ABSTRACT
In Part I, I described the construction of orthodox masculinity as a turn of the 20th-century invention to resist the gains of women’s liberation and to ensure that male youths were socialized into a heteromasculine ideal. I described the policing mechanism of men’s social, emotional and physical boundaries as being conducted through homophobia and misogyny but theorized homophobia as being particularly central to the production and stratifi cation of masculinities as an ordered system of valued or subjugated individuals. Homophobic discourse was therefore described as a weapon to deride each other in establishing this hierarchy (Burn 2000). And because femininity is deeply entwined with homosexuality, misogynistic discourse was also described as reproducing intra-masculine difference. Collectively, homohysteria has culturally compelled men to disassociate with femininity, gay men, or any other expression, desire, discourse, or behavior coded as feminine/gay.
