks to straight men. In this case, the joke comes when the straight viewer realizes that the natural gay male aversion to sex with women is actually the only way one could actually prefer Svedka over sex with women. Sex with women is just too great...unless you're gay.

With either viewer then, gayness is constructed as a natural aversion to women.

I don't think it's a coincidence here that all these examples involve heterosexuals, even if they are queered in certain ways - a gay man's comments on a heterosexual relationship, amateur straight guys who have gay sex, straight guys who can be convinced to 'make the switch',  straight guys who don't seem to enjoy the fruits of straight entitlement, and a T-maze with gay guys, women, and vodka.

I was going to conclude by writing about Kimmel's argument in Masculinity as Homophobia and the Freudian explanation of homosexuality...but I'm too tired. Next time.

0. http://www.adultdvdtalk.com/reviews/read_review.dlt/sku=17022/ditch-the-bitch-and-make-the-switch.htm

1. http://www.gaycitynews.com/articles/2009/09/10/gay_city_news/news_in_brief/today/doc4aa7ef55e4fba548629294.txt

2. http://www.nysenate.gov/press-release/statement-new-york-state-senator-duane-re-hiram-monserrate

3. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/news/a203162/robert-pattinson-allergic-to-vaginas.html

4. http://www.mtv.com.au/news/633b61f7-robert-pattinson-gay/

5. There was a parallel ad for women ("Gay Women..."), but this one caused more controversy, and - if I can add my own experience - it's the only one I ever actually saw. If anything, the existence of both ads might point to the idea that gayness in general is associated with disgust for a heterosexual object choice: perhaps manifested in the "man-hating dyke" stereotype on the one hand, and the misogynist gay man on the other.