ABSTRACT
Research has long documented the relationship between masculinity and sexual prejudice. Over the last couple decades, however, a methodological paradox has emerged. Survey research shows a steady decline in sexual prejudice on most measures. Conversely, most qualitative research continues to find that enactments of sexual prejudice and inequality remain key components of masculinity. Different measures have produced data pointing in different directions. This chapter reviews the literature on the relationship between masculinity and homophobia, concluding that it is not a social artifact of the past. In order to appreciate the endurance of this relationship, however, scholars must recognize homophobias as plural, attend to and question the ways homophobias are measured, and engage with a theoretical body of work that accounts for both the reproduction of, and challenges to, contemporary homophobias.
