I always sensed that giving such extreme freedom and validity to male-female sexuality, when man to man relationships are so condemned, will lead to extreme isolation of such feelings in the men's spaces. The more freedom male female expression of sexuality gets, the lesser will be the freedom for men to relate with each other. But I just couldnt explain why and how this would be so.
Now that i got the chance to see it first hand in an almost totally heterosexualised set up, dealing with two college straight men (at least in India they're still not known as straight men, but just men), I found out how it is achieved.
what happens is, as male female expression of sexuality gets freedom, it is promptly taken up by some men to score points in the intense race for manhood. And since the society now promotes that as 'manly', in fact a must to be a man, it soon becomes part of the race that every man must participate in if he wants to be considered a man.
In a similar fashion, some smart guys will always sense the extreme vulnerability of male to male sexual feelings that the forces of heterosexualisation create in such spaces and they are going to use it to gain that valuable extra point by putting down such feelings and men who indulge in them as 'gay'. And, in all likelihood, they will be boys/ men who feel the most strongly about male to male sexuality. However, men are not organised, at least not around this issue, and they only think about individual gain, and not how their actions are going to affect the entire male community. So, they kickstart a cut throat competition that assumes such enormous proportions and creates such intense hositlity that extends far beyond sexual or even emotional and becomes so intense that two friends or even brothers can't even hold hands without being called gay.
The society after isolating male to male sexuality in the third sex 'gay' label, then creates several sterotypes, all concerned with the third sex who like men, superimposing them on men who like men.
So, its not only your relationship with men, but even things like bringing tiffin to college will make you a 'gay' or 'queer', because real men don't bring tiffin to college.
And, so also, you are not supposed to be ashamed of being naked and humiliated in front of girls -- so men are sexually humiliated in front of females and they grin and bear it. Because, well, if they don't they will be isolated as 'gay'. And, nothing is more harmful to men than being labelled as 'gay'. it takes away their manhood, their right to be a man, their dignity, their pride. It makes him isolated in the men's group, and nothing is more humiliating to a man. No wonder that men prefer death than to be called 'gay'.
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