According to the 2012 FBI hate crime statistics, most anti-homosexual hate is aimed towards gay men. [1] Statistics from 2017 show similar results. [2]

In some countries where homosexuality is punishable by death, only gay males can get the death penalty, while lesbians get punished in a different way. Examples of this are Brunei and Mauritania. [3]

Why does it seem like society treats gay men more harshly than lesbians? There are multiple arguments about why this might happen. I would like to discuss a certain possibility: that society hates gay men more because men in general are punished harder for not following the traditional male gender role.

Indeed nowadays, it seems that in some ways gender roles are more loose for women than for men. While it has become acceptable for women to wear pants, something that was considered traditionally masculine, it has not become more acceptable for men to wear dresses. While there is a huge push for women to enter traditionally male dominated jobs, there has not been a similar push for men to enter jobs that are traditionally “feminine”. Society still hates men who show vulnerability and this is seen in the common erasure of the male victim. [4] , [5]

The solution to this could be to promote less tight gender roles for both men and women. I doubt that gender as a whole can be eradicated simply because there has never been a society where gender didn’t exist at all. However, when it comes to gender roles there is definitely room to make certain behaviors more acceptable.

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