- Oxford Library of Psychology
- Oxford Library of Psychology
- Dedication
- About the Editor
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Social Psychology and Social Justice: Critical Principles and Perspectives for the Twenty-First Century
- Social Justice Theory and Practice: Fostering Inclusion in Exclusionary Contexts
- Reconsidering Citizenship Models and the Case for Cultural Citizenship: Implications for a Social Psychology of Social Justice
- Narrative Approaches within a Social Psychology of Social Justice: The Potential Utility of Narrative Evidence
- Extending the Social Psychology of Racism: A Framework for Critical Analysis
- The Ongoing Psychological Colonization of North American Indigenous People: Using Social Psychological Theories to Promote Social Justice
- Disjunctive: Social Injustice, Black Identity, and the Normality of Black People
- Culture, Psychology, and Social Justice: Toward a More Critical Psychology of Asians and Asian Americans
- Intersectional Understandings of Inequality
- “Who is Tossing Whom into the Current”?: A Social Justice Perspective on Gender and Well-Being
- Transnational Feminism in Psychology: Women’s Human Rights, Liberation, and Social Justice
- Benevolent Heterosexism and the “Less-than-Queer” Citizen Subject
- Of “Takers” and “Makers”: A Social Psychological Analysis of Class and Classism
- Social Class Oppression as Social Exclusion: A Relational Perspective
- Colonization, Decolonization, and Power: Ruptures and Critical Junctures Out of Dominance
- Social Psychology and Social Justice: Citizenship and Migrant Identity in the Post 9/11 Era
- Social Justice in Multicultural Europe: A Social Psychological Perspective
- Positioning Theory and Social Justice
- “In the Minds of Men . . .”: Social Representations of War and Military Intervention
- Intergroup Contact in Settings of Protracted Ethnopolitical Conflict
- Intergroup Contact and the Struggle for Social Justice
- Intergroup Dialogue: Education for Social Justice
- Setting the Record “Straight”: Communicating Findings from Social Science Research on Sexual Orientation to the Courts
- Bear Left: The Critical Psychology Project in Revolting Times
- Social Psychology and Social Justice: Dilemmas, Dynamics, and Destinies
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter explores the dangers of “benevolent heterosexism” through an analysis of the implicit assumptions underpinning research on sexual prejudice and “coming out.” Although there has been considerable progress in the West with regard to increasing rights for people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer (LGBQ), this progress has been predicated on an individualistic liberal model of politics that is not without cost; namely, the danger of a gradual and pernicious assimilation and the growth of a “less-than-queer” citizen subject. This new sexual subject is being produced in psychological research that is ostensibly about advancing social justice for people who are LGBQ, as well as within the broader social world. All psychologists that are interested in social justice need to allow space—and indeed, embrace—the “anti-social” queer in order to realize the justifiable anger needed to effect radical social change for sexual minorities.
Keywords: benevolent heterosexism, queer subjectivity, coming out, liberalism, sexual prejudice
Darren Langdridge Faculty of Social Science Open University Milton Keynes, England, UK
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- Oxford Library of Psychology
- Oxford Library of Psychology
- Dedication
- About the Editor
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Social Psychology and Social Justice: Critical Principles and Perspectives for the Twenty-First Century
- Social Justice Theory and Practice: Fostering Inclusion in Exclusionary Contexts
- Reconsidering Citizenship Models and the Case for Cultural Citizenship: Implications for a Social Psychology of Social Justice
- Narrative Approaches within a Social Psychology of Social Justice: The Potential Utility of Narrative Evidence
- Extending the Social Psychology of Racism: A Framework for Critical Analysis
- The Ongoing Psychological Colonization of North American Indigenous People: Using Social Psychological Theories to Promote Social Justice
- Disjunctive: Social Injustice, Black Identity, and the Normality of Black People
- Culture, Psychology, and Social Justice: Toward a More Critical Psychology of Asians and Asian Americans
- Intersectional Understandings of Inequality
- “Who is Tossing Whom into the Current”?: A Social Justice Perspective on Gender and Well-Being
- Transnational Feminism in Psychology: Women’s Human Rights, Liberation, and Social Justice
- Benevolent Heterosexism and the “Less-than-Queer” Citizen Subject
- Of “Takers” and “Makers”: A Social Psychological Analysis of Class and Classism
- Social Class Oppression as Social Exclusion: A Relational Perspective
- Colonization, Decolonization, and Power: Ruptures and Critical Junctures Out of Dominance
- Social Psychology and Social Justice: Citizenship and Migrant Identity in the Post 9/11 Era
- Social Justice in Multicultural Europe: A Social Psychological Perspective
- Positioning Theory and Social Justice
- “In the Minds of Men . . .”: Social Representations of War and Military Intervention
- Intergroup Contact in Settings of Protracted Ethnopolitical Conflict
- Intergroup Contact and the Struggle for Social Justice
- Intergroup Dialogue: Education for Social Justice
- Setting the Record “Straight”: Communicating Findings from Social Science Research on Sexual Orientation to the Courts
- Bear Left: The Critical Psychology Project in Revolting Times
- Social Psychology and Social Justice: Dilemmas, Dynamics, and Destinies
- Index
