Response to Readings For Jan 13

I began with reading the selection "How Homophobia Hurts Everyone" and at first I wondered why would a reading focus on how Homophobia hurts people not belonging to the 'homosexual' social group. Aren't the difficulties and inequalities suffered by the target status in this social relationship enough to prove that homophobia is a problem?
However, I never thought of the impact that homophobia has on non-homosexuals. For example, homophobia prevents most heterosexual males from forming close relationships with other males for fear of being targeted as a possible homosexual. The fear of being mislabeled as a homosexual prevents bonds from being formed that are perhaps what is lacking in this society.
Homophobia also perpetuates gender roles, making it another factor keeping us from breaking gender labels and stereotypes about STDs and openness about sexuality. Perhaps in order to reduce sexism, racism, homophobia, biphobia, and other social problems we have to approach them as interwoven problems that cannot be reduced individually.
I was really interested in reading the personal segments of Tuesdays readings because they revealed how social problems effect individuals, "I'm Not Fat, I'm Latina" highlights how mainstream societies prefers a certain physical appearance. Being subjected to another cultures preferred body image threatens ones own heritage and customs. Many ethnic groups are experiencing the pressure to conform to America's stereotype of beauty: there are cosmetic surgery for making Asian eyes appear more European, lightening creams for dark skins, and countless other ways to conform to the mainstream media's idea of beauty.
Another Personal Voices selection that intrigued me was "Pornography and Men's Consciousness". Pornography is a subject that I frankly would rather not think about, so I never considered how it effected woman that are not directly involved in it. However, just like movies and other forms of media influence our perceptions and attitudes, so does pornography. It is a very demeaning form of media that perpetuates treating woman as objects, and this disturbs me. How are we going to fight sexism when there is a thriving industry keeping sexism alive?